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Exploring the Generations
If you’re interested in discovering more about Boomers
and Gen-Xers,here are two great places to start:
www.boomercafe.com—Described as “the Internet’s most popular
online magazine for baby boomers with active lifestyles,” this e-zine
has 400,000 readers.
www.rainmakerthinking.com/63.htm—Issues of Generation X—
The Workforce of the Future,and a newsletter on Generation X,Winning
the Talent Wars, are among the foremost resources for anyone seeking
to understand this generation,from RainmakerThinking,Inc.,founded
by Bruce Tulgan,author of several books on Gen X and Gen Y.

ents lived through WW I, and as a generation they were directly
involved in both the Korean and Vietnam wars.
For Boomers, respect for institutions and loyalty to their
country and belief systems combined with relatively stable
home lives (the incidence of divorce and two-working-parent
families was still fairly low) to produce a generation often
described as “joiners.” Involved in social activities and group
events, Boomers brought a heyday for local and community
organizations such as the Scouts.

The Gen-Xers Leave …
For the generation born after 1962, a number of changes in
socioeconomic conditions brought about a wholesale change in
attitudes. Notable among these changes were the following:
• The decline of the nuclear family. With more working
mothers and an increase in divorce, Gen-Xers had to be
more self-sufficient earlier and in different ways than
their parents or grandparents had experienced.
• The rapid rise in the rate of change. Exemplified in
Alvin Toffler’s classic 1970 book, Future Shock, Gen-
Xers had to learn to deal with simultaneous, explosive
changes in technology, legislation, the environment, the
economy, and society as a whole.
• Decline of monolithic institutions. The breakup of the
Soviet Union and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc symbol-