USAToday

Popular wisdom suggests many young people and their Baby Boomer parents get along great — unlike many Boomers and their own parents did back in the '60s and '70s. So does that mean the generations see eye to eye? Not at all. But they aren't fighting about it like they used to. Forty years after Woodstock, the generation gap has mellowed.

A survey out today from the Pew Research Center finds two-thirds of Americans 16 and older see an age divide in every one of the eight areas listed. Among the biggest gaps:

But can these kinds of differences be called a real generation gap? That depends, demographers say.

The Pew survey of 1,815 people in July and August found that although differences were clear, respondents didn't believe they created much trouble in their own families or in society overall. Just 26% say there are strong conflicts between generations. "This survey suggests the generations have discovered they can disagree without being disagreeable," says Paul Taylor, director of Pew's Social and Demographic Trends Project, which did the survey as a follow-up to a survey in June that found a generation gap wider than in 1969, at the height of conflict.

To a Boomer, the generation gap is more than just a catchy phrase; it represents an era when clashes over civil rights, women's rights and Vietnam forged a counterculture that would change American life. For their kids, often called Generation Y, the gap that was a chasm decades ago isn't so deep now. "Part of Baby Boomers challenging the status quo might have played more into the fact that they were challenging their parents," says Matt Heineman, 26, a freelance filmmaker. "We're not necessarily challenging our parents. We're trying to figure out what challenges of the world to take on."

Only 10% of survey respondents with a child over 16 say they've often had major disagreements with the child in his or her late teens or early 20s. But 19% of parents say they had major disagreements with their parents. As the father of two daughters in theirs 20s, David Hesel, 62, of Concord, Mass., says parents really do try to understand kids. "They're bombarded with much more than we ever were," he says. "That's not to say I endorse everything they do, but when they look for guidance, it's not based on what it was when I grew up."

"It's at the very core of their relationships," says David Morrison of Twentysomething Inc., a Philadelphia consulting and research firm. "It's difficult for GenY to understand how other generations are not as connected as they are."

Kate Hesel, 27, a graduate student in public health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., says that for her parents' generation, technology is "less fluid and less easy and more of a foreign thing to them." For her peers, it's "second nature — like a part of you."

Pew found the generations actually disagree about almost everything except the type of music they listen to. Except for those 65 and older, rock 'n' roll is king. That's a striking change from 1966, when a national Harris survey of 1,250 adults found almost half (44%) said they didn't like rock 'n' roll; 21% said they liked it and just 4% said it was their favorite kind of music.

Pew gave respondents a list of 20 performers and groups from the 1940s to the present and asked which they liked a lot, a little, disliked or haven't heard of. Results show that 1960s rock has a strong place among not just Boomers, but Millennials. Performers including the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix are among favorites of Gen Y — even those who haven't performed in their lifetimes, such as Elvis, who 24% of 16- to 29-year-olds said they like "a lot."

Steven Mintz, a history professor at Columbia University, worries that cuts in government spending could pit the Boomers and Millennials in a kind of generational warfare over limited resources. "As the Baby Boomers retire, there's going to be a limited budget, and the question is 'Where do those resources go? Are they going to go into health care and Social Security for the elderly or to child care for young parents?' "

Morrison says there will always be differences between generations, but these groups do have a strong connection.

"Generation Y gets their Boomer parents. They fully understand where they're coming from," he says.