Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Virginia, and one in a field in Pennsylvania, killing 2,977 people. The first casualty was likely Daniel Lewin, a Gen X entrepreneur and former Israeli special forces captain on American Airlines Flight 11. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed after its passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers, preventing it from reaching a possible target such as the White House or US Capitol. The group included Gen Xers Todd Beamer (b. 1968), Mark Bingham (b. 1970), and Jeremy Glick (b. 1970), as well as Boomers Tom Burnett (b. 1963) and flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw (b. 1963).

Nearly 90% of those killed in the attacks were Gen Xers and Boomers in the prime of their lives. The event cleaved American history into a “before” and “after,” followed by 20 years in which the US was at war, including 8 years of simultaneous war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a heightened state of domestic security. Muslims and Sikhs also experienced increased prejudice and discrimination. The attacks were experienced differently across generations: For Boomers in leadership, 9/11 was an ominous sign that their leadership years would be more challenging than expected; for Gen Xers, it cast a dark shadow over their family-building and career years; and for Millennials, it felt like the end of childhood, or the beginning of a less buoyant one, and became a generational “where were you when it happened” touchstone (147).

Generation X, a smaller generation sandwiched between Boomers and Millennials, is portrayed as a transitional “middle child.” They were the last to experience an analog childhood and the first to come of age with the internet, giving them experience with both the pre-digital and digital worlds. Many foundational internet companies, including Google, YouTube, and Twitter, were created by Gen Xers.

Their upbringing was defined by rising divorce rates and the “latchkey kid” phenomenon, which became common during a period when more mothers were working but organized after-school care was not yet widespread. Twenge argues that the independence and lack of supervision many Gen Xers experienced contributed to their reputation for resilience and toughness. They followed a unique life path, beginning adult activities like sex earlier than Boomers—early Boomer women had roughly two years between first sex and first marriage, while Gen X women had seven—but marrying later than any previous American generation and increasingly living with romantic partners before marriage. Twenge therefore characterizes Gen X as having a fast-life adolescence followed by a slow-life adulthood. Raised during the rise of the self-esteem movement, Gen X entered adulthood with higher self-confidence than Boomers, while also cementing a shift toward greater materialism and extrinsic values that had begun with late Boomers.

Their young adulthood during the weak economy of the early 1990s was marked by a spike in violent crime—of which young Gen Xers were the primary victims as well as many of the perpetrators, with Black Gen X youth particularly affected—and a dark, cynical pop culture exemplified by grunge music and gangsta rap that Twenge suggests reflected the problems of the era. This era cemented their media image as “slackers,” a stereotype the author refutes with data showing that Gen X ultimately achieved higher levels of education and, by middle age, higher median household incomes than Boomers at comparable ages. Similarly, despite high suicide rates in their youth, which Twenge notes may have partly reflected the greater availability of inexpensive guns, Gen X adults have a suicide rate lower than Boomers’, and their days of poor mental health and mental distress are virtually identical to Boomers’ at the same age.

A defining trait of Gen X is a deep distrust of other people and institutions. Interpersonal trust fell sharply from Boomers to Gen X, trust in government began declining during Gen X’s youth in the mid-1980s, and trust in the press, which had already begun declining among Boomers, fell further among Gen Xers. These declines largely persisted, with Millennials and Gen Z continuing the trend toward lower interpersonal trust. Politically, Twenge describes Gen X as the “Reagan Generation” and finds that, controlling for age, Gen Xers are substantially more Republican than any other generation measured since 1952 in two national surveys. Despite their success, Gen X has been slow to assume top leadership positions in politics and business. Twenge suggests that one reason is that the larger Boomer generation has remained in leadership roles longer as people live and work later in life, limiting opportunities for Gen X to take their place.

The warning signs of the Great Recession appeared in 2006 with a decline in the housing market, followed by escalating financial problems that culminated in the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The crisis prompted a $700 billion government bailout, while many Americans became angry that Wall Street firms received bailouts while ordinary people received little help. The economic fallout was severe, with widespread foreclosures and the national unemployment rate peaking at 9.6% in 2010.

This period of economic turmoil gave rise to two influential political movements: Occupy Wall Street, which protested wealth disparity with the slogan “We are the 99%” (228), and the Tea Party, which opposed government bailouts and advocated for reduced government spending. The recession inflicted distinct forms of damage on each generation: Boomers saw their retirement savings cut in value, Gen Xers took a huge economic hit just as they were building their families, Millennials struggled to find jobs as they graduated from high school and college, and Gen Z children saw the financial system threatened as they were beginning to learn about the world. Although the economy eventually recovered, Twenge argues that the Great Recession left a lasting legacy of tighter financial regulations, heightened political polarization, economic pessimism, and public anger. It also increased attention to income inequality and reawakened political activism and voter participation, effects that persisted after the economy improved.