Labelling of generations - Millennials, Gen Z, etc - has about as much reality behind it as astrology

Are you a millennial? I asked a millennial the other day. By way of reply she rolled her eyes.

Millennials were born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, so I would have thought they were past the eye-rolling stage. Surely that is more the province of Gen Z? Until Gen Alpha catches up. Oh, and there’s the Covid Generation somewhere in the mix.

What the millennial’s eye rolling suggested to me was that the labelling of generations has about as much reality behind it as astrology. It may be fun but you don’t want to take it too seriously. Labelling ignores individual differences in ways that distort reality. The Covid generation might be assumed to be more avoidant, or unsocial since they were in lockdown for a couple of years, maybe even to have less drive because they missed the experience of fighting their corner in the schoolyard or classroom. And maybe so – but if it’s seen as a generational thing it becomes all too easy to imagine these problems as applying to that generation only.

On the other hand, Brian Hutton reported in The Irish Times recently that some older people are finding it hard to break free of the routines that they established during the pandemic. According to Age Action, some older people are still avoiding going to the supermarket or getting on the bus. So the Covid experience affected different people differently across all generations. Both younger and older people have reported higher levels of depression than was the case before the pandemic. When we slap labels on people, we run the danger directing remedial efforts to those who fit the label while doing less for everyone else.

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And the labels carry disadvantages with them when it comes to society’s attitudes. It is sometimes said – maybe I’ve said it myself – that millennials tend to be more narcissistic than other generations. But there’s no actual evidence that young people or millennials are more narcissistic than their forebears. According to Prof Brent Roberts of the University of Illinois, quoted in The Psychologist, there is no evidence that narcissism has increased among young people.

What might be the case is that people who are, say, 20 years of age tend to be narcissistic – but maybe 20 year olds were always more narcissistic. Back in the fourth century BC, Aristotle said young people haven’t yet been humbled by life so they think they know everything.

I’m a baby boomer because I was born between the end of second World War and the mid-1960s. When you think of the length of time and the variety of changes “boomers” have undergone during the time you see the pointlessness of labels.

Labels bring prejudice with them. I’ve seen baby boomers blamed for ruining the planet and for creating an economy in which young people cannot hope to be better off than their parents. And yet the degradation of the planet began with the Industrial Revolution. And the economic disadvantages faced by many young people seem to me to be a function of a particular form of capitalism.

Does all this matter? I think it does because labels make it so much easier to dismiss people’s concerns.

Suppose young workers complain about their conditions and pay, and are quicker to move from job to job. Oh, that’s just millennials, it might be said. Well, some of us remember when a job was a job for a very long time indeed. But for millennials, a one-year contract is like silver and a permanent contract is like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. But by dismissing millennials as millennials we can take their concerns less seriously. Generation This or That labels are bunkum and lead to sweeping assumptions that are simply not true of many, many individuals.

That’s the message my eye roller was conveying to me.

You might as well categorise people by their zodiac sign.

I’m Pisces by the way. Sensitive, creative and empathetic. Like a millennial really.

Padraig O’Morain (Instagram, Twitter: @padraigomorain) is accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His books include Kindfulness – a guide to self compassion; his daily mindfulness reminder is available free by email (pomorain@yahoo.com).