Defining Generations by Cultural Influence

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I have not been happy with the generally accepted concept of what defines a generation, so I am proposing a new approach which is based on what cultural phenomena most strongly influenced members of a certain generation.

For myself, I feel that the Vietnam War (which I was too young to have personally fought in) impacted my generation more than any other single thing, however folks born in 1959 or later seem to have little or no recollection of it, but are still considered Baby Boomers.

Likewise, the films Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Reality Bites seem to reflect very different generational attitudes, however they are both considered "Generation X" films.

Sorry but this poll is very US-centric. If you have ideas for making it more international, please come forward, thanks!

Vietnam War, of course. It influenced everything.

I know Star Wars and have watched the movies. But don't see how they influenced my life any.

The rest I don't even recognize.

Before I even saw the poll choices, I thought "I was influenced by Ferris Bueller and John Hughes!!", even though the films are US-centric. Seriously. I was the perfect age for all those films and they had an impact on my self-concept.

One of my earliest memories is of the Vietnam war ending but I was too young to understand. I saw Star Wars on first release at the cinema, but don't remember it and never saw it again. I don't know what Reality Bites or AIM are. I don't have Snapchat and I've never used it or Instagram.

Reality Bites is a film from the mid-90s starring a lot of people who were less famous then than now including Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, Ben Stiller, and Renée Zellweger. The fact that both that film and Ferris Bueller are considered "Gen-X" but you apparently have no knowledge of the former goes to prove my point.

AIM was a chat service that my Millennial son and all his friends used to stay in constant contact each evening while doing homework. The sounds it made (which I've mostly forgotten) were a never-ending background to life in our house.

I was in Uni, then working full-time in the 90s. I missed the entire cultural scene including music and cinema because I was so busy. The 80s had a much bigger impact especially when I was in California around the time of John Hughes.

Proves my point, as you and I are almost the same age and I feel exactly the same way.


Everyone has seen them. I honestly don't know to what extent anybody was strongly influenced by Star Wars, in fact I believe it's my weakest example of a cultural phenomenon influencing a generational cohort. The reason it stands out in my mind is that I can recall, when it came out, that it seemed so shocking to see a film aimed at a youth audience that had "war" in its title. In "my day" nobody wanted anything to do with anything related to war, so it was a clear message that times had changed.

Exactly so. Reality bites and the Grunge movement in the PNW were aimed at those who hadn't yet entered full adulthood.

Exactly. I missed the whole grunge movement including Nirvana. I've never heard of Reality Bites until today.