In order to predict what the future can bring, it is important to take a look back at history. According to a survey by Pew Research, some important events have reshaped the way how generations think.
The Silent Generation (born 1928-1945) is the oldest generation that has experienced four different wars, the Obama elections, the tech revolution and a few more. Whereas, the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) experienced historic events related to war and other violent acts. Such as, the Boomers cited the two worst assassinations of history i.e., John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. The Boomers witnessed Obama’s election victory in 2008 as well.
Two unique historic events experienced by Gen X (born 1965-1980) include the Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Gulf War in 1991. However, the most impactful was the Challenger disaster since it not only involved astronauts but civilians as well. As for the natural disasters, Gen X experienced Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that attacked New Orleans and the surrounding area.
Now comes the Millennials who if asked about the most impactful historic event that they witnessed would reply “The 9/11”. Not only did the World Trade Center attack take place on September 11 but, it was a series of 4 coordinated attacks within a single day in the United States. Unfortunately, most of the Millennials have experienced violent gun attacks than any other generation.
Since the infographic only shows the data collected through the survey conducted by Pew Research in 2016, the data for Generation Z and Younger couldn’t be collected.
Infographic by: Visualcapitalist.com
