After The Boomers
Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow has a new book that outlines the demographic differences between young adults today and his own generation. His own generation would be the baby boomers, and Dr. Wuthnow says he was inspired to write After the Baby Boomers by his own children, who are in their 20s and 30s.
The key differences include that the younger generation is “spending more time in school, remaining financially independent on their parents longer, marrying later in life, having kids later (and fewer of them) and changing jobs more often.”
One upside of these differences is that, because of this “extended adolescence … divorce is less common.” He says they see marriage more as a “capstone” than a “starting” event. He also says that this slower path to adulthood gives them “more of a chance to finish their education and … if they’re middle class, a chance to decide from experience what kind of career they want.”
One downside, he says, is that they are sometimes “paralyzed” by “all these choices — whom to marry, what kind of education to get, what kind of career to pursue.” Another is a “dependency” on parents for such a long period of time.
Read more.
Photo by Princeton University Press.
victor on February 26th, 2008 11:18 pm
I have a lot of boomer friends who are older singles and they’re great people. They’re successful, happy and outgoing. They have great careers, have lived interesting lives and always have lots to talk about. But for whatever reason, they’ve found themselves single at this time in their lives. It can be frustrating for anone to be alone and I will quite often recommend to my friends that they try out one of the great dating personals sites BoomerMingle.com that are out there. They’ve worked for a lot of people, and there are many great stories of people finding happiness this way.
Kyle R. on February 27th, 2008 8:15 am
What a coincidence this topic should come up. A couple of people around my office (including myself) were recently interviewed by a reporter from a local television station about Generation Y in today’s workforce. Her findings compliment those of Princeton’s. You can read and view the story here –
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=61252
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