As a fellow Gen Zer I feel like there is a generational gap. I want to see if I’m trippin or there actually is one.
This separation into “generations” is such bullshit. It’s just another way to divide the haves from the have-nots. If you blindly believe that generations define you, you’re the problem. You’re making it easy to be controlled and find another person to concentrate on while your rights, your liberties, your opportunities, and your privacy get slowly taken away from you.
I’m a late millenial, born in '95
Millennial here. My impression is we’re the largest generation on this platform, but I could be wrong.
Further proving we’re all more alike than we think.
Because every other “generation” is about 10 years and yet somehow “Millennials” are an almost 25 year gap. Notice how it’s “Older Millennial, younger millennial, etc”. You don’t use those qualifiers with the other generations because they are appropriately sized.
Millennials should be 2-3 named generations. It currently refers to 90s kids, any kids alive when 2000 happened, and early Aughts kids(probably because the last name sucked and no one wanted to use it).
I’ve only ever seen it include 1981-1996. Gen Z is considered 1996-2009.
Seems like Gen Z should be split between pre-9/11 and post-9/11 in the US.
You’re further proving my point. A person born in 1981 would be 18 years old in 1999. They will have had NONE of their childhood during the Millennium(unless you’re counting the very end of it)
I think you’re focusing on what really amounts to a bad nickname for the generation that obviously is Generation Y. (Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, I wonder what letter was left out??)
Secondly, a millennium is a thousand years. Are you saying the previous thousand years (1000-1999) don’t count as a millennium that millennials… existed in?
Thirdly, it’s the change from one new millennium to another that people were excited about, no one gives a shit about the before or after. It’s simply excitement about the changeover. In 2024, no one gives a shit that we’re living in the “new millennium.” The song goes “let’s party like it’s 1999” not “let’s party like its 2001.”
Finally, last I checked, humans tend to celebrate things before they come to pass, kind of like how walking for graduation comes before finals.
So literally no one born in the new millennium gives a shit about it being a new millennium. Only people born before it cared or would care.
Secondly, a millennium is a thousand years. Are you saying the previous thousand years (1000-1999) don’t count as a millennium that millennials… existed in?
I agree with that the comment you’re replying to is basically nonsense, but I do have two points to correct about this.
First, a small nitpick. Technically, millennia go from 01–00, so 1001–2000, with 2001 being the first year of the new millennium.
More significantly, it is obviously the case that millennials were so named because of something to do with the turn of the millennium. Frankly I don’t know what that is and it would have made more sense to name gen Z millennials because they actually span across the millenium divide and are the first generation born into the new millennium. Or if gen Y had started and finished 5 years later, they could have spanned the bridge, as well as even older genYers still being children during it, which would have been more appropriate.
First, a small nitpick. Technically, millennia go from 01–00, so 1901–2000, with 2001 being the first year of the new millennium.
Bro, a hundred years is a century. That’s why 1900 was “turn of the century.”
A millennium is one thousand years.
Ah shit sorry. I’ll edit that.
Still, it’s 1001 to 2001.
I don’t think this is correct.
The bit you’re getting confused by, I think, is that some generations are just bigger than others. The boomers were by their name sake a big generation. Millennials are essentially boomers’ kids … and so their bigger than both Gen X and Gen Z.
- Most “generational” definitions span about 15 years, sometimes more. EG, Boomers: 1946-1960
- There are sensibly defined micro-generations typically at the borders between generations.
- EG, “Jones Generation”: 1960-1965 … “young boomers” … they had a distinct life experience from “core boomers” not too different from that of X-Gens. Vietnam and 60s happened while they were children, Reagan was their 20s, not 40s, etc.
- Xennials are notable here because they’re the transition between X-Gen and Millennials (late 70s to early 80s) … probably what you’re thinking of as “older millennials”. What’s interesting though is that the relevance of Xennials is that technological changes mark the generation … they’re essentially just barely young enough to count as part of the internet generations but not old enough to be ignorant of the pre-internet times. Which just highlights that how you talk about generations depends on what you more broadly care about. In the west, arguably not too much political upheaval has occurred since WWII and its immediate consequences (basically Boomer things) … and so the generations are distinguished on smaller and probably more technological scales.
It’s not an exact definition, but below I think is close:
Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (18 years)
Generation X: Born 1965-1980 (15 years)
Millennials (Gen Y): Born 1981-1996 (15 years)
Generation Z: Born 1997-2012 (15 years)
Generation Alpha: Born 2013-present
What you’re saying doesn’t line up with this at all, but maybe you have other generation dates in mind.
And look at all the other dates others are giving me. They’re not the same as yours. THATS my point. No one actually agrees on the dates and at this point, it’s expanded to include other generations.
Yet I have 10 different people spouting different dates and all telling me I’m wrong. None of you see that you’re the exact point I was making. Everyone tries to shove in some extra years before or after.
Which is exactly why I qualified it saying it’s not exact. What dates are you using? You must be using something to say that Millennials are 25 years while the others are 10. That’s MY point.
Look around at the other comments like I said?
That’s MY point. It’s called reading comprehension.
I did. You never explained where you got this idea that Millennials have a 25 year gap and the others are 10.
When it was growing up, the definitions kept changing.
I was born in 1986, and while in primary school I was told that makes me GenX. So I grew up thinking I was GenX. Then in high school, my teachers said actually anyone born after 1985 is GenY, so we’re definitely GenY.
Then when year 2000 came around people started talking about a new generation of people who would “never remember the 20th century”, or “never know a world without the internet”, basically people born after 1997 so they grow up completely in the 2000s. They called them Millennials.
From then on the usage of “millennial” kept growing, starting to see it everywhere. Mostly by boomers complaining about millennials.
Around 2012 I stated seeing some youtubers around my age referring to themselves as millennials, I thought it was a joke, or a bad understanding. Then people started referring to me as a millennial. Someone who’s whole childhood was in the 90s, how could I be a millennial, it defied the definition.
So I imagine my shock when I find now they’ve removed all trace of the usage of GenY, and retroactively applied “millennial” to mean anyone born after 1985. So maybe I am a millennial? I remember staying up late to celebrate with my parents and make sure our computer didn’t crash at midnight on new years eve in 1999. I remember wondering why dragonballz wasn’t on TV when the news was showing footage of American skyscrapers in 2001. Are those the things that make me a millennial? If so then what about the original definition? Those born 1997 or later won’t remember those things, so now they’re Zoomers? All this business makes me so confused.
Thank you, someone who gets it. The definition has expanded so much it’s essentially meaningless now.
When I grew up and the term was first coined, it refered to the generation coming after mine. It was literally “what will we call this next generation? Well, they’re growing up during the turn of the millennium…”. Then suddenly years later it included my generation. Then suddenly it includes the generation before me? When really it’s just a lazy replacement for “kids these days”.
Notice how it’s “Older Millennial, younger millennial, etc”. You don’t use those qualifiers with the other generations
Of course you do. I, a young millennial, have a lot more in common with my old genZer sister than she does with a young genZer born in 2011. It’s an important distinction because we both didn’t get smart phones until we didn’t have smart phones until late teens at least, while young genZers weren’t even born when the iPhone was first released.
My parents are young boomers. For my dad that means he never had to worry about getting drafted like his older boomer brothers.
there are no gen Z born in 11.
1997–2012 is the definition used by Pew (which also uses the oft-quoted 1981–1996 definition for millennials). Statistics Canada uses 2012 too, while the US census uses 2013.
But anyway, the earliest cutoff I could find was 2010, which is what the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses, and my point still works for 2010 kids. (The ABS’s other boundaries also don’t change the fact that I’m young millennial but my sister old gen Z, or that my parents are young boomers, either. So every point I was making still works.)
My mistake, i thought it was 10.
Older millennial here. I came here a year ago.
Born during the very last month of the previous millennium, but I don’t know what generation that is.
If you weren’t old enough to understand what was happening when watching the twin towers fall and grasp the gravity of it while it was happening, you’re a Zoomer. (And that’s a good thing)
Young millennial here. My first memory relating to 9/11 is vaguely being told it was the anniversary of some event that happened the previous year in 2002.
It really wasn’t (at least not directly—the aftermath of it certainly was) the big generarion-defining thing Americans like to think it was. The impact on global diplomacy (not least of which is the Iraq and Afghanistan wars), the increased security theatre when travelling on planes. That’s certainly a defining generational experience. But the event itself is much less so.
Some of them are alphas (?!)
I don’t think any alphas had actually been born yet to witness it let alone comprehend it.
They can even talk back!
zillenial
Nope, full Gen Z.
Xenial, I think it’s called. I was the youngest, and I was born in 1983. My siblings are Def GenX, and I never quite identified with that group.
I never quite identified as a millennial either, I’m somewhere in between.
This is how I feel too. 1984 for me.
i dont know how its called but my shot would be xillenial
Also dubbed “Generation Catalano:” https://slate.com/human-interest/2011/10/generation-catalano-the-generation-stuck-between-gen-x-and-the-millennials.html
I prefer Oregon Trail generation.
Millennial
Generation X here.
One of us!
Why is your profile pic an outline of me
Haha, I’ve been using old.lemmy.world for so long I’d forgotten I even had the Space Needle profile on my account. Was truly puzzled for a minute.
“How do they know I’m in Seattle? Oh, yeah.”
No, it’s because you’re wearing socks with your sandals
As someone who lives in the PNW that PNW clued me in.
Gen X
Millenial
If you ask me, these generation labels are bullshit and just a way to put people into a stereotypical box and make them an “other”. Not much better than astrology.
This exactly. At the broadest range you can say there are certain qualities that are more prevalent in one age group compared to another age group, but at the individual person level those trends are meaningless. Any individual person can be conservative or liberal, be caring or selfish, be x or y.
I don’t get the impression there are even precise definitions of these generational labels.
And I don’t think they make any sense at all outside of USA and maybe west Europe.
It’s inherently an american concept, which is what also annoys me as some Europeans have started importing the concept even though it makes little sense (I don’t really think it makes sense in the US either but the fact that it is imported is just extra stupid).
I think people just love putting other people in boxes. Consider people complexly instead.
But but there is difference in advancements, science, tech Also doesn’t mean genz= this Millenials= that boomers!= this
i just wanted to know your age without invading privacy. a threshold is better than a number
Well, in that case, maybe this is interesting to you. I ran a user survey last year for my instance and anyone else wanting to answer and one question was age. Here’s the age group graph:
The y-axis is number of respondents, x-axis is age group. Obviously this only applies to the people that responded to the survey and thus might not apply in general to the fediverse, but it’s probably an indication. And, well, it’s mostly smoothly distributed without any major gaps or humps (slight hump at 30-34 but not sure if that’s statistically significant).
thats cool. that hump might be random as well
People 25 to 39 are more likely to respond to an age survey on the Internet?
I think this would work better as a poll. If you make one please let me know!
does lemmy allow polls?
Early 90s millenial here. I remember the wild west internet days. Left Reddit because it does not serve the interests of its users anymore.
Elder millennial here. Born in 1985.
The millennials watched several thousand people die on live television when we were kids and then everything went downhill from there. I was in high school in September 2001. Old enough to just barely understand what was happening, too young to do jack shit about it. Frightened, we looked to guidance from our Gen-X and Boomer teachers and elders. They told us to sit down, shut up, do as we were told, and everything would be fine. By and large, we did. By and large, nothing, not one fucking thing, ended up fine.
I say this to illustrate that this is why, and how, we are the DOOMER generation. We got piled on with the baggage and bondage of manipulation and lies from the Boomers who climbed the social ladder and then pulled it up behind them, and their Gen-X toadies who rode their coattails half way up hoping they wouldn’t get noticed and shaken off to land back down here in the dirt with the rest of us.
And the thing that sets the Zoomers apart is that you witnessed this happening, every single crucial step of the betrayal from every authority figure from the president on down to the homeroom teacher, and by gods… You Learned.
Zoomers, in my view, seem to possess a preternatural hyper-awareness that any promise made by anyone who has something they can take from you is good for nothing. Some people say “Zoomers don’t give a shit” like it’s supposed to be an insult. HA. No. I see what’s really happening. They’re jealous. Giving a shit was a mistake. It was a mistake we Doomers made. And I am pleased, if not in awe, when I see Zoomers not falling for the bait. You have largely withdrawn yourselves from the rat race, and now it’s running out of rats. Maybe now those fucking rats can finally starve holed up and isolated in their mazes. You, meanwhile, may very well build a better way to live. And whether or not I get to participate, I love to see it.
Go get 'em, Zoomers.
dunno man. maybe that hyper-awarness shit is true, but i am overwhelmed by it. i fucking hate these governments, wars and bullshit. this world fucking sucks and i feel pretty hopeless about it, which is infuriating. i wish i was born earlier
I’m also Gen Z and this was me for a while as well. Something that really helped me is not focusing as much on all of the million things going wrong that are way out of my control, and taking smaller steps wherever I can to try to make things better. That shift in perspective has made a lot of things more manageable and less overwhelming even if I still ultimately have the same negative outlook on everything that’s going on right now.
Tell you something homie:
Having no hope is, in my opinion, better than having false hope. You aren’t waiting around for some external savior to recognize that you’re struggling and swoop in to rescue you. You know that anything you get will arrive to you only by clawing it from the cold dead hands of the elders.
Yeah it sounds bleak but realize this: THEY don’t know that.
THEY, those fucking parasite boomers in their ivory towers, think you’re just like the millennial doomers who will roll over obediently and then do no worse than look sad and make sad noises when we get cheated ALL OVER AGAIN.
When they turned their back on US, we stayed docile, simpering, begging. When they turn their back on YOU, you are going to stab them thirty six times, slash their throats, and dig out their organs with a shiv fashioned out of one of their precious participation trophies, and eat them raw and howling.
… Or at least some of you will. And I for one hope that when it starts happening, we doomers will either stay out of the way, or for ONCE in our FUCKING LIVES stand up to protect you from the death throes of the worst generation.
You have it in you. It’s growing. Keep feeding it.
Yes, watching people die on tv does sound much worse than being drafted for Vietnam or living with the daily thought that Russia had a bomb and we could all die any day.
NOBODY WAS DRAFTED INTO VIETNAM WHEN THEY WERE FUCKING TWELVE DIPSHIT
AND, MOTHER FUCKER, YOU DO NOT GET TO INSINUATE THAT THE “DUCK AND COVER” CARTOONS WERE SOMEHOW MORE TRAUMATIZING THAN CODE GRAY DRILLS, LET ALONE SOME PEOPLE ACTUALLY DIRECTLY EXPERIENCING ACTUAL FUCKING SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
FUCK. OFF. IN. HELL.
at least Vietnam veterans could afford a fucking home when they got back
You know what, STAY fucked off. I don’t need filth like you in my feed. BLOCKED.
Gen Z.
Don’t care about generations too much. It just creates (often false) stereotypes, like any groups of people.Generation 4, Diamond was my first and my best friend had Pearl
Serious answer, I’m on the border between millennial and gen z
Hey, fellow gen4 here !
…are we about to kiss?
…what ? feels unprompted but…
😂
i dont get that reference, sorry
It’s Pokemon games.
As @Zagorath mentioned, its a pokemon thing. Those happened to be the current gen game when I was of the age of interest in them.
well when pokemon was popular i thought that anime was cringe so i avoided all of it back then
Fair enough, embrace cringe
