However, the learning characteristics assigned to each group are good in their comprehensiveness and very useful, provided we don’t limit them to the assigned age groups. In many cases, whether you think and act like a Boomers or like a Gen Yer depends more on the situation than anything else. An upfront quiz, based on the characteristics of each generational profile, that lets you identify yourself in terms of your values and run a game that reflects your mindset, would be most useful. Then everyone could get what they need when they need it.

Another thing, there’s lots and lots of research to suggest that there really is no such thing as multi-tasking. I’ve tried this with my own children aged 16 and 21 and confirmed the research. They claim that they can watch TV, listen to music and do Facebook all at the same time. But really they are just flipping back and forth very quickly between the three and ultimately doing all in a half-assed way. But that never comes out because there are no assessments and no testing of the quality with which they are doing all three.

If you have children of this category you can test this research yourself. Ask your children to do three difficult or challenging tasks at once – such as studying for a test, listening to an audio novel they are studying and writing an essay – and you’ll quickly see that they just can’t do it and are, in fact, no better at ‘multi-tasking’ than the old folks.