Me and Mrs Jones

Today, I am a happy person. I am officially NOT a baby boomer.

Apparently, the Americans have invented something called Generation Jones that sits between the boomers and Generation X: exactly where I am.


We’ve even got our own website.

According to Jonathan Pontell, the man who started it: 'Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts.'

And a Newsweek article says this: 'Large numbers of voters and politicians defy the easy categories assigned to them. In the case of boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—the whole frame is wrong. It's based on birthrates, not common cultural and political affinities.' Which is pretty much what I’ve been saying all along.

In the case of the Americans, it’s about politics: Barack Obama v Hillary Clinton.

In this country, it’s about marketing.

And yes, I did do the ‘Which Jones are you?’ quiz. I am, I’m glad to report, a ‘radical Jones’.

Just don’t use this to sell stuff to me. According to Wikipedia, our key characteristics are ‘less optimistic’ and ‘general cynicism’.