Editing Generation (section)

{{short description|All people born and living in about the same time period}}
{{About|the social sciences concept|generation of electricity|Electricity generation|biological life stages|Biological life cycle|other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
[[File:Baby Mother Grandmother and Great Grandmother.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Four generations of one family: a baby boy, his mother, his maternal grandmother, and his maternal great-grandmother. (2008)]]

A '''generation''' is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of Generation|url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/generation?q=Generation|website=Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary}}</ref> It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children."<ref name="AMA">{{Cite web |date=2022-06-30 |title=Generational Insights and the Speed of Change |url=https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/generational-insights-and-the-speed-of-change/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411211255/https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/generational-insights-and-the-speed-of-change/ |archive-date=2021-04-11 |access-date=2024-07-26 |website=American Marketing Association |language=en-US}}</ref> In [[kinship]], ''generation'' is a structural term, designating the parent–child relationship. In [[biology]], ''generation'' also means [[biogenesis]], [[reproduction]], and [[procreation]].

''Generation'' is also a synonym for ''birth/age [[Cohort (statistics)|cohort]]'' in [[demography|demographics]], [[marketing]], and [[social science]], where it means "people within a delineated population who experience the same significant events within a given period of time."<ref name="Pilcher">{{cite journal |last=Pilcher |first=Jane |author-link=Jane Pilcher |date=September 1994 |title=Mannheim's Sociology of Generations: An undervalued legacy |url=http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/94PilcherMannheimSocGenBJS.pdf |url-status=live |journal=British Journal of Sociology |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=481–495 |doi=10.2307/591659 |jstor=591659 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329102523/http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/94PilcherMannheimSocGenBJS.pdf |archive-date=29 March 2017 |access-date=10 October 2012}}</ref> The term ''generation'' in this sense, also known as ''[[social generation]]s'', is widely used in popular culture and is a basis of [[sociological analysis]]. Serious analysis of generations began in the nineteenth century, emerging from an increasing awareness of the possibility of permanent social change and the idea of youthful rebellion against the established social order. Some analysts believe that a generation is one of the fundamental social categories in a society; others consider generation less important than class, gender, race, and education.