Last week, thanks to the good offices of the Ottawa Public Library, I read Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America’s Future by Jean M. Twenge.

As longtime readers will know, and as others will not know, I am into the generational-cycle theory set forth by writers William Strauss and Neil Howe in their books. So I wasn’t coming to this book fresh and unspoiled; I definitely went into it with an already-existing perspective.

Twenge’s main argument is that one generation is different from another because of the available technology in their respective formative years. I don’t think that’s a dumb thing to say, but there are a couple of reasons why I think it could be improved upon.

Twenge cites Strauss and Howe, but disagrees with them; she characterizes their argument as saying that generational personality is formed by the generation’s reaction to a major event in their younger years. That’s close, but really S&H say that generational personality is formed by the generation’s reaction to the whole era of the generation’s younger years. So, Strauss and Howe do consider the available technology as part of what helps shape emerging generations… along with the available culture, parenting styles, older generations, social problems, and everything else they might meet in the world.

Still, if Twenge wants to say it’s just the technology, not the other stuff, that’s fine, it’s her book. The problem I have with it is this: technology isn’t a force. It’s something people make. And those people are doing things for their own reasons. So, when she says that rising generations are influenced by the available technology, she’s really saying that they’re influenced by previous generations. Which isn’t that different from what Strauss and Howe were saying.

Plus… I have a hard time with the idea that technology actively influences anybody. Technology has no agenda of its own; it just allows people to extend human nature further in directions it was already going. The most I’d be willing to say is that the emergence of a new technology may allow a rising generation to express its priorities in ways that weren’t available to previous generations… but it doesn’t do anything to set those priorities.

Most of the book is Twenge’s exploration of a collection of research datasets that she digs deep into to describe today’s living generations. This part of the book is worthwhile and thorough, in that she gives us a picture of six generations that we might not be able to get anywhere else. If I ever buy my own copy of the book, which I might, it will be because of this part. The trouble is, Twenge’s argument about technology is not further developed in these sections. The generational descriptions are strictly factual and don’t say anything one way or the other about whether people grew how they grew or did what they did because of new technology. Or not much, anyway; maybe I missed it.

So I have my differences with Generations: TRDBGZMGXB&S-AWTM4AF. I think its argument is too limited and not presented forcefully enough, but it has worth anyway.

Just a couple more items for the Strauss-and-Howe-heads who may be reading this:

like everyone else, Twenge doesn’t use the S&H birthyears for the generations. She’s got the Boom running from ’46-’64 of course, she puts the Millennial-Zoom boundary earlier in the ’90s than I’ve seen before, and she’s got the Polar generation starting I think in 2013 or 2014she cites S&H’s Generations and Millennials Rising, but in the GenX chapter she discusses 13th GEN briefly without noting that it was written by Strauss and Howe. Why? Did she forget? Not notice? It’s strange