'Baby Boomers' Is A More Recent Media-Coined Label

[JFN1]

The 'baby-boomers' were first known as:

The 'ME' Generation.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. No, it was called the baby boom back when there was a spike in the birth rate

after the war.

The "Me" generation was a meme lauched by the rightwing in response to civil unrest due to US imperialism in SE Asia, and due to civil unrest due to blacks demanding civil rights.

[JFN1]

3. I remember seeing

a Time or Life magazine with 'The ME Generation' in big letters on the cover, with a picture of young people involved in the dominant culture of the time, behind it.

Yes, it was called 'the baby boom' after the war, but the label 'baby-boomers' came after the label 'ME' was used to describe this generation.

The genesis of the 'ME' label might have been inspired by right-wing ideologues of the time, I don't know this for certain. And I do understand that 'baby-boomers' is a more 'innocent' and certainly more comfortable descriptive label, as it implies that this generation was just something that 'happened'. But given the behavior of this generation's 'cream-of-the-crop' in power right now, I'd say those who coined the 'Me' label, got it exactly right.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. I think you are on to something with the "in power" part of your analysis. Of course,

Ronald Reagan, who was born long before the baby boomers was much the same way.

As were many others in power at many different times.

The ME meme was just the opening shot of the culture wars. It posited that anyone who wouldn't willingly go to Vietnam to die for DuPont and Lockeed were somehow "selfish."

[JFN1]

8. Perhaps I should have said

"But given the behavior of this generation's 'cream-of-the-crop' in power right now, I'd say those who coined the 'Me' label, got it exactly right about them (those in power). This is a more precise representation of my thoughts.

However, while I must agree that the acquisition of power by those who seek it ultimately corrupts people in the same way, I believe there are cultural peculiarities surrounding this generation in ways we (the human race) have never seen before. I believe this has had both positive and negative impacts on our civilization, and unfortunately, the combination of the negative aspects I just mentioned and the corrupting effect of power, have produced a dangerous circumstance, at the moment, for us all.

[hedda_foil]

2. The "baby boom" of the early post-war years led to the kids being called baby boomers.

The terms were contemporaneous. The "baby boomer" label itself was coined as soon as the babies became teenagers and began to exert their influence on the culture.

[Warpy]

4. No, they called it a baby boom

in 1946, when the first post war babies were born.

What made it a boom wasn't that all women were having large families. It was a boom because women in their late teens through late forties were all having babies at exactly the same time.

Birth rates in the 30s and through the war had been artificially low. The years after the war meant a lot of women who hadn't felt secure enough to marry and give birth finally did, and they all did it together.

It wasn't called the "me" generation until that second cohort of boomers, those born between about 1955 and 1964 entered onto the scene. They were too late for the war and the good part of the 60s, so they affected fashion in high school and then went materialist.

Note to thin skinned second cohort boomers: this is a statistical generality and we all know you who post here lie outside it.

[JFN1]

6. Thank you for the perspective

"this is a statistical generality and we all know you who post here lie outside it."

Exactly.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Those Born After 1960

I've always heard the divide in the post-WWII generation is 1960...those who were born before were Baby Boomers who turned into Hippies...while those born after 1960 were the "Me Generation" better known as Yuppies.

[KitchenWitch]

9. Sorry, that dog don't hunt!

I remember being called a Baby Boomer years before I ever heard the phrase "ME generation". Like when I, born in the final year of the baby boom, was probably in 6th grade.

[JFN1]

10. Researching

turned up this:

The term 'baby boomer' was initially used simply with reference to the peaks in birth-rate in the USA and UK. Over time, the connotations of the term have widened.

Here's the link - interesting stuff:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/baby-boomer.html

[JVS]

11. That name only started in the 70's when they turned to new-age bullshit, marriage, and cocaine

[JFN1]

12. That fits what I remember...

[KellyW]

13. Pollsters recognize 5 generations...

...that makeup the voting population.
Gen Y, Gen X, Jones, Boomers and Mature.

[leftofthedial]

14. it was "baby boom" as far back as the 50's

"Me Generation" was a pop phrase in the 70's and 80's