Mark Twain once said, “All generalizations are false, including this one.” That’s likely also true about the generalizations regarding Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964. Baby Boomers acquired their generational name based upon a post-World War II baby boom, comprising 40% of the US population by 1964. But it’s also true that those born at the beginning of the baby boom, and entering their formative years in the late 1950s and early 1960s, had a very different upbringing and set of influences on their lives than those in the later Baby Boom years. As one reflection of that contrast, consider that both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are technically Baby Boomers- Trump was born in 1946 and Harris was born in 1964.

A new name has been coined for those born in the later years of the baby boom: “Generation Jones,” which was first used by television producer and social commentator Jonathan Pontell. The name was said to reflect the competitiveness of this cohort (keeping up with the Joneses) while also reflecting the meaning of “jonesing,” which is defined as a craving or yearning. This age cohort, which is considered to span from the years of birth 1955-1964, is considered to have “missed” some of the cultural touchstones of the Baby Boom generation, including Woodstock, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK. In essence this group of “later” Baby Boomers has been described as a “generation aching to act” after missing out on some of the idealism of the 1960s. It is estimated that Generation Jones represents 25% of the US population.

As a recent post in Newsweek commented, “It is said that most Jonesers simply don’t feel like Boomers.” So if you’ve been feeling out of sorts and not exactly fitting in with your “peers,” perhaps that’s because your peers are actually younger than those generalized as “Baby Boomers.” The Newsweek post also reports that a recent YouGov survey found that 27% of people don’t identify with the generation they are said to fall under and 15% don’t know what generation they are actually supposed to be. If you’re left feeling “dazed and confused” as to whether you are actually a baby Boomer, perhaps you might find last year’s essay by Bruce Handy in The New Yorker to be helpful. Using the term “second half boomers,” he goes on to describe this later boomer cohort as more experientially diverse than the original “boomers.” It seems like there’s a lot of truth to that assertion.