Generation Jones is the generation or social cohort between the baby boomers and Generation X. The term was coined in 1999 by American cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, who has argued that the term refers to a full distinct generation born from 1954 to 1965.[1] Other researchers have used only the 1960s as birth years for these cuspers.[2][3][4][5]
Media coverage of Generation Jones typically has described it as a distinct generation, using Pontell's dates.[6][7] Others see this as a subset of the Baby Boom Generation, primarily its second half.[8][9] A third view is that Generation Jones is a cusp or micro-generation between the Boomers and Xers.[10][11]
A 2024 survey conducted by YouGov among 13,083 U.S. adults found that 53 percent of boomers relate to their own generation the most, while 13 percent relate to Gen X. On the other hand, 43 percent of Gen Xers relate to their own generation the most, while 12 percent relate to boomers. [12]
Characteristics
In 2009, Jonathan Pontell wrote an article for Politico where he stated: "We Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-Second World War spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not headcounts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences. Our background is just as distant from Generation Xers’."[13]
While older Boomers (or "Leading-Edge Boomers") participated in the social changes of the 1960s and early 1970s, Generation Jones (or "Trailing-Edge Boomers") were only children.[14][15][16] Unlike older Boomers, most Jonesers, particularly younger ones, did not grow up with World War II veterans (although some were Korean War veterans) as parents. Many Jonesers parents were the Silent Generation, sandwiched between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers.[17]
As Jonesers reached adulthood, the United States military draft and involvement in the Vietnam War had ended; thus, they had no defining political cause, as opposition to the war was for the older boomers. The Woodstock music festival (1969) was a defining moment for older Boomers, whereas Jonesers tend to remember the Watergate scandal (1972–1974) and the cultural cynicism it begat. While in high school, members of Generation Jones had a distinct feeling of having just missed the real hippie era.[18] Key characteristics assigned to members are pessimism, distrust of government, and general cynicism.[19][20]
The name "Generation Jones" has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a "keeping up with the Joneses" competitiveness, and, possibly the original slant, the slang word "jones" or "jonesing", meaning a yearning or craving.[21][22][23] Pontell suggests that Jonesers inherited an optimistic outlook as children in the 1960s, but were then confronted with a different reality as they entered the workforce, in the case of the United States, during the economic struggles of the 1970s and 1980s. Mortgage interest rates increased to above 12 percent in the mid-1980s, making it virtually impossible to buy a house on a single income.[24]
Generation Jones is noted for coming of age after a huge swath of their older siblings in the earlier portion of the Baby Boomer population; thus, many note that there was a paucity of resources and privileges available to them that were seemingly abundant to older Boomers. For example, Baby Boomers often filled senior and more lucrative employment positions vacated by retiring Greatest Generation and older Silent Generation members, leaving Jonesers with fewer opportunities for promotion because their Boomer siblings would enter retirement windows only slightly ahead of them. Therefore, there is a certain level of bitterness and "jonesing" for the level of doting and affluence granted to older Boomers but denied to them.[25]
Generational trends expert Daniel Levine, director of the Avant Guide Institute, suggests Generation Jones bridges the gap between boomers and Gen X, taking some of the idealism of their elder counterparts, and the pragmatism of the generation after them. He also stated that "Jonesers came of age during Watergate, and they relate to music of the 80s more than the 70s."[26]
Authors Hannah Ubl, Lisa Walden and Debra Arbit said that, because of Baby Boomers being a huge generation spanning almost two decades, it can be helpful to break them into separate subgroups: Early Boomers and Generation Jones. They stated that the "latter group's formative years occured after the counterculture movement of the 1960s. They weren't witnesses to the electric and inspiring atmosphere that JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gloria Steinem created for Early Boomers. Instead, their world was marked by competition, limited resources as fuel prices rose, and...disco."[27]
Jennifer Finney Boylan, writing for The New York Times, and as a Gen Joneser herself, said: "we might be grouped with the baby boomers, but our formative experiences were profoundly different. If the zeitgeist of the boomers was optimism and revolution, the vibe of Gen Jones was cynicism and disappointment. Our formative years came in the wake of the 1973 oil shock, Watergate, the malaise of the Carter years and the Reagan recession of 1982."[28]
Generation Jones has been covered and discussed in newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio shows.[29][30][31][32] Pontell has appeared on TV networks such as CNN, MSNBC, and BBC, discussing the cultural, political, and economic implications of this generation's emergence.[33][34][35]Douglas Coupland (born 1961), author of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, described his novel (characters born in the late 1950s and early 1960s) as being about "the fringe of Generation Jones which became the mainstream of Generation X."[16] In the business world, Generation Jones has become a part of the strategic planning of many companies and industries, particularly in the context of targeting Jonesers through marketing efforts.[36][37][38][39][40][41]Carat UK, a European media buying agency, has done extensive research into Generation Jones consumers.[42][43]
Politically, Generation Jones has emerged as a crucial voting segment in US and UK elections.[44][45] In the U.S. 2006 congressional and 2004 presidential elections, and the 2005 U.K. elections, Generation Jones's electoral role was widely described as pivotal by the media and political pollsters.[46][30][47][48] In the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, Generation Jones was again seen as a key electoral segment because of the high degree to which its members were swing voters during the election cycle. Influential journalists, like Clarence Page[44] and Peter Fenn,[45] singled out Generation Jones voters as crucial in the final weeks of the campaign.[49] Numerous studies have been done by political pollsters and publications analyzing the voting behavior of Gen Jonesers.[19][50] Generation Jones voters are likely to contain the highest proportion of Brexit voters.[citation needed]
The 2008 United States presidential election brought more media attention to Generation Jones, where Democrat President-Elect Barack Obama (born 1961) and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin (born 1964) were on the tickets. Many journalists, publications, and commentators at this time described Obama as a member of Generation Jones.[51] Obama, has said he doesn't relate to Boomers. He told an interviewer for The Atlantic in 2007, "When i think of Baby Boomers, I think of my mother's generation. And you know, I was too young for the formative period of the '60s civil rights, sexual revolution, Vietnam War. Those all sort of passed me by."[52] Former first lady Michelle Obama (born 1964) and Ambassador Caroline Kennedy (born 1957) were also born into that generation.[53]As of 2025[update], two former vice presidents, Mike Pence (born 1959) and Kamala Harris (born 1964), are members of Generation Jones.[54]
In Pontell's opinion, US Jonesers shifted left in 2020, which he attributed to President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as Trump's mocking of President-Elect Joe Biden's senior moments: "There are lots of seniors out there that also have senior moments. They don't really like the president mocking those one bit."[55]
Boomers were active in the protests of the 60s, but by the time Jonesers went to college, protests had died out, according to Daniel Levine.[56]
↑ Williams, Jeffrey J. (March 31, 2014). "Not My Generation". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
