Every generation is known for its contribution to the world and society more generally. And baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, have brought a lot to the world—whether during their youth, their adult years, or even now. Ranging from innovations in technology to societal activism and environmental awareness, there’s no discounting the positive things that boomers have done for the world.
Changing With the Times
Often, younger generations tend to focus on the negative. Times change quickly, and the differences tend to be pretty stark between generations, thus, throughout history, most generations tend to look to the past and criticize previous generations.
However, as we all know, hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to look back and criticize previous generations with the knowledge that we have today. Sure, sometimes criticism is warranted, but often, it’s a little unfair, so it’s essential that we look back and consider context, too.
So, we’re going to look at some of the best and most valuable things that baby boomers have achieved and brought to the world – some of which are general and others a little more specific, but they all deserve a mention!
1. Medical Advances
Society has managed to make significant advancements in medical science throughout different generations, but there’s no doubt about the fact that baby boomers made huge changes during their time. Their contributions have led to significantly improved healthcare and improved life expectancy across the board.
2. Space Exploration
Baby boomers, although they were reasonably young, witnessed, supported, and later contributed significantly to the budding era of space exploration, including the moon landing in 1969 and the many other spae-related achievements that have been made since then.
3. Educational Expansion
One thing that increased dramatically during the baby boomers’ peak of their generation was the popularity of education- especially higher education. Learning became more popular, and it became normal and enviable to pursue higher education. This contributed significantly to the increased intellectual capital of the world in general, as well as general societal progress.
4. The Invention of the Internet
It may be younger generations who seem to make more use of it now and have seen it progress dramatically over recent years, but we cannot forget that it was the baby boomers who invented the internet. The invention didn’t happen overnight, and the development of the World Wide Web and software languages is all thanks to the intelligence, ingenuity, and foresight of baby boomers.
5. Technological Expansion
This one may certainly be more general, but we owe a lot to boomers in terms of the amount of technology they developed and improved. They also made significant leaps forward during periods in which many forms of technology that are common today were only just emerging. This type of innovation and technological development was revolutionary at the time, and so we owe a lot of what we have today to boomers.
6. Safer Driving
Sure, cars have been around since the late 19th century, as have seatbelts, but baby boomers were responsible for not only improving motor vehicle technology but making it safer too. As technology allowed cars to go faster and drive on highways and so forth, it became essential that passengers were protected, and we have boomers to thank for that.
7. Civil Rights Activism: Fighting For Racial Equality, Gender Equality, and LGBTQ+ Rights
We’re not saying that activism didn’t exist before the baby boomers or that people didn’t disagree with inequality and the status quo, but we can’t deny that baby boomers made a lot of noise with regard to protesting and being part of activism during their time. They fought for racial and gender equality (with varying levels of success), as well as LGBTQ+ rights, and a lot of the most significant figures in modern activism come from the baby boomer generation.
8. Cultural Revolution
Baby boomers, as the children of people who experienced the Second World War, and in some cases, the First World War too, were very much responsible for a massive cultural revolution – all around the world. This influenced social norms, music, and art, and generally contributed to a more diverse and inclusive cultural landscape.
9. The Invention of Personal Computers
We’ve already raised the internet and general technology, but we can’t forget the invention of personal computers. Baby boomers are responsible for inventing a piece of technology that has become a significant part of our lives today.
10. Ending the Cold War
Baby boomers spent most of the beginning of their lives during the Cold War, a war they had no part in starting. However, they did end it, and that’s a pretty significant feat considering what was at stake!
11. Community Service
Community service hasn’t always been a thing, and it became a big part of an ordinary culture, so to speak, during the time of baby boomers. They made it normal to give back to their communities and stick up for people who couldn’t stand up for themselves.
12. Progress in Forensic Analysis
Forensics has come a long way in recent years, but the biggest changes to occur in the discipline of forensic analysis happened during the baby boomer era, and they’re responsible for a lot of these innovations.
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Did The Boomer Generation Really Have It Tougher?
In terms of owning a home, debt, and retirement, boomers really did have it easier when you’re comparing them to millennials and Gen X. Gen X aren’t as likely to own a home or have any type of retirement savings when compared to boomers. The same applies when comparing boomers to millennials, with student debt being one of the main reasons why they can’t get by. So, did the boomer generation really have it tougher? We’d say no, but we’ll get more in-depth as to why we’ve found this to be true.