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Every year Time Magazine showcases what they call the Man of the Year. 1966’s Man of the Year was not a single man, or woman. Instead, in the January 6, 1967 issue of Time Magazine the spotlight was directly on those members of society that had become known as the Baby Boomer Generation.

So, who were these people that Time Magazine had chosen to highlight and bring to the forefront of the collective consciousness?

That is not an easy question to answer. Nearly everyone tends to speak about Baby Boomers as if they are a homogeneous entity: nothing could be further from the reality of the situation.

First. let’s take a quick over view of this vast group of people and in another post I will go into depth on some very salient points surrounding Baby Boomers: where they came from, where they are now, and how they got there.

In the United States alone between 77 and 80.6 million people were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. The two years (1946 and 1947) immediately following World War 2 were the two biggest years of births for the Baby Boom Generation. Today, approximately every 7 seconds another “Boomer” turns 50.

These individuals came of age under completely different circumstances than their parents and even their own children. The leading and trailing edge of this generation lived through completely different times, attitudes, and social changes.

Early factors influencing the leading edge included such issues as the reshaping of the American fabric in the aftermath of the Second World War, the rise of the Communist bloc in Eastern Europe and the “Red Scare”, and the advent of the Nuclear Age.

As these first members of this generation were just beginning to come of age, America was again plunged into a war – the Korean conflict. Individuals born midway through this timeframe were just entering early-adolescence when technology brought the death of President Kennedy into their living rooms. This technology went on to bring into Americas living rooms the Vietnam War, man’s first walk on the moon and many other political and social milestones.

For these reasons, the Baby Boomer profile is a something of an enigma: in their adolescence they became fervently idealistic in some of their social views as they set out to change American institutions and social framework. Although they will spend lavishly on goods and services they attempt to recapture the idealism of their youth.

Fanatical in their rejection of labels like “senior” or “older adult”, they actively oppose ageism and will go to great lengths in their pursuit of their perceived lost youth. Terms such as “Encore Generation” and “Mid-life Individual” have become more accepted as these people enter their ‘Second Acts’ of life.

An evening of television, a look through nearly any magazine, or ten minutes of cruising the Internet and you will find an advertisement directed to this demographic. Advancements in technology and medicine have spurred a media onslaught for the pursuit of youth, vitality, body image, and sexual proficiency.

Another enigma of the Baby Boomer profile is that of retirement and working past the careers these individuals pursued for the first half of their lives. Many Baby Boomers often feel pressure to keep working beyond ‘retirement’ while at the same time feeling trapped as they see the financial instrument they had put in place years before losing value and usefulness in providing for them for the remainder of their lives.

Coupled with this need to continue working these people are not satisfied with what they see as meaningless and unfulfilling Encore Careers. In place of these jobs, Baby Boomers are gravitating to careers where they can realize a certain level of inner satisfaction while giving back something to their communities. In many cases this takes the form of teaching, in others, it is exhibited through socially conscious endeavors. Lastly, many Baby Boomers are turning to bringing hobbies to a fuller part of their lives and launching businesses based on their loves of what had here-to-fore been a weekend hobby.

Colleges and universities are now catering to Baby Boomers with programs and curricula specifically designed which allow them to expand beyond ‘taking classes for the fun of it’ to expanding their current skillsets or growing new skillsets for entry into new careers.

When attempting to understand Baby Boomers it is necessary to remember that when the first Baby Boomers were turning nineteen, the last Baby Boomers were just being born. With all that happened in those nineteen years alone – no one, be it a historian, a marketer, a political strategist, or demographer can, with the slightest modicum of success truly say that Baby Boomers are just another homogeneous generation in the history of America, and by extension – the entire world.

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