These Gen Z people are really going too much…”
A recent Facebook post began like this.
To which we have to ask: “What do you mean by Gen Z?”
Because this whole “Generation X, Y, Z, etc., etc.” way of labeling people is, frankly, a silly way to think about them—especially if you’re a businessperson or a marketer.
What the author of that Facebook post actually meant was: “These young people.”
And it’s true—young people do sometimes go too far.
As they always have.
At least, to those of us who are no longer young.
And that’s the point.
Being young, rebellious, and eager to challenge “the system” has been a hallmark of youth ever since the phrase “stick it to the man” first appeared in the 1950s—and even long before that.
Because across cultures and generations, people in their youth go through a life stage defined by questioning norms, finding their identity, and trying to express how they’re different.
Or, at least, how they think they’re different from the generation that came before them—who also thought they were different.
And so it goes, on and on.
In other words:
This isn’t really “new.”
It just looks and sounds new—tactically.
In much the same way, all people—regardless of their so-called “generation”—go through similar life stages, driven by the same core desires and needs.
What changes is how we access, describe, or act out those needs in different times and contexts.
Back in the mid-1990s, Dave began studying these core life stages across Asia-Pacific countries.
In the early 2000s, Faiyaz joined him to explore them in Bangladesh.
And over the decades, we’ve seen that—with a few cultural modifications—it makes far more strategic and sensible sense to focus on which life stage someone is in, rather than whether they’re Gen X, Y, Z, or Alpha.
Because ultimately, it’s that life stage—not the generational label—that shapes what truly matters to people.
The Truth About Life Stages — Not Generations
Life stages that we all go through are each defined by a key trait—no matter which decade you were born in:
Childhood: From birth to the early teens, this is marked by full dependence on parents.
Identity Builders: Teens to early 20s—not quite a child, but not yet a fully independent adult. This is the stage focused on self-discovery, identity formation, and figuring out what life offers.
Career Builders: The first decade of working life, when finding, getting, and managing a job becomes a priority—along with learning how to handle money and build longer-term relationships.
Family Builders: This spans one to two decades, focused on raising children, covering school expenses, making mortgage payments, and trying not to be too stressed.
Extended 20s: For some, an alternative path emerges—choosing not to have children and moving into their 30s, 40s, and beyond as a single person or a couple without kids.
New Life Builders: From the late 50s through to 75+, this stage begins once children have grown up and individuals start asking, “What do I do now?”—and begin shaping the next two decades of their lives.
Dave has been tracking these life stages across dozens of countries for over three decades, with research dating back to the 1950s. Together, we’ve been studying these patterns in Bangladesh since 1997. And guess what? Across so-called “generations,” the core doesn’t change much.
Sure, the cosmetics change.
The type of clothes Identity Builders think are “cool” evolves.
The way Career Builders find jobs shifts.
The brands Family Builders buy for their children change.
But the core life-stage dynamics remain the same.
Pop Music: A Perfect Example
Think about pop music.
Yes, music from the 1950s sounds very different from that of the 2020s—different styles, instruments, and expressions.
Take Elvis Presley and Kendrick Lamar, or compare The Rolling Stones to BLACKPINK—they look different, sound different.
But what doesn’t change is the feeling the music conveys. For generations, young people’s music has revolved around the same few themes:
“Let’s be different.”
“Let’s challenge the system.”
“How do I find love?”
Let’s revisit some hit songs in Bengali pop music over the decades:
1980s: Rail Liner Bostite – About life in the railway slums
1990s: Shei Tumi Keno Eto Ochena Hole – Why Have You Become So Unfamiliar?
2000s: O Priya Tumi Kothay – Oh Beloved, Where Are You?
2010s: Ek Mutho Prem – A Handful of Love
The musical styles may vary—rock, punk, grunge, hip hop, K-pop—but the emotional themes persist.
Being young is about discovering yourself—whether you’re Gen X, Gen Z, or a millennial.
The idea that today’s “Gen Z” are radically different from 20-somethings of decades past is a myth.
And it all traces back to the Generation X myth.
Yes—what’s that?
Well, we’ll explore that more in our next column.
But in short: the concept of “Gen X, Y, Z, Alpha” comes from a misunderstanding of a 1990 novel by Douglas Coupland titled Generation X.
It was a clever fictional story about a few young dropouts living in Las Vegas who were disillusioned with the world. The novel became a cult hit. Unfortunately, many in the business and marketing world mistook it for a sociology manual—thinking it explained “youth” forevermore.
They were wrong.
And Dave knew this when he eventually met Coupland himself…
After the book became a hit, what the author actually meant was not that everyone in America—let alone the entire world—born within a 15-year window was the same. Rather, his point was that young people have always wanted to be seen as “their own generation.” And every generation carries some form of rebelliousness—wanting to feel different, unique, and special.
But from that simple idea came a misunderstanding—one that led to the lazy thinking in the marketing world that we’re now stuck with:
That there are vast, fixed differences between people simply because they were born in different decades.
A recent Facebook post began like this.
To which we have to ask: “What do you mean by Gen Z?”
Because this whole “Generation X, Y, Z, etc., etc.” way of labeling people is, frankly, a silly way to think about them—especially if you’re a businessperson or a marketer.
What the author of that Facebook post actually meant was: “These young people.”
And it’s true—young people do sometimes go too far.
As they always have.
At least, to those of us who are no longer young.
And that’s the point.
Being young, rebellious, and eager to challenge “the system” has been a hallmark of youth ever since the phrase “stick it to the man” first appeared in the 1950s—and even long before that.
Because across cultures and generations, people in their youth go through a life stage defined by questioning norms, finding their identity, and trying to express how they’re different.
Or, at least, how they think they’re different from the generation that came before them—who also thought they were different.
And so it goes, on and on.
In other words:
This isn’t really “new.”
It just looks and sounds new—tactically.
In much the same way, all people—regardless of their so-called “generation”—go through similar life stages, driven by the same core desires and needs.
What changes is how we access, describe, or act out those needs in different times and contexts.
Back in the mid-1990s, Dave began studying these core life stages across Asia-Pacific countries.
In the early 2000s, Faiyaz joined him to explore them in Bangladesh.
And over the decades, we’ve seen that—with a few cultural modifications—it makes far more strategic and sensible sense to focus on which life stage someone is in, rather than whether they’re Gen X, Y, Z, or Alpha.
Because ultimately, it’s that life stage—not the generational label—that shapes what truly matters to people.
The Truth About Life Stages — Not Generations
Life stages that we all go through are each defined by a key trait—no matter which decade you were born in:
Childhood: From birth to the early teens, this is marked by full dependence on parents.
Identity Builders: Teens to early 20s—not quite a child, but not yet a fully independent adult. This is the stage focused on self-discovery, identity formation, and figuring out what life offers.
Career Builders: The first decade of working life, when finding, getting, and managing a job becomes a priority—along with learning how to handle money and build longer-term relationships.
Family Builders: This spans one to two decades, focused on raising children, covering school expenses, making mortgage payments, and trying not to be too stressed.
Extended 20s: For some, an alternative path emerges—choosing not to have children and moving into their 30s, 40s, and beyond as a single person or a couple without kids.
New Life Builders: From the late 50s through to 75+, this stage begins once children have grown up and individuals start asking, “What do I do now?”—and begin shaping the next two decades of their lives.
Dave has been tracking these life stages across dozens of countries for over three decades, with research dating back to the 1950s. Together, we’ve been studying these patterns in Bangladesh since 1997. And guess what? Across so-called “generations,” the core doesn’t change much.
Sure, the cosmetics change.
The type of clothes Identity Builders think are “cool” evolves.
The way Career Builders find jobs shifts.
The brands Family Builders buy for their children change.
But the core life-stage dynamics remain the same.
Pop Music: A Perfect Example
Think about pop music.
Yes, music from the 1950s sounds very different from that of the 2020s—different styles, instruments, and expressions.
Take Elvis Presley and Kendrick Lamar, or compare The Rolling Stones to BLACKPINK—they look different, sound different.
But what doesn’t change is the feeling the music conveys. For generations, young people’s music has revolved around the same few themes:
“Let’s be different.”
“Let’s challenge the system.”
“How do I find love?”
Let’s revisit some hit songs in Bengali pop music over the decades:
1980s: Rail Liner Bostite – About life in the railway slums
1990s: Shei Tumi Keno Eto Ochena Hole – Why Have You Become So Unfamiliar?
2000s: O Priya Tumi Kothay – Oh Beloved, Where Are You?
2010s: Ek Mutho Prem – A Handful of Love
The musical styles may vary—rock, punk, grunge, hip hop, K-pop—but the emotional themes persist.
Being young is about discovering yourself—whether you’re Gen X, Gen Z, or a millennial.
The idea that today’s “Gen Z” are radically different from 20-somethings of decades past is a myth.
And it all traces back to the Generation X myth.
Yes—what’s that?
Well, we’ll explore that more in our next column.
But in short: the concept of “Gen X, Y, Z, Alpha” comes from a misunderstanding of a 1990 novel by Douglas Coupland titled Generation X.
It was a clever fictional story about a few young dropouts living in Las Vegas who were disillusioned with the world. The novel became a cult hit. Unfortunately, many in the business and marketing world mistook it for a sociology manual—thinking it explained “youth” forevermore.
They were wrong.
And Dave knew this when he eventually met Coupland himself…
After the book became a hit, what the author actually meant was not that everyone in America—let alone the entire world—born within a 15-year window was the same. Rather, his point was that young people have always wanted to be seen as “their own generation.” And every generation carries some form of rebelliousness—wanting to feel different, unique, and special.
But from that simple idea came a misunderstanding—one that led to the lazy thinking in the marketing world that we’re now stuck with:
That there are vast, fixed differences between people simply because they were born in different decades.
In reality, the far more useful insight for businesspeople is this:
What matters is not when people were born, but what life stage they’re in.
At Marketing Futures, we want to help put an end to generational clichés.
So here’s our offer:
Every month, we’ll share insights into life stages—how they work, what drives them, and why understanding them makes more sense than obsessing over generational labels.
We look forward to sharing more.
