1. Generations Everyone is a part of a generation. Your generation is a group, although abstract, that you will identify with for the rest of your life.

2. Sociologist Neil Howe identifies a generation as… “A society wide peer group, born over a period roughly the same length as the passage of youth to adulthood, who collectively possess a common persona. A generation can think, feel, or do anything a person might think, feel, or do but they do so collectively. Like any social category (race, class, religion) a generation can and will allow for individuality. To identify the persona of a generation, look for three attributes: perceived membership in a common generation, common beliefs and behaviors, and a common location in history.”

3. Generations and their given names go something like this (dates are approximate and vary depending on who you ask, and indicate the years in which you were born and “came of age”… at times we overlap in which case you are a part of the generation in which you have spent you greatest number of years.

4. The Greatest Generation 1925-1945 Fought and came of age between two world wars. Lived a life of challenge and struggle and dreamed of having it all.

5. The Baby Boomers 1946-1965 Most famous generation because there are sooooo many of them Witnessed many changes in the world, technology, and society. The first “modern generation” as we know it.

6. Generation X 1965-1979 Time of great social change (think Woodstock in ’69 and disco in the ’70’s) Also known as the “Me Generation” because their parents gave them what they did not have. Focused on self and having fun.

7. Generation Y 1980-1995 Focus back to responsibility and making it. Called Generation Y because it follows X and because they are always questioning… “why??” First generation to use technology as we know it today (internet, PC, cell phones, and MTV) Also called “Generation Last”… last to see vinyl records, a world without cable TV, and communism.

8. The Millennials (You!) 1996-? (probably about 2015) Also known as Echo Boomers, or Gen 911 Came of age in the changed world of 9/11 and after Next modern generation to witness great world and technological change. Said to bore easily… they are the entertainment generation http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4 126233nhttp://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4 126233n