GenTech

An American Story of Technology, Change and Who We Really Are (1900-Present)

Rick Chromey

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781421417752
• eBook ISBN: 9781642796728
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

A social historian examines the use of technology in modern U.S. history and offers a different way to group American generations.

The G.I. Generation. Silents. Baby Boomers. Gen Xers. Millenials. Generation Z. Every generation has its label and box. But the real question is: Why?

Enter GenTech. It's a whole new way to look at American generations. Instead of the conventional fixed and linear dates for generational cohorts, Dr. Rick Chromey proposes a fresh understanding that's fluid and more of a loop, rooted to the technology each generation experiences in their "coming of age" years.

Since 1900, there has been more technological change than in all of previous combined history. The airplane. The automobile. Radio. Television. Nuclear energy. Rockets. Internet. Cellphones. Robots. Furthermore, there's a massive cultural shifting unlike anything witnessed since the Dark Ages gave way to the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Scientific, and Industrial Ages. Consequently, postmodern generations (born since 1960) have grown up in a new, cyber, wireless, and visual high-tech culture that's forever changed how we do business, learn, socialize, broadcast, entertain, and worship.

It's technology that shapes us, gives every generation its personality, and seeds who we'll become tomorrow. GenTech opens a whole new perspective on how to view the world and understand why every generation matters.

Praise for GenTech

"Whether you're a technology nerd or wizard, this intriguing book will help you connect the digital dots. You'll see how technology is profoundly shaping our culture—and you, like it or not. Plus, you'll discover how technology affects each generation differently, for better or worse."—Thom Schultz, co-author of Don't Just Teach…Reach!

Chapter One

Generations

“Technology shows up and changes the culture. The culture then enables new industries and movements, which further change the culture. And then technology shows up and puts an end to the system we were all used to.”

—Seth Godin

Generations come and generations go.

It’s been that way since the beginning of time. It’s the “story” in history. Every generation contributes a phrase or paragraph, a comment or chapter to the greater digest of mankind. In the larger book of recorded history, the lines can eventually blur, fade, and disappear. Unless highlighted by the conscientious, a generation can easily be forgotten once the reader turns pages into the future.

And yet, without the contribution of each generation, just like a single sentence in a book, the overall work can suffer. That doesn’t mean every generation should be treated the same. Some generations live in the shadows of greater ones. Others are marked by negative circumstances, horrific struggles, and misplaced values. Still others prove idealistic, positive, and influential. Every generation has its own psyche and personality.

It’s what flavors and colors history. The stories within the story create the chronicles of a generation, a people, and mankind.

It wasn’t until the last half of the twentieth century that sociologists seriously charted, studied, and considered generations. At best, certain distinctive birth cohorts were labeled in the literature of their day. For example, the term “Gen X” was employed by Douglas Coupland in his 1991 fiction novel titled Gen X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Prior to 1991, this cohort of babies were known as “baby busters.”⁶ In the same year as Coupland’s novel, William Strauss and Neil Howe penned Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584–2069, a landmark book that launched a national conversation about who we really are. In this epic historical and sociological tome, the authors reimagined generations into cycles with four “turnings” inside each cycle. Not only did Strauss and Howe create fresh boundary lines and labels for various generations, but they also saw patterns and repetitions. Strauss and Howe inspired the tag of “Millennial” for the generational cohort being born at the time their book was published (supplanting the generic “Generation Y” label).⁷

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“As is the generation of leaves, so too of man

At one time the wind shakes the leaves to the ground but then the flourishing woods

Gives birth, and the season of spring comes into existence, so it is with the generations of men, which alternately come forth and pass away.”

Homer, The Illiad, sixth book

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While there is academic criticism regarding Strauss and Howe’s socio-historical views, particularly in how certain generations are framed and labeled, there has also been general acceptance of their theoretical ideas.⁸

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation

What exactly constitutes a “generation?” How is a generational cohort defined? How long is a generation? What is its sociological nature? These are critical questions that form the foundation for any conversation about “generations.”

According to social scientists, developmental psychologists and cultural historians, a new generation is born approximately every twenty years. Since the majority of babies are born during our “young adult” years (ages twenty-forty)—a span of two decades—it’s fair to conclude a different generation emerges approximately every twenty years.⁹ This seems sensible at face value, but it’s also problematic. After all, every year a new cohort of people turn twenty. Essentially, that could mean every year a new generation is being born.

It’s why we need additional markers—historical and societal—to demarcate a generation. Human development only gives the length of a generation (approximately twenty years), but it cannot provide an accurate “start” and “finish” to a generational frame.

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“A generation is composed of people whose common location in history lends them a collective persona. The span of one generation is roughly the length of a phase of life. Generations come in four archetypes, always in the same order, whose phase-of-life positions comprise a constellation.”

William Strauss and Neil Howe

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Historically, the best frames are created by circumstance. A generation is a group of people who experienced a similar life path; that is, they endured the same events over time.

One of the earliest numerical references to a generation is in the Old Testament: ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation’ (Numbers 14:18). This framework will eventually prove true for the ancient, disobedient Israelites, who wandered in the desert and were prohibited entrance into their “promised land” for four decades or two generations of twenty years (Numbers 32:13). In other biblical texts, a twenty-year-old is considered an adult and subject to “adult” roles and responsibilities, from military service (Numbers 1:20) to taxation (Exodus 38:25–27). Consequently, at least from a biblical view, there is merit to a generation lasting two decades.

In addition, every generation also possesses a collective personality that drives cultural attitudes and behaviors. This persona is influenced via the social, political, spiritual, and historical contexts in which a cohort of people journey. Consequently, every generation inherits a unique cultural clock and cloak that they wear their entire life. A Baby Boomer raised in a post-World War II landscape differs from a Millennial raised during the War on Terror. There might be similar stressors and even occasional common themes (fear of nuclear war) but, in general, no one would see these two generations as being similar.

This is where technology offers some help. Baby boomers experienced a radio and primitive television world in their youth and these technologies shaded their generational psyche all their lives. Boomers tend to see things more “black and white” and idealistic. They marched for peace and “flower power” in the 1960s, promoted women’s rights and sexual revolution in the 1970s, and became soccer moms and “conscientious” politicians in the 1980s and 1990s. In contrast, Millennials grew up in a web and digital culture with email, texting, downloads, and uploads. In adolescence and young adulthood, Millennials were the first adopters of social media. The world for them is more multi-dimensional, multi-cultural, and multi-visual. Consequently, Millennials view life with more “color” (diversity, harmony, and tolerance).

It’s the technology of a generation that influences its personality.

Furthermore, every generation is framed by certain major socio-historical events that mark their inner psyche. These events guide each generation with a collective historical consciousness. Using Strauss and Howe’s generational frames, in part, it’s easy to witness the impact and influence of these cultural events¹⁰:

• •G.I. Generation (1901–1924): World War I, Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, World War II
• •Silent Generation (1925–1942): Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, World War II, and Korea
• •Boomer Generation (1943–1960): Sputnik, Eisenhower, JFK, Vietnam, man on the moon, Watergate
• •Gen X (1961–1981): Man on the moon, Watergate, Iran hostages, Reagan, Challenger, Desert Storm
• •Millennials (1982–1999): Desert Storm, OJ, Columbine, Clinton, 9/11/01, Katrina, War on Terror, Great Recession
• •iTech (2000–present): Great Recession, War on Terror, Parkland school shooting

In fact, what we can’t historically remember might be as important as what we do. Every generation is tattooed by a certain “mega” event that the next generation cannot recall, and it’s precisely because we can’t remember it that we differ from the previous generations.

Every Boomer, for example, can recount where they were on November 22, 1963. John F. Kennedy’s assassination galvanized an emerging generation of young Americans. On the other hand, Gen X was too young to remember Kennedy. It’s why the classic Boomer birth frame (1946–1964) fails. The post-WWII baby boom actually began in 1943 (not 1946) when soldiers initially returned home from European battlefields.¹¹ Furthermore, the post-war “baby boom” culturally ended in 1960 with the introduction of oral contraception.¹² Strauss and Howe rightly reset the “Boomer” birth years to 1943–1960 for this reason. Gen X (or the “Baby Busters” for their lower generational birth rate) is more appropriately framed between 1961–1981.

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“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Most of us begin to retain memory of cultural events between the ages of five and seven.¹³ Consequently, it’s very difficult for anyone to truly recall the Kennedy assassination if they were born after 1958! What we remember most from our preschool years are “passed on” memories from significant adults through stories and photographs. I’m a classic case of this misidentification. I was born May 29, 1963. I was six months old when President Kennedy was assassinated. I don’t remember anything about that tragic day. And yet, I’ve been tagged a “baby boomer” (1946–1964) all my life. It’s not true. My generational psyche was formed by other events, most notably man walking on the moon in 1969 (the first significant news story I recall). From this perspective, every generation has an experience they can’t remember, and this event is so big in the American cultural fabric that it powerfully shapes the emerging generation:

• •G.I. Generation (1901–1924) cannot recall: Great San Francisco Earthquake (1906)
• •Silent Generation (1925–1942) cannot recall: Stock Market Crash (1929)
• •Boomer Generation (1943–1960) cannot recall: Hiroshima/Nagasaki atom bomb (1945)
• •Gen X (1961–1981) cannot recall: Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1963)
• •Millennials (1982–1998) cannot recall: Challenger explosion (1986)
• •iTech (1999–present) cannot recall: Terror attacks on New York and Washington (2001)

In this book, I’ll argue for a technological framework to understand American generations. Nevertheless, we cannot underestimate the power of historical events. There are just certain occurrences that change us and how we look at our world.¹⁴

Another interesting twist on generational cohorts are the identifiable phases or “waves.” Every generation...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: What in the World Happened?
• Chapter One: Generations
• Chapter Two: Waves
• Chapter Three: Tipping Points
• Chapter Four: Transportation-Telephone
• Chapter Five: Motion Pictures
• Chapter Six: Radio
• Chapter Seven: Vinyl
• Chapter Eight: Television
• Chapter Nine: Space
• Chapter Ten: Gamer
• Chapter Eleven: Cable Television
• Chapter Twelve: Personal Computer-Cell Phone
• Chapter Thirteen: Internet
• Chapter Fourteen: iTech
• Chapter Fifteen: Robotics
• A Final Word
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Endnotes