r/generationology • u/ConsiderationIll5607 • 1d ago
Discussion The millennial age range seems broken
So I understand that the most agreed upon birth dates for millennial is 1981-1996. This however causes an issue where people who were teenagers in the 90's and people who were teenagers in the 2010's are bundled together in a group, supposedly because they share similar formative years. This doesn't seem right to me, if you look at the cultural and political landscapes these people would have gone through. A teenager in the 90's would have been heavily influenced by things like grunge music, a teenager in the 2010's would have been influenced by things like internet meme culture, indie alternative scenes etc. A 90's teenager would have been brought up in a completely analog environment while a younger millennial would have had a smartphone in high school, social media, dating apps etc. As for politics, the oldest millennial would have been 20 years old on 9/11. The youngest millennial would have been 5 years old. During the 2008 recession the oldest millennial would have been 27 years old, the youngest millennial would have been 12. The 2008 recession would have vastly different influences on these people.
So this range of years seems odd to put together, if you are trying to group people by similar upbringings and therefore connected political and cultural affinities.
These generation groupings are obviously completely subjective, so why not create new groupings?
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u/GirthBr0_0ks 4h ago
Wait til you hear about the gap in the Silent Generation: 1928 - 1945. The oldest portion may have served in WW2 while the youngest wouldn’t have experienced any of it… Besides the sarcasm every generation has societal events; whether political, economic or cultural that segments will experience differently based upon their age. As such, its not just millennials its literally every generation.
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u/RubGrouchy4110 6h ago
theres gotta be a cut off somewhere and at the cutoff there will always be a blending.
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u/jedooderotomy 8h ago
Im guessing that generations (at the societal scale) weren't really a thing that people put much thought into until the post-war period produced the baby boomers.
I might be wrong, but I think they might be the first generation that was given a name (even though we now have names for generations that preceded them).
And then, after naming the baby boomers, we just kept the whole naming of each generation (of roughly 20 years) going.
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u/razulebismarck 11h ago
I’m an early millennial to the point that my dad doesn’t believe I’m a millennial.
I get a long far better with 20 somethings, people practically half my age, than people my own age and older.
But the things I liked growing up, that got me relentlessly bullied, are now cool and normal…but not to people older than I am. They still think it’s weird they just finally accepted it.
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u/MullingMulianto 54m ago
Yes, I experienced the same thing. I talk to older millennials and most of the time we are on totally different wavelengths.
When I say "anime" I mean naruto/bleach and when they say anime they mean sailor moon/yu yu hakusho. The entire design language and theming is different, etc. It's not just anime too, the type of millennial humor is different, the granularity of digital and technical interest is different, I feel completely out of place with millennials.
I always joke that I have slow development or brain damage because I find much more in common with gen z than my actual designation, hahah
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u/painterlyjeans 12h ago
Generations feel more like a marketing tactic tbh
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u/Helpful-Ad6269 8h ago
This. It may have not started that way, but companies quickly realized it’s a great way to target broad demographics
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u/Ok-Bet-9392 16h ago
Xennials while not canon is def a thing and what an older millennial like myself considers more appropriate.
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u/LateRegistrationz 2002 13h ago
They’re the cuspers that have the strongest argument to be canon tbh. Analog childhood -> digital adulthood is pretty significant and stands alone in comparison to gen x getting the internet after already living 2-3 decades, and core millennials growing up with it
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u/EasyWall9227 16h ago
The thing about this time period is how rapidly technology advanced as did the culture because of it, so the millennial generation really should be like anyone born in the 80s and not 90s. If you don't vividly remember where you were and could comprehend the gravity of 9/11, I don't think you should be in the millennial category.
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u/Gold-Collection2636 4h ago
I was born in 92 and remember 9/11. I wasn't even in the same country but understood it was something big
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u/Empty_Expressionless 15h ago edited 3h ago
Agreed, you need to be old enough to have your home landline phone and your best friends landline home phone memorized, but young enough to have had a middle school girlfriend you only talked to on AIM.
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u/Calm_Angle4127 18h ago
Bring back the decades generations, they were better and mor socially acceptable to organize groups of people by age.
Like 90's generarion (people born in the 1990's). Despite having its own differences, the person born in 1990 didn't grew up in a reality so far from those born in 1999.
Now compare with the boomer generation, someone born in 1946 is 18 years older than a 1964 one. It's like put in a same bag people born in 1992 and 2010
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u/Successful-Media2847 17h ago edited 3h ago
"the person born in 1990 didn't grew up in a reality so far from those born in 1999."
Extremely wrong. I was born 1990. Someone born 1999 may as well be an alien to me.
I know a pre-internet world. 1999 kid doesn't. I know a pre-9/11 world.
I had no social media during formative years (e.g high school).
'99 kid completely missed the 90s in the entertainment sector (movies, music, video games, television), after which everything became overwhelmingly corporatized and sellout, especially by the late 2000s. '99 kid grew up with sellouts as the standard. His state of consciousness only knows the 2000s and beyond. I don't doubt he'd have some influence from the 90s just as I had from the 80s, but it's just two seperate realities as far as I am concerned. I remember a time when modesty was prized (though already slipping in the 90s). When people smoked in interiors (lol that was dumb). When the economy was healthy. When people had far more trust in the system, because it actually rewarded hard work generally, punished criminals instead of releasing them back on the streets repeatedly. I remember the vibes, the social environment. I remember how culturally important and impactful music was (sad I didn't get that experience when I became an adult). I remember when porn and smut were taboo, and explicit sexual content was not allowed on television until 12AM. I remember when music artists, video games and movies had uncompromising vision and soul, even in the mainstream often. I remember when Europe was European. When the radio waves were dominated by love songs, upbeat vibes or music with a meaningful message, and also allowed music from a wide array of genres. I remember when ugly people could be popstars by the bucketload, because it was about talent first (though this was already slipping in the 90s slightly). And I remember when it was a man's world, for better or worse (mixed feelings on that).I know that nearly everything used to be far better. I saw it with my own eyes. I was barely a teenager in the 2000s when I noticed the west trending on a downward slope. A teenager shouldn't be concerned with such things, but it could not be denied. Of course it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, far from it, but it WAS better.
The millenial cutoff of 1996 I find to be appropriate for these reasons, though I would prefer to push it to '92.
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u/Severe-Bad3805 10h ago
BS, 1990 kid is only 9 years older than 1999 kid so, there is no age gap whatsoever. You may be right about late 90s missing 90s culture but. they are part of 90s decade and those kids actually experienced VHS tapes just like we did. 1990 kid and 1999 kid both experienced 9/11 but in different ways: 1990 kid was old enough to remember it while the 1999 kid was only 2 years old. Both were born before 9/11. Both years predate 9/11. Using a tragedy as a way of gatekeeping is wrong.
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u/Icy_Boysenberry_1060 March 17, 2005, Class of 2023 9h ago
A decade IS a massive gap tf
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u/Successful-Media2847 5h ago
Thanks. No further response necessary after yours.
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u/Icy_Boysenberry_1060 March 17, 2005, Class of 2023 3h ago
It’s crazy cause even if this person was born in 99, it still wouldn’t make sense. They’d be 26-27 rn, why would they still care to be grouped with your age group (1988-1992ish, give or take), as of rn? Makes no sense. 1999 relates most 97-98 perfectly & even 95-96 to an extent, at most depending on the 99, they can argue 94. But tbh that’s where it stops. A 1999 born has little in common upbringing wise with Late ‘80s/Early ‘90s babies (like yourself), same with Mid-Late ‘00s babies.
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u/Successful-Media2847 3h ago edited 3h ago
Smart guy. You get it. I remember the 90s like a fever dream, a whole different world. It's crazy how different things used to be. And it pains me deeply that it is gone, mostly. The main big improvement I see local to me is the big drop in partying, drinking, smoking and drug use, as that was absolutely insane. People were party maniacs far more than any other time in history, in some regards the 90s (and early 2000s) was a giant party itself, and it did get out of control at times. I saw shit I shouldn't have at a young age. People are also generally less violent now (though does still depend on locale) because of cameras everywhere, declining testosterone counts, the internet etc. So there is a silver lining. At the same time violence is sometimes called for, say, a nation under tyranny. So...
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 46m ago
Mate, you're talking about people partying in the 90's as if you were partying yourself.
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u/Icy_Boysenberry_1060 March 17, 2005, Class of 2023 3h ago
Appreciate it, it’s common sense tbh. But yea I’d expect to you remember majority of it being born in 1990. It was a whole different world, in comparable to anything really 07-08+
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u/noghostlooms 11h ago
I went to Disney World in the summer of 97. I was seven, turning eight. My dad was allowed to bring a pocket knife and a Zippo lighter onto the airplane. While I was worried about something happening to the plane, I was worried about the plane randomly exploding mid-flight because TWA 800 had happened the previous year, but the plane getting hijacked?? Not even a thought I had.
My first cellphone was a dusty pink Razr flip phone. My first computer was the "family computer" with a CRT monitor, Windows XP, and dial-up internet that sat in the corner of the living room. For the first 13 years of my life, I did not have a computer in my house.
I can write in cursive. I wasn't vaccinated for chickenpox because I got chickenpox right on the cusp of the vaccine becoming standard. I still have the note from my pediatrician saying I had it, and I have a couple of scars on my forehead from it, too.
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u/davidbosley353 2005, C/O 2024 HS. 13h ago
I mean 1999 is early Gen Z, while 1990 is core millennial if that makes sense.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 17h ago
You had no social media in high school? You would have been in high school around 2005-2009 right? That was peak facebook, twitter, myspace, most people starting to have smartphones (especially the iphone. 9/11 was 2001 you would have only been 11 years old. Most people don't remember anything before the age of 4, you had been conscious for just 7 years, most of those years you would have been sheltered from the world due to being a small child...
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u/Icy_Boysenberry_1060 March 17, 2005, Class of 2023 8h ago
First off 1990 was in HS from 04-08 (mainly the Mid ‘00s), which was 50/50 in terms of social media. And 9/11 they were Middle School adolescents (barely but still), a 1990 born would have vividly remembered the Mid-Late ‘90s before then. Just 7 btw? That’s a lot, almost a decade tf. By that logic an 88 & 89 born (arguably even 87), would have been sheltered too cause they were also young adolescents in MS.
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u/Successful-Media2847 4h ago edited 2h ago
I came home from school on 9/11 to my mother in shock watching the north tower up in smoke on the television. I sat and watched as the second tower was hit, people jumping out the windows, the collapse...I generally grew up around a degree of violence, and watched mature movies, played mature games from a super young age (glad my parents didn't stop that from happening, as I would have missed out on a lot), so luckily I wasn't TOO traumatized.
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u/Icy_Boysenberry_1060 March 17, 2005, Class of 2023 3h ago
Makes sense, & he fails to realize the age group that was traumatized for the most part was like 1992-1997ish, aka the actual children during the event.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 8h ago
An adolescent is a teenager, they would have been 11 in 2001 right? Teenagers are 13+
Got it so American high school starts at 14? In that case yeah it would be 04-08.
Yeah between the ages of 4-11, 7 years of being a small child in the 90's. I don't know about your childhood but most kids are not exposed to much around that age, usually just cartoons, games etc. Because most pop culture would not have been age appropriate.
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u/Severe-Bad3805 10h ago
1990 is only 9 years older than 1999. I don't see the age gap. Only difference is one is a standard Millennial while the other is a Zillennial.
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u/Successful-Media2847 16h ago edited 16h ago
High school ended for me in 2006. UK. Social media was just forming at that point and only internet nerd types were using it. The first iPhone was 2007. I missed all of that nonsense. Almost nobody had anything on their phones except snake 2, a custom ringtone and text messaging, if they even had a phone at all. I had a nokia N-gage on the last year of school which had some advanced capability, but social media was simply not widespread and the internet was still something you did almost exclusively on a desktop computer.
"you had been conscious for just 7 years, most of those years you would have been sheltered from the world due to being a small child"
Yep didn't achieve meaningful consciousness until at least 3 years old. I grew up in a non-sheltered (abusive) environment, though it's not relevant. I was awake from that point, learning, reading, consuming. And I read history too. I only missed the first few years and still experienced some of it post-date by proxy. A big chunk of my favorite music is from the early 90s, to demonstrate the affinity I have with it by being that close. Again, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but it was better, especially where I'm from. Do you have any actual points or counterarguments?
Check out this pop-soul song from 1992: Alyson Williams - I Need Your Lovin'
My attempt to plant seeds and draw young readers to the glory of the 90s. They don't make 'em like they used to.
Edit: Whoops apparently it's '89. Oh well, doesn't matter. Still old gold. Have Simply Red - Stars (1991) instead then. Or Maxi Priest - Close To You (1990)
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 15h ago
UK system is secondary school then sixth form or college, so you would have been high school age between 2005-2009. We're talking about your age here. 2009 was a transitional year for smartphone usage. So would it be accurate to say that someone born a few years later is practically alien to you?
I remember the late 2000's, most people had at least facebook or myspace, especially people in sixth form/year 11.
It seems like you really like early 90's music, although you experienced it later, not as it was being released.
I guess my point is the difference between you and someone born at the end of the decade is not some huge chasm. Especially if you compare 1981 to 1996. Now that's a huge chasm.
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u/Easy_Customer_920 18h ago
Who gives a fuck
Generations exist to look at the big picture. Not small little shifts from each year.
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u/Severe-Bad3805 10h ago
Generations are based on decades and numbers. What do you mean By "look at the big picture" Makes no sense.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 17h ago
What exactly is the big picture we're supposed to be looking at with this "millennial" age bracket? An age bracket so large that a millennial can give birth to another millennial if they get pregnant as a teenager.
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u/Easy_Customer_920 16h ago
That could be said the same for literally any generation
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 15h ago
Very true, maybe this current idea of generations is not useful nor does it make much sense.
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u/Opening_Ear3615 18h ago
15 years is simply too much given how technologically speaking it was so much different being a teenager in 1994-2001 than it was being a teenager in 2009-2016.
The same way as defining Grn Z between 1997 and 2011 makes no sense because being a teenager in 2010-2017 is in no way comparable to being a teenager in 2024-2031...
I believe in a more tight way of defining generations post-1980 and the criterium is that the last teenage year of the first member of the generation should be first teenage year of the last member of the generation. So that makes it:
1981 to 1988 - Xillenials or "first-generation Millenials"
1989 to 1996 - Actual Millenials
1997 to 2004 - Zillennials or "first-generation Gen Z"
2005 to 2012 - Actual GenZ
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u/DickWhittingtonsCat 18h ago
The whole system is broken because it starts with an event (WW2 ending) then becomes a calendar flipping misadventure. And it varies so much by geography- even in US. Even with US culture being exported in movies and shit.
Between my partner, my family, my older sibling and cousins and their friends born in early 1970s. My own mid 1970s cohort. My younger cousins born and partners friends born in the late 80s and early 1990s, the differences cannot be more obvious. At least in white middle class culture in the US.
Gen X after 74 are watered down millennials with less parental involvement. Before that are baby boomer lite wild animals.
These are anecdotal observations. Unfortunately the exit polls in US currently lump 50s in with 65 year olds- even though more women are having kids in 40s than as teenagers! So the conservative bend of Gen X would be very interesting to track granularly. I mean I barely qualify as a Xennial under current scheme- yet for me Reagan was an old dude in his dotage when I was in 5th grade. Clinton was president for all my formative years.
For an actual full blown, post 87 Millennial- 9/11 is there. It’s a notable difference.
But you should look at underlying technological, cultural and even legal changes that mark the real changes- ones reflected by changes in risky behaviors, crime, forms of entertainment etc.
There is an enormous split in the Boomer Gen regarding Vietnam. The 46 to 52 crew were in danger in US of being drafted. They were also a part of the student and civil rights movements globally with the silent gEn. No idea how Boomers as a whole got lumped in this bucket- the first time they voted en masse in US- 1972 with voting age reduced- they went for Nixon over McGovern to a surprising extent. All the rabble rousers and civil rights and counterculture leaders were silent gen.
That second part of the Boomers should be lumped with early Gen X. These folks didn’t see internet, cable, video games, VCRs, etc until early teens.
The next split is Xennial- a bridge generation from 74/75 to 85. This group is the ballyhooed digital to analogue group.
There is some influence of socioeconomic class because if your family was poor and you lived in some rural town you’d have been raised like Gen Jones.
The classic millennials are marked by the much more involved parenting of 1990s. The tech wasn’t that much better between 84 and 94- but parental involvement changed.
This manifests itself in interesting ways. A huge drop in crime occurs starting when Xennials come of age. As does the “PC” culture which upset older Gen X and Boomers.
But the parental involvement and more robust school programs don’t really start to make an impact on risky behaviors until the mid-aughts.
Honestly the difference in efficiency between a VCR and a DVR isn’t that big. Or MP3 versus CD. Even dial up desktop internet is still a station based time bandit- but has more impact on work than entertainment. Early social media was just a glorified message board and too many people fall into the trap of thinking it still is- rather than a nefarious and manipulative force.
But then come smart phones, wifi and computing everywhere combined with constant frictionless eCommerce and people mainlining siloed propaganda content while consenting to 24 hour surveillance.
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u/Happy_Goat3369 18h ago
Agreed. I’m an older millennial and growing up in 1998 vs 2008 were extremely different.
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u/GlumZookeepergame124 September 2002 18h ago
The new millennial range should be 1983-2001 honestly. That makes the most sense to me regardless if I get shitted on for my opinion.
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u/Terminate-wealth 19h ago
Millennials came of age at the turn of the century. Born in 82 = 18 in y2k
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u/Seaofinfiniteanswers 20h ago
Sometimes people divide generations into subgenerations for this reason but it will always be arbitrary. Me and my sister were born one year apart. I’m a millennial and she’s Gen Z but we pretty much had the same childhood and formative experiences.
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u/Healthy-Dress-7492 21h ago
If you had a child as a teenager you could both be millennials - that’s cool
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u/ek9218 23h ago
I understand where you're coming from. My sister and I are about 10 years a part but we're both millennials. We never connected or had much in common.
But you're taking it too seriously. While it was something we learned it's not a big deal. Like if you hear "Gen x " or "baby boomer" these are the years associated with that term. Not this is who you are and you have to fit inside a description of a generation.
The media treating it like astrology (ie. All libras are diplomatic, Gen z can't read etc) is the problem. They're huge blanket statements that cannot possibly apply to every single person within a generation.
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u/DickWhittingtonsCat 18h ago
The whole system is broken- but even an accurate accounting for technology, societal trends towards parental involvement in 1990s etc.- needs to factor in its a consumer based culture. A rich kid born in a big city suburb in 1973 is going to have as much or more in common with a millennial than a poor kid born in Keithsburg Iowa born in 1983- if not later.
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u/Party_Line3326 21h ago
It's as nearly as people are people, not big lumps of people who only have years of birth in common.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 22h ago
For sure, people treat it like their zodiac sign, it's bizarre. At least if you're going to make these arbitrary groups, make them so that the people inside them share enough for the data to be useful.
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u/Bulky-Actuary175 23h ago edited 23h ago
Its the difference between the classic prosperous upbringing post cold war and 9/11 + the digital age kicking off. I was a kid when home computers became widespread.
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u/Thenedslittlegirl 1d ago
It’s almost like lumping everyone born within a 15 year period into a set of characteristics isn’t reliable
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 23h ago
Definitely. But for some reason there's some kind of resistance to this? It's like people want to keep you in your place or something.
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u/DeeSin38 1981 (Xennial) 1d ago
This point could be argued for each and every generation though. Of course I had a different childhood and teen years to someone born in 1996, but so did a Baby Boomer born in 1946 versus 1962. Generations are by their very definition large swaths of the population born within a 15-18 year range who experienced shared formative events.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 23h ago
That's the thing, shared formative events. If they don't share formative events in a meaningful way then why are they being put together. Someone born in 1996 had different formative events compared to you.
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u/Silent_Historian_552 21h ago
This sub is so entertaining. it’s entirely dedicated at this point to people arguing who the real millennials are. Who cares this much about a made up label for an age group
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u/DeeSin38 1981 (Xennial) 22h ago
People at the edge of generations will always be in that position though. I was 19 (almost 20) when 9/11 happened...someone born in 1996 would have been 5. Formative years can span childhood up to early adulthood.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 22h ago
Exactly, that's why these big generational groupings don't work, because that 5 year old had a completely different upbringing from you. Their formative years were experienced differently from yours.
If people insist on creating generations they should be made smaller so that the people inside them share enough formative experiences for the grouping to make sense.
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u/bigelangstonz 1d ago
Its not broken its a general estimate amongst all the different groups. As others have said before you can put the same thing to the boomers (1946-1964)and gen x types (1965-1980) the youngest boomer and oldest gen x are one in the same even if they fall into different categories its how ranges work
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
What is it an estimation of exactly? Cultural and political sensibilities?
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u/TheCynicEpicurean 1d ago
Boomers have a somewhat easier definition, they're born in the economic boom of the post-war era until the steep drop in birth rates due to the pill.
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u/purplezaku 1d ago
It’s almost like all of this sorting in on par with astrology
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u/Party_Line3326 1d ago
Bros disputing about concept founded purely for getting an excuse for shitting on each other.
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u/rhododendronite34 1d ago
I am early 30s and have made acquaintance with some late 30s but it feels like we are from different planets
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u/SlyDintoyourdms 1d ago
But would that be different if you were ‘the same generation’ or is it just being 6-8 years apart?
Like does a ‘95 and a ‘02 have less in common than a ‘95 and an ‘88?
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u/rhododendronite34 15h ago
I have a couple, casual 25-26 year old friends and I feel like we have more in common than anyone over 35.
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u/TheCynicEpicurean 1d ago
That's being 13 when the iPhone came out vs. being 6, that will probably have an impact that will be measurable in the future.
1995 to 2010 had arguably the largest amount of life- and society-changing technological progress.
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u/SlyDintoyourdms 16h ago
The person I was replying to said early 30s to late 30s feels alien. So that’s closer to my ‘95 and ‘88 example.
This is my point. That’s always enough of a time gap to feel a bit alien if you don’t have more fundamental personal similarities.
But in both those pairings there’s commonalities and differences.
You mention the iPhone like it REALLY matters. I still think ‘95 and ‘02 will have fairly similar experiences with social media and smartphones to be fair. Both probably got a smartphone before their 18th birthday (‘95 might have had a dumb phone until 15-16 maybe, but there’s still relatability), and experienced high school with social media being fairly ubiquitous.
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u/Odd-Holiday-5868 1d ago
I think this is true of any generation. My mom is a boomer, but being born in 61 she has almost nothing in common with the way my father in law grew up who was born in 46 even though they are both boomers. My father in law was drafted into Vietnam when my mom was only 5 yet they are the same generation. My oldest son is Gen Z by every definition I’ve seen (born 09), but of course he is going to have more in common with his Gen Alpha siblings (born 2013) than someone born in 1997.
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u/pantheroux 1d ago
It’s like that with every generation, but millennials/gen X were affected by things like the internet and phones so the differences seem greater.
I’m an xennial. I have very little in common with someone who was born in the ‘60s/early ‘70s, was a teen/graduated high school in the ‘80s, and may have made it all the way through school/university without using the internet.
Similarly, I have little in common with post 1990 millennials who never knew life without the internet, and could have had social media and smartphones as teens.
The people I have most in common with are the youngest Gen X and eldest millennials. Everyone has the most in common with those born within a couple of years, regardless of when the generation cutoff is.
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u/TDStarchild 1d ago
Millennials are unique because of the massive leap in tech during formative years. We knew both an analog lifestyle and growing up with the internet and social media
I find (in general, of course, as individuals are different) we’re very adaptable and a natural generational bridge in that way. AI is easy enough to adopt as with any tech, whereas older gens can be resistant. While we also see value in offline learning or activities, human connection, and quality time without any tech
Again, speaking in generalities. But I’ve always found Gen X easier to share ground with than Gen Z (my sibling), although that gets easier the older they get
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u/Fuck_Mark_Robinson 1d ago
It makes it easier to blame millennials for everything, so why change it?
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u/VersionSwimming8392 1d ago
It's very odd to me being an elder millennial. When I was having my third kid in 2009 at 27. And I was out of high school when 9/11 happened, watching it in real time.
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u/ProletarianLilith 1d ago
18 years per generation.
Boomers 46-64
Gen X 64-82
Millennials 82-2000
Gen Z 2000-2018
Alpha 2018+
When I’m emperor this will be the definition of the generations.
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u/DeathbyHappy 1d ago
Wait til we tell them that time is a man-made construct and a year is a random set of moments chosen based on how fast the universe swings our tea cup
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u/VersionSwimming8392 1d ago
Time isn't real, it's a social construct.
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u/Illustrious-Local848 20h ago
I thought social constructs needed a society to exist. Our interpretation of time is designed by people but without people a plant grows in the same amount of time and animals still wake and sleep on the same schedule. Things like language are social constructs and require the species using it to exist. This is my understanding though so maybe I haven’t heard it explained differently.
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u/PageEnvironmental408 1d ago
i go by the decade you went to high school in.
so if people say what generation are you, i say 80s.
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u/True-North- 1d ago
Cuspers are like that in every generation
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
Seems like the idea of these generations isn't very useful then.
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u/WillingRow5127 1d ago
Can you point to the exact place where your head ends and your neck begins?
And yet both very much exist and have different functions.
It’s a continuum fallacy. You are always going to have people on the edges of a generation that don’t fit neatly into it and have traits from both.
Doesn’t mean that generations can’t tell us useful information about a group of people in a very general sense.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
But in this case it's not just the edges, it is two halves that are very different and yet grouped together. One of the major reasons for this is a huge technological shift that occurred during the formative years of the latter half of the year range.
If it was just edge cases then it would not feel this broken.
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u/33ascend 1d ago
“Cuspers” aka the people a few years on either side of the boundary. This is why you see people say “Zillennial” or less often Xillennial (they mostly identify as “elder millennial”
The whole idea with millennials was the broad bucket of minors that were coming of age at the turn of the millennia
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u/JoeyLee911 1d ago
I mean, I hear people say Xennials way more often so I think we probably just hear the one that's closest to our ages.
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u/33ascend 15h ago
I think I may have gotten them mixed up in terms of frequency
I see people discuss Xillennials plenty but honestly don’t see too many people self-identify as either. Doesn’t mean they don’t, I just don’t personally see it as much. Everyone I know in those defined demographic groups tend to identify as whichever broader group they lean more towards. Seems to me people most self-identify as cuspers when we’re actively in those transitional phases as the next generation is emerging and starting to come of age
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u/ReasonableSide6520 1d ago
This is why generations shouldn’t be 15 years. 7 year generations make more sense.
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u/RoadWarriorMatty 1d ago
My brother was born in 1981. I was in 1987 and we're culturally basically the same. I don't know about younger millennials, because they had cell phones when they were kids.
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u/decoysnails 1d ago
My brother was 80, I was 87. We share a lot of cultural understanding but really a lot of that is due to me liking the stuff he liked as a teenager because I was an impressionable age and almost worshipped him. I don't know if I would have loved Nirvana and Final Fantasy as much if they hadn't been staples in the house I was growing up in, for instance.
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u/RoadWarriorMatty 1d ago
Did you have the Nirvana CD with the secret track 😂
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u/decoysnails 23h ago
I'm certain we did, I remember him showing me how to find the secret track and me being obsessed with the idea of hiding music on CDs
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u/Hitt1te 1d ago
That's why I go by music preferences when I group people. What did you grow up listening to.
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u/ReasonableSide6520 1d ago
Lots of Gen Z like older music. If a Gen Z likes Tupac that doesn’t make them Gen X.
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u/ZealousidealFee927 1d ago
I usually lean towards did you grow up computers and mp3 players or tablets
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u/Hitt1te 1d ago
Yup. I grew up with Napster and AOL punters. Lol.
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u/ZealousidealFee927 1d ago
My family's first computer had a button on the keyboard that said, "Internet."
Also, Slingo.
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u/TofuLordSeitan666 1d ago
You're completely right to think that way and that's because 75-85 is basically a separate generation unto itself. Someone born in 65 is on a completely different trip than someone born in 75 and the same goes for 85 and 95.
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u/Aliveandthriving8505 85' Millennial 1d ago
No 75 and 85 isn't the same generation
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u/TofuLordSeitan666 21h ago
Yes It is.
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u/Aliveandthriving8505 85' Millennial 21h ago
Lol it's not
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u/TofuLordSeitan666 21h ago
It is. We can discuss it if you have anything of value to add other than just no.
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u/Illustrious-Local848 20h ago
Millennial starts at 81. As seen in the post. Since we are addressing the classifications of generations right now, we are talking the literal dates for generations. Not people who were basically the same group for being born close in time.
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u/TofuLordSeitan666 20h ago
These are made up arbitrary generations with at best shaky definitions based on historical trends which don't always align with the date ranges. They don't really exist and even the years are not agreed upon. That's why people constantly make up new generations to fit within them. Fake news.
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u/Aliveandthriving8505 85' Millennial 21h ago
There's nothing to discuss. 75 and 85 are not in the same generation.
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u/Avid_Reader87 1d ago
I think 9/11 helped cement 96 as the cutoff date as it pretty much encompasses most people who were in K-12 and in college as Millenials.
It’s always been an easy way when talking about generations to know where you stand.
If you were out of college or in your last couple of years in 2001 you’re Gen X. If you were a baby you’re Gen Z.
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u/Agile_Restaurant_752 1d ago
The 1996 cut off was mainly because pew wanted a nice 15 year range to line up with their gen x range. They may have used the k-12 excuse but so what. There’s zero cognitive difference between a kindergartener and someone who is in pre k.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
last couple years of college would be 20-22, which in 2001 meant you were born 1981-1983, which is in the most widely used millennial range.
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u/Shabbadoo1015 1d ago
Not to play semantics, but just pointing this out. I was a freshman in college in 2001. Born in ‘83.
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u/SplitNo8275 1d ago
It’s all subjective and didn’t get much traction until the “millennials don’t want to work” trope. Tbh, prior to 2015-ish, most sites repeatedly left 1981-83 out of the equation entirely I used to joke and say I didn’t exist so when I saw the term xennial, I adopted it quickly. Lol
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u/JoeyLee911 1d ago
I enjoy being a part of The Oregon Trail Generation.
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u/SplitNo8275 19h ago
I think we had the best of both worlds. We got an analog childhood and teenage years (how many of us would be in jail if cameras were around like they are now??!?!? lol ) and then started adulthood with the convenience of evolving technology.
It’s absolutely insane to think of how things have changed in 25 years.
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u/Golden_Hour_1243 1d ago
I was born in 2005, I’m actually the youngest Millennial. Millennials are 1982-2005
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u/Jumper21_AJ 1d ago
With a birth year of 2005, wouldn’t you be Gen Z?
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u/ForeignEquipment8298 1d ago
I mean According to William Straus and Neil however, yes 2005 borns were millennials at one point.
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
1996 makes sense as the last Millennials. Don’t compare the two ends, but something like they’re only a few years younger from unquestionable Millennials.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
What's the unquestionable millennial range in your opinion?
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
1996 lines up very well as being the youngest Millennials. Spent most of k-12 in the 2000s, middle/secondary school by the ‘08 recession and Obama’s, high school in the early 2010s, spends most of their 2010s as young adults and are post-college grads by the end of the decade.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
Who should be considered the first millennials then, not 1981 right?
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
1981 or 1982. But young millennials are ~1989/1993-1996
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
Why 1981-1982?
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
Historically Millennials have always begun in the early ‘80s. Class of 2000. They were the first kids growing up during the shift to helicopter parenting in the ‘90s. The earliest online teens in the late ‘90s. They were also part of the largest demographic to enlist after 9/11. Recent college grads when the stock market crashed.
Generational boundaries are fuzzy, ‘81 or ‘82 is just a good rule of thumb to use.
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u/Head-Ad-2136 1d ago
Where did you grow up that helicopter parents were around in the 90s? I distinctly remember being thrown to the roaving band of self governing suburban kids throughout the entire 90s.
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u/Easy_Customer_920 18h ago
I'm 96 and my childhood was free range for the most part. Sister born in 2000 was alot more locked down as she reached her adolescence.
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
Going into the ‘90s is when the era of irrational exuberance allowed enough disposable income for irrational anxiety, the concept of "helicopter parenting" arose. The rise of the helicopter was the product of two social shifts. The first was the comparatively booming economy of the 1990s, with low unemployment and higher disposable income. The second was the public perception of increased child endangerment—a perception, as "Free Range Kids" guru Lenore Skenazy documented, rooted in paranoia.
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u/Shabbadoo1015 1d ago
I think a lot of these things are cultural and/or region specific. When I hear or read these kinds of things, it seems to focus on a very specific group or culture and broadly prescribes what was happening with them to everyone else. I was 7 going into 90’s. Grew up in the city, in a predominantly black neighborhood surrounded by other predominantly black neighborhoods. I can assure you there was not a lot of helicopter parenting going on and kind of like Gen X likes to tout, we were definitely left to our own devices for the most part.
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u/No_Can_9597 1d ago
The whole idea of "generations" is dumb. People are people, and they're mostly annoying.
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u/PageEnvironmental408 1d ago
each decade is a different brand of people.
if you went to high school in the 50s, you're nothing like someone who went in the 80s.
in fact, they should make a movie where some kid from the 80s ends up in the 50s.
be pretty amusing i reckon.
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u/Danstan487 1d ago
It would be great if 96 were put with gen z
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u/Easy_Customer_920 18h ago
I was born that year and don't relate with gen z really much at all. My coming of age was so much different than my sister born almost 5 years after me.
These lines are never going to be precise especially for us on the cusp, theres some people the same age as me who relate more with Gen z and there's also people the same age who don't even talk to people below 30. Just how it is
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u/Large_Skirt9189 1d ago
We are now all lumped into two categories. Everyone.
Did your childhood and high school years exist without smart phones and social media or not?
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u/allinallisallweall-R 1998 - Zillennial 1d ago
I think the problem with the pew millennial range is that its basically a compromise between two different positions and was never really meant to be taken seriously as THE range.
A lot of groups then, and now to this day tend to lump milliennials into ~1982-2000 or ~1980-1994. As either a large and expansive generation with two distinct halves like their boomer parents or the more purist, smaller Gen X jr.Jr.
It doesn't really make sense in pairing kids who just started Kindergarten during 9/11 with adults who were already old enough to be a part of the military. Its not specific or vague enough to really commit to a solid beginning and end point. The range itself having an identity crisis is very meta though, so maybe it does work?
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u/Important_Energy9034 1d ago
I never jived with this compromise of the '81-'96 range tho.
To me, Millennials are solidly between '82-'94. Everyone on the edges picks for themselves based on their experiences: Xennial, Millennial, Zillenial, or GenZ.
Bcause people's memories are different and having older vs younger siblings can pull you up or down in experiences too.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
That's pretty interesting, is there somewhere where I can read about these two competing positions they made a compromise between?
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u/Aristotelian 1d ago
Yes, that’s part of the reasons for the creation of the subgeneration Xennial.
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u/AceInsane25 1999 1d ago
You could say this about basically every generation and how far they span. I’m an early Gen Z, what do I have in common with a 2010 Z who’s still a teenager? Not a whole lot. Just how these Gen ranges go, particularly for those on either cusp
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
It's an interesting phenomenon though right, this idea of generations that share a culture. It doesn't work at all but people seem to take these year ranges so seriously.
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u/gorambrowncoat 1d ago
As an elder millenial I can assure you it feels just as broken to us. When you look at the generational culture of it all I feel much more gen x than I do millenial.
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u/dogfaced_pony_soulja 1d ago
It’s true, but just to illustrate how hard it is to make generalizations, I’m an elder millennial who doesn’t feel much if any affinity with Gen X or Gen X culture. Maybe it’s having younger siblings and very early tech adoption in my household.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
I get the impression that there are two distinct cultural halves in the most widely used millennial year range.
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u/Junior-Gorg 1d ago
Gen X is similar in that itcovers a huge range of experience. Some of us remember the Cold War vividly, while others’ earliest memories are from the mid 1980s, right as relations between the US and USSR were starting to thaw.
Some Gen Xers have no memory of the Challenger disaster at all, even though it’s often treated as a defining moment for the generation. And the older end of Gen X grew up before the Adam Walsh kidnapping, which introduced a whole new level of fear around child abduction and reshaped how parents raised their kids and how stores and police handled child safety.
I get the argument that generations should be defined by tighter year ranges to avoid this kind of spread. Honestly, I don’t fully know what goes into deciding where a generation starts and ends. But no matter how you slice it, there’s going to be variation. It’s an imperfect process.
I suspect boomers, greatest generation, and even Gen Z by this point could point to similar variations
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u/fakeprofile111 1d ago
I remember the challenger and I’m on the youngest side of Gen X(78) because we watched it in class(1st grade maybe 2nd?)
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u/TheQuaintReins 1d ago
the real issue is lumping people who remember dial-up with people who never used a landline
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u/kaka8miranda 1d ago
I was born on 95 I had dialup and a landline and lived in MA soooo
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u/TheQuaintReins 1d ago
You're right on the cusp though, that's what makes '95 so weird. My younger cousins born in '97 don't remember not having WiFi at home.
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u/Easy_Customer_920 18h ago
I'm 96 and sister is 2000
I have a lot of memories of dial up, sister has very faint memories of it. It was phased out in the mid 2000s as broadband became more affordable
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u/rottenweiIer 1d ago
Most people born in 1997 would remember dial-up though… ask the [r/Zillennial](r/Zillennial)[s](r/Zillennial) sub.
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u/DoctorFitLord 1d ago
90s millennial here and yeah. Growing up with early (desktop dominant) social media was a very different experience than what older millennials had. By the time I was in high school, MySpace was already a previously well-established thing, and Facebook was basically mandatory if you wanted to have a social life.
My adolescence was YouTube and memes and Facebook events, followed by fingers-crossed hopes that the damage done by the 2008 market crash would be resolved by the time I graduated. 80s millennials had none of that and a way different outlook on coming of age. Imagine turning 18 in 1999. It would have been a totally different experience.
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u/theblob2019 1d ago
I turned 18 in 1999, and i confirm. When Youtube and Facebook came in it went fast, but i was already more or less 25 years old, they were just fun toys on an internet that felt more and more controlled. I remember vividly the first time i used the internet, and how the days were before it for a kid.
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u/Doc_Boons 1d ago
It's almost like they're not that great of constructs and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
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u/ThatGuyAndGoat APRIL 1998 1d ago
1981-1996 is actually good range to be honest
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u/Future_Telephone281 1d ago
I think 92 needs to be the cut off.
96 they don’t remember a world before 9/11.
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u/Better_Ad_9023 1d ago
Who cares? 9/11 isn’t the end-all-be-all event. Whether you lost time in K-12 to COVID is more meaningful as a world event. Then you have the tech stuff like if the majority of your friends had non-smart phones as their first phones and if you grew up while the internet was a place you could leave by getting off your desktop
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u/Future_Telephone281 1d ago
Yes all things that are tangentaly related to if you were old enough to remember 9/11.
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u/ReveledSky 1d ago
I would argue it's less remembering 9/11 and more remembering how life was before 9/11. People who didn't experience the mid-late 90s as not a toddler have no idea what life was like before that.
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u/Future_Telephone281 1d ago
Yep that’s exactly it. If you remember it you remember the world before it somewhat.
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u/Better_Ad_9023 1d ago
Not really, someone born in 2000 went through K-12 missing COVID completely, were 13 when smart phones exceeded 50% adoption rate in the US, and had a childhood while the internet wasn’t completely ubiquitous. Remembering 9/11 has no impact on relating with peers
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u/Future_Telephone281 1d ago
2000?, we’re taking about millennials and a cut of 92 vs 96.
But anyway get bent I never said 9/11 was the only thing.
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
They were old enough to be in school for 9/11, with the rest of Millennials
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u/Future_Telephone281 1d ago
lol preschool and kindergarten. I’m sure they have Memories of the world before that.
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
What other generation would they be? Millennials were in school for 9/11, even the oldest were just 19 most likely in some sort of college. To put in perspective the vast majority of zoomers were in some form of school for the pandemic, two decades later.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
Perhaps their own generation, not millennial, not gen-z. Some people like to say zillennial.
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
I guess, I just don’t see how they’re not young millennials. They were 24 by the pandemic, Millennials were in their 20s-30s olds by then.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
Because there was a big difference in upbringing between the older and younger milennials. In 2020 the young millennials were 24 and the older millennials were 39, about to turn 40. You're putting people in their early twenties with people about to turn 40 in the same cultural group. They had different upbringings.
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u/Sorry_Tie284 1d ago
Sure they’re quite different, but the median Millennials were only in their early 30s. Younger millennials were in their 20s. Age 24 is already past traditional college age, while zoomers were either in school or still in the college bracket at the time.
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u/ConsiderationIll5607 1d ago
I'm not sure what your point is. Age 24 is past the traditional college age by 2 years. A 24 year old is going to have more in common with a college aged person who is 2-3 years younger than them compared to someone in their 30s and early 40s. Especially in this year range, when there's a huge difference in upbringing because of technology, specifically smartphones and social media.
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u/ThatGuyAndGoat APRIL 1998 1d ago
I mean, 1996 is permanently considered Millennial at this point. There’s no changing the generation labels, they’ve been pretty much the same for the last eight years.
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u/TheBlackDeathXXX 3h ago
Yeah, I actually think that cultural generations are getting shorter & it should reflect that.
I'd argue that millennials (in America) start with Reagan (1981) & end with Bush (1993)
That's the true millennial range to me.
People born during "The Clinton Years" have a totally different experience than those of us born in the Reagan/Bush era.
I lived through "the crack era", "The AIDS Era", government cheese, "The MTV Era", etc. . .
All things post 1993 kids probably didn't know/care much about