What is the Generation Gap?
A generation gap is a difference in philosophies between generations.
How Does the Generation Gap Work?
The most famous generation gap is the baby boomers, many of whom came of age in the 1960s, and their parents, who grew up around the Great Depression and tended to have traditional values.
This generation gap was clearly evident in the rapid evolution of music during the 1950s and 1960s, when rock music, the Korean conflict and the Vietnam war forced many of America's young people to question many basic values. The beginnings of the women's movement, civil rights and the growth in birth control reinforced the baby boomers' controversial sense of self-determination that changed the course of the next several decades.
Why Does the Generation Gap Matter?
Generation gaps happen all the time. In the business world, understanding them is crucial because without knowledge of how a particular demographic group thinks, it is much harder to provide goods and services that fit the needs and lifestyles of that group.