Here’s How Boomers, GenXers and Millennials Date
What generation do you belong to? Generation X, Y, Z or even baby boomer? Not sure? What about the person you’re dating? Can boomers date millennials? In this article, we’ll be describing these generations and explaining how people from each one of them tend to date.
The generations
Generation refers to a group of people born and living at about the same time. Usually, this period extends over 30 years – enough time for these people to grow up and start having children themselves. Here is an overview of the latest generations to help you figure out which one you are part of:
The baby boomers
Baby boomers or boomers is a term that refers to people born after the Second World War, typically between 1946 and 1964. Those people are now between 74 and 54 years old. Chances are your sugar daddy is one of them.
Generation X
The boomer generation was followed by generation X, born between 1965 and 1980. GenXers: these are the people who had a positive outlook and to whom higher education was pretty much a guarantee of a successful career. They are now between their early 50s and late 30s.
Generation Y: the millennials
Generation Y, best known as millennials, was born between the early 80s and mid-90s. They are old enough to remember the world before the widespread use of the internet and young enough to be very well integrated to the virtual world. This generation is marked in many countries by taking longer to move out from their parents – and often having to move back.
Who is generation Z?
Generation Z or zoomers was born between the mid-90s and 2012. As this generation is fairly young, has barely started dating and only people above 18 are allowed to join our site, we won’t be talking about it in this post.
Dating behaviors of each generation
Boomers and genXers have been dating for much longer than most of us reading this have lived. Back when they started dating, there was no internet and therefore no dating apps or websites. For this reason, the “natural” way for them to meet potential partners is in person.
According to a study conducted by AARP Research, people from these generations consider friends to be the best matchmakers, with meeting people by chance as the second best. GenXers are more open to online dating and interested in marriage than boomers, who prefer companionship over a formal commitment.
When it comes to the first date, both generations prefer a traditional setting, like dinner, lunch or coffee together. However, they are becoming more open to unusual first dates, like doing sports together. As you might expect, this is more common among genXers.
By now, probably everyone is familiar with millennials’ dating behavior. They are the ones avidly using dating apps, social media and dating websites to get to know people. Lately, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, even the first date has been happening online. For these reasons, many millennials are very uncomfortable approaching people in person in bars or clubs. Some are so afraid of doing so that, when they see someone they like on the dance floor, they hope they’ll find that person on Tinder later instead of approaching them!
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This generation is much more about hookups than dating and marriage. There are many reasons for that, like having a much less stable foundation to start life, as this generation was strongly impacted by the most recent financial crises and student debt. Besides, they want to see the world before even considering starting a family. This might translate into a fear of falling in love. Nevertheless, according to a survey of American millennials, 42% of them find getting married extremely important to them.
Furthermore, a very positive tendency in this generation is its openness to difference: millennials are more likely to date people from a difference race, religion and even nationality.
Intergenerational dating
Awareness of general tendencies is a very important tool, including when dating someone of a different generation than you. Now you know that if a boomer sugar daddy approach you in real life, he isn’t being a creep, but rather just trying to set up a date in a way that is perfectly normal for people of his generation. After all, he’s unlikely to be on Tinder 😉
Have you ever dated someone from a different generation? Tell us how it was in the comments below!
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