# Millennial Denial



## California Kid

I have read some pieces on regarding this generation and there are many people out there are in denial of being associated with this cohort. One of the reasons is that there is a huge negative connotation with that term. Another one is some people (particularly the older Millennials) want nothing to do with this generation at all assuming that the younger side are still in high school and college (When that is *false*), and are more comfortable with being part of another cohort or a sub-set of one. They also refuse to realize that Gen Y was just a placeholder for the generation until a new name arrived. This syndrome is very real. Have any of you seen anyone who possesses these traits? I've seen many online, but not IRL. Here are some pages and a photo I found sometime ago about this condition.

https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/4es7jr/a_millennial_in_denial_of_being_a_millennial/

You Might Be a Millennial If … « The Dish

https://qz.com/247979/i-couldnt-stand-millennials-until-i-realized-i-was-one/

https://www.naspa.org/constituent-groups/posts/a-millennial-among-millennials-by-amy-boyle


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## Nashvols

https://medium.com/@thehipp/fuck-you-i-m-not-a-millennial-e92e653ceb39#.dneojsa39

And I more or less agree with this.

And I completely understand people my age (31) not wanting to be associated with Millennials. A lot of the "news" pieces I read/hear make me cringe. Probably because I don't seem to fit most of the generalizations/stereotypes. 

Something I've struggled with as far as the generations are concerned is their length. More so than time, major national and world events, as well as ever-changing technology, define generations, or at least periods. I don't know about others, but it's easy for me to see how I might have more in common with someone born in the late 70s rather than the early 90s. Our experiences...especially during the younger years, shape our worldview. 

For me, it's not that I "can't stand millennials"...it's that I don't identify with the common stereotypes. I'm sure some Xers and Boomers feel the same way about their generational category.


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## tangosthenes

People are just people. I strongly reject the premise that people have to accept that they are part of some group or another on fiat, and then blanketly own that group as part of their identity.

These groups should not exist in serious discussion about society.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Ugh!
Yes.
Too true.
The stereotypes about my generation ("baby boomer") are brutal.
We destroyed the world by ourselves.
I look in the mirror and say, "Why did you destroy the world? Were you really that bored that you couldn't have found something more productive to have done with your time?"
The answer: "Oh look! A bird!"
(Too scattered to have destroyed the world single handedly...)
Me also does not fit a generational stereotype!
Does anyone???



Nashvols said:


> https://medium.com/@thehipp/fuck-you-i-m-not-a-millennial-e92e653ceb39#.dneojsa39
> 
> And I more or less agree with this.
> 
> And I completely understand people my age (31) not wanting to be associated with Millennials. A lot of the "news" pieces I read/hear make me cringe. Probably because I don't seem to fit most of the generalizations/stereotypes.
> 
> Something I've struggled with as far as the generations are concerned is their length. More so than time, major national and world events, as well as ever-changing technology, define generations, or at least periods. I don't know about others, but it's easy for me to see how I might have more in common with someone born in the late 70s rather than the early 90s. Our experiences...especially during the younger years, shape our worldview.
> 
> For me, it's not that I "can't stand millennials"...it's that I don't identify with the common stereotypes. I'm sure some Xers and Boomers feel the same way about their generational category.


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## Quernus

I can understand why my generation would be in denial seeing as we are told we are the laziest, most entitled, most whatever bla bla generation of all time. Which is simply not true. Kind of like how some groups (those afraid of change I would argue, similar to certain generations who might hate millennials) have made "feminism" seem like a bad, dirty thing, so people are ashamed to call themselves one even though many of them don't really know why*. I mean, I sure wouldn't want to be a Millennial if we actually represented what we're told we do.

*Obviously there are exceptions and I'm not saying there is no valid criticism of Gen Y (or feminism for that matter, or most things).

All I am saying is:


Millennials Aren't Work-Hating, Lazy Narcissists, Survey Finds | Thomas Jefferson Street | US News

So I am proud to be a millennial. I think we will be instrumental in shaping the world away from the disaster we've inherited. I wish people would spend more time trying to accept what they are, and the way reality actually is (being open to improving understanding of that, as it's always changing), and THEN try to work towards better change from there instead of denying accountability and, well, even facts, until blue in the face, halting progress.


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## California Kid

Nashvols said:


> https://medium.com/@thehipp/fuck-you-i-m-not-a-millennial-e92e653ceb39#.dneojsa39
> 
> And I more or less agree with this.
> 
> And I completely understand people my age (31) not wanting to be associated with Millennials. A lot of the "news" pieces I read/hear make me cringe. Probably because I don't seem to fit most of the generalizations/stereotypes.
> 
> Something I've struggled with as far as the generations are concerned is their length. More so than time, major national and world events, as well as ever-changing technology, define generations, or at least periods. I don't know about others, but it's easy for me to see how I might have more in common with someone born in the late 70s rather than the early 90s. Our experiences...especially during the younger years, shape our worldview.
> 
> For me, it's not that I "can't stand millennials"...it's that I don't identify with the common stereotypes. I'm sure some Xers and Boomers feel the same way about their generational category.


Me too! I can't stand where generations are denounced due to the false common stereotypes. For one, only a minority of Boomers were hippies. Only a minority of of Xers were slackers, and only a minority of Millennials are/were snowflakes. As for the lengths of generations, it does revolve around demographics, events and other misc. Each of them are about 20 years. The determination of each generation is supported by data of study after study, not anecdotes (which WE all rely on). Events CAN affect a group of people depending on their location. For example, the assassination of JFK was a turning event for Boomers; however, only American BBs were impacted by that. Other countries were not because they have their own events that would have an influence on them. 



tangosthenes said:


> People are just people. I strongly reject the premise that people have to accept that they are part of some group or another on fiat, and then blanketly own that group as part of their identity.
> 
> These groups should not exist in serious discussion about society.


Yeah, people are just people; however, that's not how the world works. We will always have some type of identity that completes us whether it's generations, ethnicity, religion etc. It doesn't matter. Every identity has a concept despite that most of them are arbitrary. I mean nothing is exact.

You can check out this thread if you want. I'll link it down below.

http://personalitycafe.com/debate-forum/969754-concept-generations.html



Quernus said:


> I can understand why my generation would be in denial seeing as we are told we are the laziest, most entitled, most whatever bla bla generation of all time. Which is simply not true. Kind of like how some groups (those afraid of change I would argue, similar to certain generations who might hate millennials) have made "feminism" seem like a bad, dirty thing, so people are ashamed to call themselves one even though many of them don't really know why*. I mean, I sure wouldn't want to be a Millennial if we actually represented what we're told we do.
> 
> *Obviously there are exceptions and I'm not saying there is no valid criticism of Gen Y (or feminism for that matter, or most things).
> 
> All I am saying is:
> 
> 
> Millennials Aren't Work-Hating, Lazy Narcissists, Survey Finds | Thomas Jefferson Street | US News
> 
> So I am proud to be a millennial. I think we will be instrumental in shaping the world away from the disaster we've inherited. I wish people would spend more time trying to accept what they are, and the way reality actually is (being open to improving understanding of that, as it's always changing), and THEN try to work towards better change from there instead of denying accountability and, well, even facts, until blue in the face, halting progress.


Agreed! This generation is NONE of those things with study after study confirming them false. Sooner or later, this cohort is going to be the rulers of this country after Gen X's reign where they will make the biggest changes to society. 

I hope one day the older members of this cohort will finally come to accept that they are not Gen X even if they have a few of the qualifications. If you think about it, true Xers (excluding stereotypes) grew up in a different world compared to Millennials. They recall the Cold War, Challenger, and AIDS epidemic. They are the people who made most of the tech we are using today. Shoot, they are even the folks who are the smaller generation between Boomers and Millennials. Abortion is the main reason why members of Gen X were much lower.

Oh, and contrary to what some sources state, the cutoff of Millennials is NOT 2000. Only one source uses that span, and they are S&H. Other references who use that span are getting it from them due to their studies of generations. The real cutoff is 1994/95, and I've that more common cutoff than the 2000 one.


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## Marshy

Why does this matter in any serious discussion


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## Quernus

tangosthenes said:


> People are just people. I strongly reject the premise that people have to accept that they are part of some group or another on fiat, and then blanketly own that group as part of their identity.
> 
> These groups should not exist in serious discussion about society.


I wish things were that simple, kumbaya. The world works on power dynamics, unfortunately, and some groups are affected disproportionately based on social location (including sociopolitical norms, economic trends, at a given time). Obviously circumstances vary, there are outliers, and no one person of any group actually represents every other member of that group, but in my opinion it's less a matter of identity and more a matter of self-awareness (and awareness of the roles and responsibilities you might have in relation to the rest of the world, if you don't want to be an completely selfish person). Generation is usually determines a lot with regards to what you and your peers have to work with, and I think solidarity rather than rejection of some inevitable truths are probably a lot more effective in terms of not-killing-our-species-off-even-more-prematurely.


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## Quernus

Marshy14 said:


> Why does this matter in any serious discussion


 Because stereotypes and lies become internalized, and reinforced, which is a way groups of people become dis-empowered, which is why many in power try to turn everyone else against one another so they can keep doing their thing. There's not one main entity responsible for this but negating truth is not going to help anything during a time of crisis. People need to be able to make educated decisions on who they are and how they identify so they know how to navigate life effectively and help save the planet. People need to become much better at discerning what is real and what isn't, we are just wasting time and resources by living in denial.


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## Marshy

Quernus said:


> Because stereotypes and lies become internalized, and reinforced, which is a way groups of people become dis-empowered, which is why many in power try to turn everyone else against one another so they can keep doing their thing. There's not one main entity responsible for this but negating truth is not going to help anything during a time of crisis. People need to be able to make educated decisions on who they are and how they identify so they know how to navigate life effectively and help save the planet. People need to become much better at discerning what is real and what isn't, we are just wasting time and resources by living in denial.


I see what you are saying, but I dont see why we should care about a generalization of such a large group of people. In the end I don't think anyone of _importance_ holds any weight to a postulate on such weak grounding that is constantly changing with each and every individual they meet. 
Consider generations to be nothing more than mere pseudo science that hold only true for the for the broadest of generalizations while the individual remains the exception to the rule until proven otherwise.


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## Quernus

Marshy14 said:


> I see what you are saying, but I dont see why we should care about a generalization of such a large group of people. In the end I don't think anyone of _importance_ holds any weight to a postulate on such weak grounding that is constantly changing with each and every individual they meet.
> Consider generations to be nothing more than mere pseudo science that hold only true for the for the broadest of generalizations while the individual remains the exception to the rule until proven otherwise.


I think it is in fact consequential when a group of people are wrongly blamed for something over and over until they dissociate from it and try to identify with/appease the broken system, instead of standing up for themselves and taking more charge of the world like most other generations have been able to do when coming into adulthood. Tell people they're lazy and weak and entitled for long enough, and they'll believe it, but it's just a smokescreen from the real causes of problems. I don't really care if someone doesn't "identify" with a generation at their core or something, but I don't want them to reject it based on lies and gaslighting when they already face disproportionate challenges based on when they were born. I'm tired of Gen Y getting crapped on for no reason and then made to feel powerless about it when they should be rebelling and pushing for better solutions. People need to wake the heck up. 

Unfortunately I do fear it may be too late for my generation to experience a particularly fruitful life in the US, on the whole. I hope your generation can learn from all of this and do differently because it's probably the very last shot at saving anything, lol.


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## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar

Nashvols said:


> https://medium.com/@thehipp/fuck-you-i-m-not-a-millennial-e92e653ceb39#.dneojsa39
> 
> And I more or less agree with this.
> 
> And I completely understand people my age (31) not wanting to be associated with Millennials. A lot of the "news" pieces I read/hear make me cringe. Probably because I don't seem to fit most of the generalizations/stereotypes.
> 
> Something I've struggled with as far as the generations are concerned is their length. More so than time, major national and world events, as well as ever-changing technology, define generations, or at least periods. I don't know about others, but it's easy for me to see how I might have more in common with someone born in the late 70s rather than the early 90s. Our experiences...especially during the younger years, shape our worldview.
> 
> For me, it's not that I "can't stand millennials"...it's that I don't identify with the common stereotypes. I'm sure some Xers and Boomers feel the same way about their generational category.


This article is great. Being a teen in pre 9/11 world, growing up without Internet, having to use all these clunky technologies, despite growing up without internet, getting to experience Web 1.0, growing up without easy unpaid access to cutting edge knowledge, etc. etc. etc.
These are pretty important memories. Hell, I didn't even have a phone at home until I was like 11 or 12.


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## California Kid

Marshy14 said:


> I see what you are saying, but I dont see why we should care about a generalization of such a large group of people. In the end I don't think anyone of _importance_ holds any weight to a postulate on such weak grounding that is constantly changing with each and every individual they meet.
> *Consider generations to be nothing more than mere pseudo science that hold only true for the for the broadest of generalizations while the individual remains the exception to the rule until proven otherwise.*


We can say the same thing with other groups as well. Every classification is going have generalizations regardless of religion, ethnicity, orientation, gender etc. Yeah, there are going to be individuals who are the exception to the rule, but those people are in the *minority*.

As for generations, they DO exist. It just that some folks don't understand them either because of misinformation or they don't have enough info. There are all types of generations which are familial, societal, cultural etc. You're obviously not in the same class as your parents, your friend's parents, nor your future children. This is where generations come in. 

The groups that have been discussed on this site and others are the social generations. These are determined by demographics, events, culture and other misc. Each cohort in every country has had a certain upbringing where it impacts them daily. That's what separates them from the previous.


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## charlie.elliot

People who worry about generations and take time out of their day to put down other groups for no reason are stupid. Get a life.


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## Marshy

SuperYoshi said:


> We can say the same thing with other groups as well. Every classification is going have generalizations regardless of religion, ethnicity, orientation, gender etc. Yeah, there are going to be individuals who are the exception to the rule, but those people are in the *minority*.
> 
> As for generations, they DO exist. It just that some folks don't understand them either because of misinformation or they don't have enough info. There are all types of generations which are familial, societal, cultural etc. You're obviously not in the same class as your parents, your friend's parents, nor your future children. This is where generations come in.
> 
> The groups that have been discussed on this site and others are the social generations. These are determined by demographics, events, culture and other misc. Each cohort in every country has had a certain upbringing where it impacts them daily. That's what separates them from the previous.


I have never stated generations "don't exist" however, the way people view them should hold no significance which is why it could be equated to pseudoscience. It is simply a classification of time periods in which people share the same bubble of time. It is completely normal for people to want to classify things, although, when you look at a "generation" of people what are you really looking at? The people or the extraneous variables/environment that they lived alongside of. I'm sure each "generation" of people is interchangeable with the next. Perhaps switch up Millenials and boomers. Both would be nearly equivalent. This is pure conjecture, but this would suggest when you are thinking of "generations" you aren't actually thinking of people but the time period in which they grew up in.


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## California Kid

Marshy14 said:


> I have never stated generations "don't exist" however, the way people view them should hold no significance which is why it could be equated to pseudoscience. It is simply a classification of time periods in which people share the same bubble of time. It is completely normal for people to want to classify things, although, when you look at a "generation" of people what are you really looking at? The people or the extraneous variables/environment that they lived alongside of. I'm sure each "generation" of people is interchangeable with the next. Perhaps switch up Millenials and boomers. Both would be nearly equivalent. This is pure conjecture, but this would suggest when you are thinking of "generations" you aren't actually thinking of people but the time period in which they grew up in.


I didn't say you did, but some people do.

We could use the same thinking with regions. There have been times where one doesn't think of the people, but think of the area they grew up in which is why they would like to visit the location.

I understand that some folks may see generations as pseudoscience; however, that still comes back they are either because of misinformation or they don't have enough info. There have actually been studies done on generations for a long time. It's not like they began recently. Here's some articles I found which one that supports my argument.

https://aeon.co/essays/generational-labels-are-lazy-useless-and-just-plain-wrong

“Against Generations” or Finding their Place?

And here's more articles about generations back up the concepts about them.

The Whys and Hows of Generations Research | Pew Research Center

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/27MannheimGenerations.pdf

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/94PilcherMannheimSocGenBJS.pdf

http://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SOCIAL-GENERATION-CONCEPT-IN-SOCIAL-SCIENCE-RESEARCH-Full-Paper.pdf

SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research

https://biblio.csusm.edu/sites/default/files/reserves/ch2_handbook_of_the_life_course_p.23-49.pdf

https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/academic/social_sciences/sociology/Reading%20Lists/Aging%20Readings/Kertzer_AnnualReview_1983.pdf


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## Marshy

SuperYoshi said:


> I didn't say you did, but some people do.
> 
> We could use the same thinking with regions. There have been times where one doesn't think of the people, but think of the area they grew up in which is why they would like to visit the location.
> 
> I understand that some folks may see generations as pseudoscience; however, that still comes back they are either because of misinformation or they don't have enough info. There have actually been studies done on generations for a long time. It's not like they began recently. Here's some articles I found which one that supports my argument.
> 
> https://aeon.co/essays/generational-labels-are-lazy-useless-and-just-plain-wrong
> 
> “Against Generations” or Finding their Place?
> 
> And here's more articles about generations back up the concepts about them.
> 
> The Whys and Hows of Generations Research | Pew Research Center
> 
> http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/27MannheimGenerations.pdf
> 
> http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/94PilcherMannheimSocGenBJS.pdf
> 
> http://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SOCIAL-GENERATION-CONCEPT-IN-SOCIAL-SCIENCE-RESEARCH-Full-Paper.pdf
> 
> SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research
> 
> https://biblio.csusm.edu/sites/default/files/reserves/ch2_handbook_of_the_life_course_p.23-49.pdf
> 
> https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/academic/social_sciences/sociology/Reading%20Lists/Aging%20Readings/Kertzer_AnnualReview_1983.pdf


I dont believe you have read the first article to its fullest, as it goes against what you are initially arguing. This could be the fact I'm viewing your argument as conflicting with mine or I haven't grasped your argument completely, so feel free to clarify.
SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research
I skimmed through this one and found it interesting as it implicitly suggests "generations" have little application other than those living in the same "time period."
A couple of the articles also explicitly use the term "pseudoscience" to describe the notion of grouping people up into generations. I do think they are describing the way it is used rather than the actual definition of it as pseudoscience though, which would make inclined to agree with it.


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## California Kid

Marshy14 said:


> I dont believe you have read the first article to its fullest, as it goes against what you are initially arguing. This could be the fact I'm viewing your argument as conflicting with mine or I haven't grasped your argument completely, so feel free to clarify.
> SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research
> I skimmed through this one and found it interesting as it implicitly suggests "generations" have little application other than those living in the same "time period."
> A couple of the articles also explicitly use the term "pseudoscience" to describe the notion of grouping people up into generations. I do think they are describing the way it is used rather than the actual definition of it as pseudoscience though, which would make inclined to agree with it.


I did read it. My argument is that generations exist, but there are problems with them because of misinformation, unqualified experts, and not enough research.

That's because generations aren't truly exact (nothing really is). Has anything ever been set in stone? Not to go off-topic, but just look at how liberal and conservative are used here in the U.S. They mean something else in other regions. Nothing will ever be perfect. That's we go with something that is the best accurate. Furthermore, pseudoscience has also been used not just for generations, but everything else as well.


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## jaNES

The common 90s=Gen X shtick that they love to peddle (such as on this website) ironically fits me and my brother born in 1979 & 1983, not our 1964-1970 cousins.


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## Finny

I think the word millennial has an issue with time span. Gen Y are millennials. A lot of Gen Z's are called millennials because a lot of older people use it as a word for young. However, I do admit my generation and Gen Y have a lot of trouble admitting their flaws and the negative results of technology as well as that we were babied as kids growing up in a progressively special snowflake PC generation that loves to play victim cards.


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## TheGhostAgent

Marshy14 said:


> I have never stated generations "don't exist" however, the way people view them should hold no significance which is why it could be equated to pseudoscience. It is simply a classification of time periods in which people share the same bubble of time. It is completely normal for people to want to classify things, although, when you look at a "generation" of people what are you really looking at? The people or the extraneous variables/environment that they lived alongside of. I'm sure each "generation" of people is interchangeable with the next. Perhaps switch up Millenials and boomers. Both would be nearly equivalent. This is pure conjecture, but this would suggest when you are thinking of "generations" you aren't actually thinking of people but the time period in which they grew up in.


A thousand times this. What ever happened to judging an individual as an individual as opposed to factors they have no control over, such as their year of birth? I find it amusing at times that people are so either pro-generalization to attack another group or anti-generalization to disassociate themselves from said group. That the easiest solution is to simply judge an individual as simply that. This can't even be labeled pseudoscience, because that would give it some credence of some _fictional_ scientific explanation.


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## Dalien

Nashvols said:


> https://medium.com/@thehipp/fuck-you-i-m-not-a-millennial-e92e653ceb39#.dneojsa39
> 
> And I more or less agree with this.
> 
> And I completely understand people my age (31) not wanting to be associated with Millennials. A lot of the "news" pieces I read/hear make me cringe. Probably because I don't seem to fit most of the generalizations/stereotypes.
> 
> Something I've struggled with as far as the generations are concerned is their length. More so than time, major national and world events, as well as ever-changing technology, define generations, or at least periods. I don't know about others, but it's easy for me to see how I might have more in common with someone born in the late 70s rather than the early 90s. Our experiences...especially during the younger years, shape our worldview.
> 
> For me, it's not that I "can't stand millennials"...it's that I don't identify with the common stereotypes. I'm sure some Xers and Boomers feel the same way about their generational category.


Yep, exactly. I was born in 61 and don't identify with boomers. I grew up during generation X (off only a couple of years) and that feels more comfortable to me.


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## Dalien

TheGhostAgent said:


> A thousand times this. What ever happened to judging an individual as an individual as opposed to factors they have no control over, such as their year of birth? I find it amusing at times that people are so either pro-generalization to attack another group or anti-generalization to disassociate themselves from said group. That the easiest solution is to simply judge an individual as simply that. This can't even be labeled pseudoscience, because that would give it some credence of some _fictional_ scientific explanation.


Well, here on PerC it does state our generation and people do stereotype one into a label. Do I like it? Nope. I agree with your post. And, yes, I've received flack (and seen) for being a boomer, which is considered "old" in a negative way by some here. I don't take it personally unless this flack in done in very ugly dirty manner (and, yes, I've seen that too).


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## jaderose23

Yeah I notice a lot people in their 30's think they aren't generation y lol. But I believe core generation y is in the 80's. Generation x were 70 babies. Some lat e 70's are even generation y so its odd why people think millennials are teens lol. Most teens were actually born after 2000 so they clearly would not have come of age in 2000 a year they didn't even exist in lol. Generation z's are the majority of those who are college aged. Some of the youngest gen y is college aged I suppose


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Yes, I agree with this. Also the "baby boomer" generation label is red, which looks like the Scarlet Letter. Lately, there has been much less negativity, which is a good thing. We're all human and it doesn't make any sense to judge a person based on when that person was born. 



Dalien said:


> Well, here on PerC it does state our generation and people do stereotype one into a label. Do I like it? Nope. I agree with your post. And, yes, I've received flack (and seen) for being a boomer, which is considered "old" in a negative way by some here. I don't take it personally unless this flack in done in very ugly dirty manner (and, yes, I've seen that too).


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## sometimes

Don't some people always tend to look down on younger people...I find it ironically to be usually due to immaturity.

I'm a millennial and proud. lolz. seriously though. 

I like this thread title though and the way the words go together. It sounds like a band name or a book title or something.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

"Baby boomer" is a demographic generation, not a cultural generation, and rates of population growth spiked after World War II and did not drop off until the mid-1960s. If it were a cultural generation, I would split it up and extend the two cohorts. I would identify a "Vietnam generation" as anyone who could have been drafted and sent to Vietnam (there were soldiers in Vietnam from other countries besides the United States). In the United States, men aged 18 to 26 were eligible for the draft. The birth years that would go into that generational grouping would be 1938 to 1952. Draft numbers were called until 1975; however, no one was actually drafted after December of 1973. (There was no point in calling draft numbers after 1975 because the war abruptly ended, after seeming to be endless.)

"Generation Jones" would then be people born between 1953 to 1965. When this group came of age, everything was changing. There was the oil crisis of 1973 and economic problems, including a stagnant economy and "stagflation" (combination of unemployment and inflation). This was a much different reality than had been apparent in the 1950s or 1960s. People who came of age in the 1970s did not experience the world in the same way as people who came of age in the 1960s. 



Dalien said:


> Yep, exactly. I was born in 61 and don't identify with boomers. I grew up during generation X (off only a couple of years) and that feels more comfortable to me.


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## Dalien

Garden Gnome said:


> "Baby boomer" is a demographic generation, not a cultural generation, and rates of population growth spiked after World War II and did not drop off until the mid-1960s. If it were a cultural generation, I would split it up and extend the two cohorts. I would identify a "Vietnam generation" as anyone who could have been drafted and sent to Vietnam (there were soldiers in Vietnam from other countries besides the United States). In the United States, men aged 18 to 26 were eligible for the draft. The birth years that would go into that generational grouping would be 1938 to 1952. Draft numbers were called until 1975; however, no one was actually drafted after December of 1973. (There was no point in calling draft numbers after 1975 because the war abruptly ended, after seeming to be endless.)
> 
> "Generation Jones" would then be people born between 1953 to 1965. When this group came of age, everything was changing. There was the oil crisis of 1973 and economic problems, including a stagnant economy and "stagflation" (combination of unemployment and inflation). This was a much different reality than had been apparent in the 1950s or 1960s. People who came of age in the 1970s did not experience the world in the same way as people who came of age in the 1960s.


Awhile back, you were trying to get a Generation Jones started on here and I agree with this. I wasn't and still not sure how to get this done. What kind of proof do we need?


----------



## Glenda Gnome Starr

I really don't know. There was a group of us who were trying to get this going but it never happened. 



Dalien said:


> Awhile back, you were trying to get a Generation Jones started on here and I agree with this. I wasn't and still not sure how to get this done. What kind of proof do we need?


----------



## lookslikeiwin

I find stereotypes annoying when they assume you're going to fit into them.


----------



## jaderose23

sometimes said:


> Don't some people always tend to look down on younger people...I find it ironically to be usually due to immaturity.
> 
> I'm a millennial and proud. lolz. seriously though.
> 
> I like this thread title though and the way the words go together. It sounds like a band name or a book title or something.


I don't really consider mille nials the youth. I think that's more generation z. As most of the youth are generation z (under 25).


----------



## sometimes

jaderose23 said:


> I don't really consider mille nials the youth. I think that's more generation z. As most of the youth are generation z (under 25).


Ok. Well I definitely don't consider myself (peak millennial) a youth. But I didn't say that...


----------



## OrangeAppled

My friend born in 1981 says he is Gen X and whines about Millennials.... Being born in '83, I understand feeling on the "cusp" though. 

I relate more to Gen X people in their early 40s than many young Millenials (early 20s?). There are stereotypes that apply more to them that don't fit for me largely because of the timeline differences... I was a child in the early 90s recession, so I didn't have the spoiled childhood of being carted around to extracurricular activities. I finished college before the '08 collapse, so I got a job pretty quickly after graduating, unlike the college grads struggling now (but then I later felt the effects of the collapse). 

My sister was born in 79 and also feels on the cusp, although some would put her in tail-end of the Gen X category. Having older siblings can also affect this.... I'm the youngest, so I feel a tie to people a few years older than me who may not be considered Millennials.


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## PowerShell

I can see why people are in denial due to people thinking that everything bad, but the sad thing is it's like most of what Trump says, false anecdotes. Statistically speaking, the younger generations are way better than older generations when it comes to a lot of stuff including teen pregnancies, drugs, etc. It seems to pretty much be getting better every year: http://www.vox.com/a/teens


----------



## Grandmaster Yoda

This sounds inaccurate to you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials


----------



## California Kid

Grandmaster Yoda said:


> This sounds inaccurate to you?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials


What do you mean?


----------



## ElusiveFeather

I'm a bit ignorant here. Are Millennials the same as Gen Y or is there a tiny difference?


----------



## California Kid

ElusiveFeather said:


> I'm a bit ignorant here. Are Millennials the same as Gen Y or is there a tiny difference?


Yeah, they mean the same generation. It's just that some people don't seem to know what a millennial is.


----------



## dulcinea

Here's a possible stab but maybe negative perceptions by the media and special snowflakes have ruined being a millennial despite the fact that the criticism is basically unfair juvenoia, and the special snowflake are just a loud minority.


----------



## ElusiveFeather

SuperYoshi said:


> Yeah, they mean the same generation. It's just that some people don't seem to know what a millennial is.


Well I was somewhat guilty XD


----------



## BenjiMac

As a millennial, there is *some* truth to the stereotype. Some. As there is with any stereotype, there's usually an observable generality that founds it.

I know people who conform to the much-mocked stereotype, but likewise, Im surrounded by so, so many hard working, talented and dedicated professionals of my generation putting in the hours, not complaining, paying our taxes and eating normal food served from a plate instead of artisan cheese from an avocado or whatever.

I too shirk the term 'Millennial' because of the negative connotation. The implied assumption that I have a useless degree in interpretative dance and expect a 40k job with a 28 hour work week. That said, such clichés are vanishingly rare in reality and we'd do well to remember that. 

Especially our parent's generation who talk like they forget who decides what old folks home you end up in.


----------



## Carla Rose

Baby Boomers also had the same criticisms levied against them in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Gen X in the 1990s. Baby Boomers 'redeemed' themselves in the 1980s and Gen X in the 2000s. It's almost as though... people are immature when they're young and become more mature as they get older...?

Nobody should ever deny or want to shy away from being a Millennial, though. Millennials are a great generation, we're just under some heat because we're in the middle of the "wtf why do young people today act like young people always have?" phase where we're thrust into the hot seat. Most openminded and accepting generation towards harmless differences like race and sexual orientation, most accepting adult generation of technology (which plays a key role in making the world a better place), etc etc. I think the world will be in good hands with us, and I expect Gen Z to be even better than we are.


----------



## California Kid

Carla Rose said:


> Baby Boomers also had the same criticisms levied against them in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Gen X in the 1990s. Baby Boomers 'redeemed' themselves in the 1980s and Gen X in the 2000s. It's almost as though... people are immature when they're young and become more mature as they get older...?
> 
> Nobody should ever deny or want to shy away from being a Millennial, though. Millennials are a great generation, we're just under some heat because we're in the middle of the "wtf why do young people today act like young people always have?" phase where we're thrust into the hot seat. Most openminded and accepting generation towards harmless differences like race and sexual orientation, most accepting adult generation of technology (which plays a key role in making the world a better place), etc etc. I think the world will be in good hands with us, and I expect Gen Z to be even better than we are.


Yeah, that's true that every generation has had criticism. I'm not going to deny that; however, the thing is it's going too far with the whole "killing this" killing that" and some other BS. That's defintely going to change soon in the next decade as the Millennals won't be in that position anymore although most at this point are in their 30s with some still in their 20s.

I agree completely, but it seems like most people in this generation rather not be one because of the untrue negative stereotypes. Hopefully soon in the future, they will come to realize that they truly repesented a very loud minority, and most people were never lke that. 



BenjiMac said:


> As a millennial, there is *some* truth to the stereotype. Some. As there is with any stereotype, there's usually an observable generality that founds it.
> 
> I know people who conform to the much-mocked stereotype, but likewise, I'm surrounded by so, so many hard working, talented and dedicated professionals of my generation putting in the hours, not complaining, paying our taxes and eating normal food served from a plate instead of artisan cheese from an avocado or whatever.
> 
> *I to shirk the term 'Millennial' because of the negative connotation. The implied assumption that I have a useless degree in interpretative dance and expect a 40k job with a 28 hour work week. That said, such clichés are vanishingly rare in reality and we'd do well to remember that. *
> 
> Especially our parent's generation who talk like they forget who decides what old folks home you end up in.


Yeah, I agree. Not every Millennial has a useless degree nor do they expect 30K, 40K, or even 50K when start working. People like that are a very loud minority. Oh, and do you think that the term Millennial decline in favor of Gen Y returning?


----------



## BenjiMac

An interesting question.

I think usually generations are titled by their observers rather than themselves - though I feel perhaps Gen X were the exception that proves the rule.

I think spurning the label 'millenial' - which as we've discussed is a fairly innocent and descriptive label which has come to have a derogatory and judgemental undertone - is personal choice, but I'm not sure we could 'bring back' Gen. Y and if we could, I suppose the clichés would follow.

I've always felt that Gen Y and Millenials are distinct groups with some overlap. Gen Y arguably beginning with those born in the mid-80's. Millenial starting a few years after. But that's just my opinion and an observation that millenials I see referenced in articles are generally noticeably younger than myself.

If the label is for those who 'came of age' around the millenium then sure, around '84 - '90 would fit, but kids born after? Were they so impacted by the turn of the millenium as to be forever labelled by it's occurrence?

I think ours is the generation with the least clear boundary, even Gen Z is pretty well defined. Any out of X, Y and Z - we get labelled with Y - the lamest of the three. AND we get the stereotype of the lazy, whining moustache enthusiasts.

No fair.


----------



## Fumetsu

Gen Y and millenials can't be the same for the simple fact if being, well, a different geniration. 

TpAside from the obvious fact of the age-gap there is a vast cultural difference between those who grew up with the internet and those who did not.
At the turn of the millenia, I was nearly 20, old enough to have already development my personality and and found the which I identified.

It is very frustrating fom both sides.

I was at a garden work party once" chatting up with an old woman-I've always gotten along better with older oeople-when out of the blue she said snidely " Well, you're still a millenial!" 

Bitch, what am I doing? I'm out here with you digging in the dirt working my ass off. it's a giid example if whybI hate this generational nonsesne. Yes, the term " millenial" has negative connotations to me, but those stereotypes can apply just as well to a 14 yr old to a 40 year old.


----------



## WickerDeer

Oh--lol. I didn't even realize I was a millennial. I was just arguing with some of those stereotypes, thinking they were focused on Gen z. Maybe for the better since I tend to argue better on behalf of others than myself.

Even without realizing they are directed at my generation, I always thought those were overhyped and emotional. I mean...yes, there may be measurable trends in a generation, but emotive words like 'lazy,' 'special snowflake,' 'killing this and that' all point more to an agenda or bias in the person making those claims (or sensationalism, at best). There's nothing 'objective' or 'factual' about calling someone lazy, and to pretend there is just looks really silly.

I assumed it was a jealousy thing or just some kind of anger or hatred--which seems kind of irrational to direct at an entire generation.

So, no--my instinct isn't to distance myself with millennials. Imo, usually people expect that when insulting you. They want you to internalize their values or whatever values they are promoting and try to avoid that. 'oh me? No way! I'm not a millennial, special snowflake!' I feel a bit more like, 'maybe if you can say what you want to without calling someone a name, then I'll take what you have to say seriously.' Is that very stereotypically millennial of me? Probably. 

But as for the stereotype--I don't think I'm especially lazy at work and no boss has ever told me that. But I do tend to believe that most of the 'better' entry level jobs are taken by people who have connections--friends, family members, people who know people. And then there are economic conditions that affect employment.

Looking at some of the stereotypes, I guess I fit into the Millennial generation. Kind of like when I found out I fit the hipster stereotype after discovering what a hipster was years later. I don't really care if someone has a complex that causes them to enrage whenever anyone uses the term 'special' or if they really cannot stand idk...heirloom tomatoes. There are more important things in the world to agonize over than that. 

I think that might be more of an internet thing though--that clickbait and sensationalist titles and topics are more common, as is insulting and trolling for attention and views. So it's sort of like tabloid and novelty stuff has replaced 'objective journalism' and you see more emotional language everywhere...and then memes.

I can relate to what Fumetsu said above, that I was not raised on the same kind of internet technology as the younger generations. In high school drug dealers had pagers, no one had cell phones, and 'hooking up' meant to just hang out with someone. I see a pretty big difference between myself and the younger generations and their ability to sift through and navigate the internet. Internet culture still feels really new and unfamiliar to me.


----------



## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> Yeah, that's true that every generation has had criticism. I'm not going to deny that; however, the thing is it's going too far with the whole "killing this" killing that" and some other BS. That's defintely going to change soon in the next decade as the Millennals won't be in that position anymore although most at this point are in their 30s with some still in their 20s.


I wish the headlines were reversed and would say, "Baby Boomer-led companies refuse to adapt to change and run their companies in X industry into the ground because of it."


----------



## California Kid

So for the last few days, I have been looking at comments regarding the Xennials (or the Oregon Trail Generation), and I have to honestly that they are pretty much older Millennials whether they realize that or not. Every article I encounter always seems to discuss technology, but not much of anything else. Some older Millennials are boldly claiming they remember certain events such as the Cold War, Challenger, and even the USSR which were Gen X staples; however, they actually do not because they were still little kids when they all occurred. On top of that, some will even say they played Oregon Tail on the PC, but the one they're talking about is not even the original which was in green & black. instead, it's the one that was re-released and was all colorful.

Original










Reissue (deluxe)










I understand there are cusps between generations, but the only ones who are literally exaggerating on those things are some older Millennials. I haven't come across many articles talking about the cusps between the Silent/Boomer, Boomer/X, and even Millennials/Z. Oh, and this statement is so hilarious. "Those born in the late '70s and early '80s were the last groups to have a childhood devoid of all the technology"

So I take it that means VHS, Walkmans, PCs and Discmans were not important to them?

I mean just a take a look at some of these comments from these articles. Many Xers have stated they had the same experiences as most of the Xennials.

https://www.popsugar.com/tech/How-Technology-Influenced-Generation-X-37522155

https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/



> I was born in 1974, and this article basically tells the story of my life. This is silly. You aren't special, this isn't some special turn of the decade exclusive. Good grief. Y'all are Gen Xers. Get over it.





> I would disagree in that as someone born in 1972 the age of the microcomputer started in the late 70s with the Apple 2/Vic 20/TRS80 and age wise I was about 8, when home PCs were starting to get popular (nowhere near a teen let alone fully formed adult), even if you argue 83 at the console game crash I was still only 11 so would honestly lump anyone born in 1970+ to the early 80s into this.





> Not sure I entirely agree with all the article's details. I was born in 1972 (not the late 70's) and I was not a teenager yet when apple 2c showed up in the lab. I was only a 13 yr old 'teen' by the time 1985 came along. Don't recall seeing Oregon Trail as soon as I walked in the lab though. It was just a lab session in DOS. Also, let's not forget that consoles like Atari were already out for several years (as well as the video arcade for even longer ('Pac Man, donkey kong, centipede anyone?') when computers started showing up in homes. When I was in elementary school I remember going to my friend's house to play some Atari. I only saw my first home computer after we were all well versed in game consoles and arcade games, so the home PC revolution was not such a foreign entity to us Gen 'X'r's as the article makes it sound.





> I would argue that GenX had an earlier deeper commitment than GenY did. We grew up in the Altair 8000, the Commodore era. The Atari 2600, Pacman 1980 so gen x was 10 to 15 years old, etc. Computers touched our lives in much more intense ways than those who grew up in the 80s and 90s. We built BBS systems that took technical know how that the later information age children can only aspire to. We build the foundations of the Internet and the mobile generation.
> 
> Many of us started with computers like the Commodore pet in school and actually had to create or program our own games. At home, we received the Vic 20. We played the hell out of info com games that inspire us to this day. So while Gen Y started with computers in the home. Gen X grew up with them in a very profound way that was not the least bit inferior to Gen Y





> You are describing the tail end of Generation X. I was born in '71 and this all applies to me, just time-shifted a little. I was in junior high, not elementary for the Apple IIE days, was in college, not high school, when we started doing research online in addition to card catalogs, was in my early 30s, not 20s for MySpace and Facebook. But totally agree with your overall point that it's interesting to see how we are not afraid of technology, like many of the generation before us, but it's not a part of our DNA like it is for millennials.





> I played Oregon Trail in summer school in 1977. It was just text, no graphics, except maybe some emoticons created by letters and punctuation. It seemed pretty well-known and widespread even then for anyone at all interested in computers. (It was invented in 1971.) Had no idea the later versions became so iconic for their era.





> You have got to be kidding me. The kids born in the 70's were much more likely to encounter these things than in the 80's. If you were born in the 80's, you were a baby. You really think a 4-year-old was playing Oregon Trail? Seriously, use your brain.





> "Those born in the late '70s and early '80s were the last group to have a childhood devoid of all the technology"
> 
> Really? I had every gaming console known to man and that was in 80-81





> Anyone born in the 80s would have a minimal chance of having played Oregon trail. By the time they would have had the capability of being on computers .. we had the internet and AOL. 80s children are not in the same league as the 70s Xers.





> Hmmmmmm. I was in college by the time many of you were born, and yet, my middle school had TRS 80s and my high school had Apple lls where we used Appleworks to write papers and played Number Munchers. I used a telephone handset cradle modem to call up the Library of Congress to do research for high school term papers, in addition to using the card catalog in the library. My friends and I grew up with novelty household computers like the Commodore 64, which could do amazing things with a light pen. When I was a teenager, I was certainly still "young enough and dumb enough" to talk trash all night long on BITNETrelay and later on IRC. (Granted, the network didn't have flashy MySpace graphics, but I had a friend who could print a 3-foot graphic of an entire Thanksgiving turkey or a swimsuit model using only ASCII characters.) All of this stuff was in place by the time you '80s babies were in elementary school. I was born in 1969 and would be hard pressed to find anyone from my generation who feels the least bit "alienated" by technology, and we definitely share your gratitude that graphics-laden social media was not the norm during our adolescence. Everything this article talks about is also true for us. So face it; you are "Generation X" just like the rest of us.





> Thank you! 1969 here as well, never felt a second of alienation from technology. We built a hell of a lot of the things folks take for granted now. We also happen to have the good fortune of remembering how blazingly FAST things changed from the early 70s to the early 80s! If you didn't live through it, you can't imagine...





> This article is completely arbitrary. Before MySpace and Facebook, there was Xanga and Livejournal and AIM and chat rooms and Geocities and Angelfire and IRC and so on. Also, Facebook was garbage in its early days and MySpace was always garbage.
> 
> The real generation gap begins with smart phones. Kids who are/were in primary and/or secondary school and had a smart phone have grown up super differently than those who haven't.





> Sound like a grandpa. As if growing up without those experiences makes you somehow lesser. As if being the first ones to go through it makes you more elite. I went through all this too but was born in 75. I can tell you of all the first things I went through that you missed out on and life was too changed by the time you 80s kids went through it for you to get it. Just more of the same.





> Kevin, I have about a decade on you and I agree completely. How many of these people can actually say they remember the birth of MTV? The thrill of seeing that Moon man (nowadays only seen as a statue at the increasingly-misnamed Video Awards), and then the video for "Video Killed The Radio Star"?





> I'd like to submit that many of the BBS systems that were out there were in many ways social media. You could talk to friends, share files and pictures (however bad the quality!), and even sounds (almost always WAV files). Usenet and IRC would also qualify in many ways. Just because Facebook has become the be-all end-all social network doesn't mean that it was the first...





> This article shows a very deep misunderstanding of the history of computers. Born in 1971, and by the time I was 8 years old, all anyone was talking about was computers. Me and everyone I knew spent our childhood huddled around a monochromatic screen playing Zork and other games. We were on BBN's (early internet) chatting. You think you were the first to experience this culture as a child, that is only because you lack the perspective to know what culture truly existed before you were born.





> I was born just a hair earlier, in 1971, but I also remember the computer lab, but there were two different games I recall, though I no longer remember their names. One was a text based game, like Zork, but it was like a role playing game where you were going through the woods and encountered challenges. It was pretty much a test to see how much you knew about foxes. I think there was also a choice to be a dog or a cat, too, but I am not sure. I just remember one part where I knew foxes would eat berries, as that was a choice along the way, to eat them or not, while another friend thought foxes were basically pretty looking dogs, and wouldn't eat berries. The other game was something where you had to make a "widgets" in a particular order through three machines, though I can't recall what the point of that one was. Anyone else remembers the PRE Oregon Trail games?


And I definitely agree with these comments down below.



> This article has NOTHING to do with geopolitics. It has to do with TECHNOLOGY. Period. "A big part of what makes us the square peg in the round hole of named generations is our strange relationship with technology and the Internet. We came of age just as the very essence of communication was experiencing a seismic shift, and it's given us a unique perspective that's half analog old school and half digital new school." "Those born in the late '70s and early '80s were the last group to have a childhood devoid of all the technology" "we showed up at each other's houses without warning; we often spoke to our friends' parents before we got to speak to them, and we had to wait at least an hour to see any photos we'd taken." This article has nothing to do with ANYTHING other than technology. How your supposed "different generation" learned all the new technology while you were tweens/teens. I'm saying I grew up similar, though I learned technology at a younger age, obviously. I know about card catalogs, recording songs onto cassette from the radio, painfully slow dial up the internet and being kicked off when someone calls. Things this article says younger Millennials don't know, I know. I'm still young, I know. But apparently, some of you people can't read. This article mentions NOTHING outside life besides technology. This is what I am responding to. I respect what you guys went through, and I'm glad I didn't go through it- it would be horrible. But when it comes to this article, I don't care. It has NOTHING to do with this article and everyone wants to infer their experiences or things that happened in this time and say "this article discusses the shift in the world." No, it discusses the shift in technology. Nothing further.





> Rather romanticized and not very accurate. Also lacking a significant amount of perspective. Plenty of people born into the late 80's and even early 90's grew up without computers being available outside of school computer labs. And while Facebook and Myspace were invented in '03-'04, it was several years before they became commonplace. Plus the notion that anyone born before the late 70s was befuddled by this new technology is just foolish.
> 
> Plenty of Boomers got right on board with the new technology and resources that were coming along. More often than not they had a far better understanding of its usage and were more capable of taking advantage of what was offered than teens and college students at the time.
> 
> It's always funny how people seem to think they were on the edge of some sort of technological renaissance, conveniently forgetting that technology changes all the time, so everyone experiences changes as they grew up. Think about the people who grew up in the late 1800's early 1900's. In the span of their lifetimes, they went from having to rely on written letters and telegraphs to having radio and then television. As kids, they were around for the first flights, and by the time they were in their 60's we were making numerous trips to the moon.
> 
> Such experiences are not unique to any one generation (or sub-generation as this article focuses on). Unless someone thinks they can find a 20-30 year stretch (roughly the length of separation between generations) in the last; say 250 years; when technology just stagnated. Such a time doesn't exist.





> Do you all realize that NONE of us posting are really the "Oregon Trail generation" unless you went to Carlton College in Minnesota in 1971? The game originally came out in 1971, on an HP 2100 mini computer, and was later licensed through the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). The MECC licensed it to Apple in 1979, and I was playing it on the Apple II in the early 80s when many of you were busily being born. The versions you were playing in the 90s (on Mac) were most likely the Oregon Trail Classic edition, released in 1990, or the Deluxe edition released in 1992; the last Apple II version came out in 1985. Just wanted to share that...


It just goes to show how some older Millennials are in denial. 



PowerShell said:


> I wish the headlines were reversed and would say, "Baby Boomer-led companies refuse to adapt to change and run their companies in X industry into the ground because of it."


I apologize if this is very late. I have been meaning to respond to your post, but I kept forgetting. I totally agree with what you said though. In fact, that headline would be hilarious :laughing::laughing::laughing:


----------



## jaNES

SuperYoshi said:


> I mean just a take a look at some of these comments from these articles. Many Xers have stated they had the same experiences as most of the Xennials.


Huh? Then doesn't that sort of prove the "Xennials" point?


----------



## California Kid

jaNES said:


> Huh? Then doesn't that sort of prove the "Xennials" point?


No. What those comments are showing is that the Xennials are pretty much the older millennials, and are trying way too hard to fit with Gen X even if they wanted their own mini-generation. Besides, the articles were basically talking about technology and not much anything else. There's much more to a generation than just tech.


----------



## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> No. What those comments are showing is that the Xennials are pretty much the older millennials, and are trying way too hard to fit with Gen X even if they wanted their own mini-generation. Besides, the articles were basically talking about technology and not much anything else. There's much more to a generation than just tech.


It is kind of funny the main thing millennials are known for is tech.


----------



## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> It is kind of funny the main thing millennials are known for is tech.


That's very true. It seems that lots of people forget that millennials are known for more than just tech such as optimism, idealism, adventurous etc.


----------



## PiT

SuperYoshi said:


> No. What those comments are showing is that the Xennials are pretty much the older millennials, and are trying way too hard to fit with Gen X even if they wanted their own mini-generation. Besides, the articles were basically talking about technology and not much anything else. There's much more to a generation than just tech.


I was born in '91, but got video games in '01 and a computer in '04. I only got high speed internet at home two years ago and still don't use a smartphone. The comment quoted earlier pointing out that many younger millennials can also remember a childhood before tech is a really cogent one; people act like a switch flipped at one point and suddenly everyone had iPhones. Technology is certainly a part of broader cultural trends representing generation, but it has become fashionable as of late to act like it is those trends in their entirety, which is simply not the case.


----------



## California Kid

PiT said:


> I was born in '91 but got video games in '01 and a computer in '04. I only got high-speed internet at home two years ago and still don't use a smartphone. The comment quoted earlier pointing out that many younger millennials can also remember a childhood before the tech is a really cogent one; people act like a switch flipped at one point and suddenly everyone had iPhones. Technology is certainly a part of broader cultural trends representing a generation, but it has become fashionable as of late to act like it is those trends in their entirety, which is simply not the case.


I totally agree! Yeah, it does sound like some folks forget that technology is a gradual process, not an instant one. In fact, despite that the iPhone was released in 2007, most people didn't have it (or an Android) until 2012. Prior to that timeframe, almost everyone had a flip-phone, a slide phone or a standard one. Oh, and other things about cell phones most folks also forget is that they didn't have unlimited data, and texting was very difficult. Just texting someone on a flip phone would have been a nightmare because one would have to press the same button a few times just get a letter he or she wanted. 

As for the internet, it seems most people forget that it wasn't 50% here until 2001 and even then, it was mainly dial-up until 2005. 

Oh, and the person who made that comment in that quoted post you mentioned is a 1990 person, and I agree with everything she said. It seems that most people tend to think younger Millennials had a high-tech childhood when that is false. I mean, technology didn't even become rapid until a few years ago.


----------



## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> Oh, and the person who made that comment in that quoted post you mentioned is a 1990 person, and I agree with everything she said. It seems that most people tend to think younger Millennials had a high-tech childhood when that is false. I mean, technology didn't even become rapid until a few years ago.


I work in IT and often hear people acting like they don't know computers because they, "didn't grow up with them." I will admit I've had a computer since 1995 (DOS and Windows 3.1). I got dial internet around 2000 and "high speed" DSL internet in late 2006. Growing up I was limited to 1 hour per day on the computer other than homework. Now the people who will say this have worked in an office for literally 20-30 years, basically at the time computers were heavily being introduced in an office. That means they've spend 20-30 years of 8+ hours a day in front of a computer which is an insane amount more time than I ever did growing up. Their point is wrong and they're just stupid and/or lazy for not learning a tool of their job, even after multiple decades of using it.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> I work in IT and often hear people acting like they don't know computers because they, "didn't grow up with them." I will admit I've had a computer since 1995 (DOS and Windows 3.1). I got dial internet around 2000 and "high speed" DSL internet in late 2006. Growing up I was limited to 1 hour per day on the computer other than homework. Now the people who will say this have worked in an office for literally 20-30 years, basically at the time computers were heavily being introduced in an office. That means they've spent 20-30 years of 8+ hours a day in front of a computer which is an insane amount more time than I ever did growing up. Their point is wrong and they're just stupid and/or lazy for not learning a tool of their job, even after multiple decades of using it.


I agree with your entire post. 20-30 years in front of a computer is a lot more time to know how to code, program things and more. The older folks in your workplace were not only lazy, but they're ignorant because they most likely didn't know that those skills would help them in the future which would have brought in more money to the business, and they didn't realize that technology would become rapid over the years. Luckily though, the comments I quoted in my long post were from people who are Xers and even the Boomers, and they all stated that they grew up or witnessed the analog age transition into the digital age giving them time to learn how to work with computers and other things related to technology.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> I agree with your entire post. 20-30 years in front of a computer is a lot more time to know how to code, program things and more.


Sadly, I don't expect anyone to know how to code. I'm literally talking about basic use of the computer. Right now I'm doing a PC refresh deployment and am installing new computers with Windows 10. The old computers have Windows 7. I literally have to instruct users on the new login prompt because it throws them way off the fact that things look different. Then when they get into say the new version of Outlook (2010 vs 2013), they freak out and I need to show them how to send an attachment because the icon looks different.

To be honest, I don't get how many of these people can keep their jobs. Computers are a basic tool of the job and they can't use them proficiently.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> Sadly, I don't expect anyone to know how to code. I'm literally talking about the basic use of the computer. Right now I'm doing a PC refresh deployment and am installing new computers with Windows 10. The old computers have Windows 7. I literally have to instruct users on the new login prompt because it throws them way off the fact that things look different. Then when they get into say the new version of Outlook (2010 vs 2013), they freak out and I need to show them how to send an attachment because the icon looks different.
> 
> To be honest, I don't get how many of these people can keep their jobs. Computers are a basic tool for the job and they can't use them proficiently.


Whoa!:shocked: Everyone should at least know how to use a PC if they have an IT job. It's not that difficult. That makes me wonder how they got hired if they don't know to use one.

I think the reason why these people keep their jobs maybe has to do with that they either have better business or communication skills that could be needed for an IT job.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> Whoa!:shocked: Everyone should at least know how to use a PC if they have an IT job. It's not that difficult. That makes me wonder how they got hired if they don't know to use one.
> 
> I think the reason why these people keep their jobs maybe has to do with that they either have better business or communication skills that could be needed for an IT job.


No this is for general users I'm setting up, although our main help desk person can't setup his own computer.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> No this is for general users I'm setting up, although our main help desk person can't set up his own computer.


That is crazy though! I would have never thought a main help desk person would not know how to set-up a computer. I have a possible feeling that the folks in your workplace were not exposed to technology as much growing up. Maybe it's a rural thing.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> That is crazy though! I would have never thought a main help desk person would not know how to set-up a computer. I have a possible feeling that the folks in your workplace were not exposed to technology as much growing up. Maybe it's a rural thing.


I currently live in Austin, TX and this guy is originally from Austin so it's not a rural thing. I work for a government agency and my best guess is nepotism got this guy where he was at.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> I currently live in Austin, TX and this guy is originally from Austin so it's not a rural thing. I work for a government agency and my best guess is nepotism got this guy where he was at.


Probably so. Most folks these days end up getting jobs from people they know rather than just merely submitting applications either because they are likable, or that the interviewers have other types of biases.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> Probably so. Most folks these days end up getting jobs from people they know rather than just merely submitting applications either because they are likable, or that the interviewers have other types of biases.


This guy has been with the agency for like 25 years. I think it's been a while in this case.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> This guy has been with the agency for like 25 years. I think it's been a while in this case.


I'm going have to say he was probably likable at that time. I think he was honestly lucky to have that job.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> I'm going have to say he was probably likable at that time. I think he was honestly lucky to have that job.


Oh yeah he's incompetent and a waste of taxpayer money. Then again, so is management. I'm looking to get the heck out.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> Oh yeah he's incompetent and a waste of taxpayer money. Then again, so is management. I'm looking to get the heck out.


That's a good decision. Where do you plan on working after leaving that place?


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> That's a good decision. Where do you plan on working after leaving that place?


Wherever will hire me. I'm looking to advance a bit in my career since I did get an MBA in the meantime and I also have 10+ years of IT experience so I should qualify for something better than a Systems Administrator like I am now. Personally, I'd love to be able to work on my travel blog full time and part of me says to take a few months off and test the waters with that since I do have enough saved that I could do that.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> Wherever will hire me. I'm looking to advance a bit in my career since I did get an MBA in the meantime and I also have 10+ years of IT experience so I should qualify for something better than a Systems Administrator like I am now. Personally, I'd love to be able to work on my travel blog full time and part of me says to take a few months off and test the waters with that since I do have enough saved that I could do that.


Oh, that's great! . Yeah, with that significant amount of experience, you should be able to a job like that in no time. As your travel blog, I hope that takes off. With the latter so far, you're pretty much an entrepreneur.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> Oh, that's great! . Yeah, with that significant amount of experience, you should be able to a job like that in no time. As your travel blog, I hope that takes off. With the latter so far, you're pretty much an entrepreneur.


Thanks. I'm slowly but surely building my following. I'm in the process of a blog redesign so hopefully after I do that, I'll get even more of a following.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> Thanks. I'm slowly but surely building my following. I'm in the process of a blog redesign so hopefully, after I do that, I'll get even more of a following.


You're welcome, and I hope so too. Oh, and hey how often do people read your blog?


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> You're welcome, and I hope so too. Oh, and hey how often do people read your blog?


It depends on the day. Right now I post 1 thing a day Monday-Friday. Depending where I post it on Facebook and other groups and who reshares it, the page views can vary. Today I didn't post anything and got between 20-30 views. On a good day, I'll get over 1000 views. The last few weeks I've really been pushing trying to get more followers and am up to a little over 200 likes on my Facebook page. Slowly but surely it's coming along. I have a big idea how I can change my blog to be more map-based, but I know I have a lot to learn and it's going to take a lot of time, hence the reason I'm tempted to go full time with it.


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> It depends on the day. Right now I post 1 thing a day Monday-Friday. Depending on where I posted it on Facebook and other groups and who reshares it, the page views can vary. Today I didn't post anything and got between 20-30 views. On a good day, I'll get over 1000 views. The last few weeks I've really been pushing trying to get more followers and am up to a little over 200 likes on my Facebook page. Slowly but surely it's coming along. I have a big idea how I can change my blog to be more map-based, but I know I have a lot to learn and it's going to take a lot of time, hence the reason I'm tempted to go full-time with it.


Oh, that's great! it's good you're getting views. Yeah, it might take some more time for you to get your blog to where everyone knows it, but I know you can do it with your mapped-out plan.  It's going to be interesting one day when you tell others what places you have traveled to over the years.


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> Oh, that's great! it's good you're getting views. Yeah, it might take some more time for you to get your blog to where everyone knows it, but I know you can do it with your mapped-out plan.  It's going to be interesting one day when you tell others what places you have traveled to over the years.


People already think I'm crazy with all the places I've traveled and how I travel. One I get my design done, it'll show on a map where I've been instead of chronologically. This is one of my road trips that was like 15 US states and a Canadian Province. I take these kind of road trips multiple times a year: https://www.impulsivetravelerguy.com/ends-united-states-beyond/


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> People already think I'm crazy with all the places I've traveled and how I travel. One I get my design done, it'll show on a map where I've been instead of chronologically. This is one of my road trips that was like 15 US states and a Canadian Province. I take these kinds of road trips multiple times a year: https://www.impulsivetravelerguy.com/ends-united-states-beyond/


That must have been a wonderful trip, and I like that you brought your old PlayStation with you. How many games do you still have for that console and how was the wedding?


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> That must have been a wonderful trip, and I like that you brought your old PlayStation with you. How many games do you still have for that console and how was the wedding?


Wedding was good. I probably have 25-30 games with it.


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## lenyr

What a lot of people fail to realize is that "Millennial" is merely a marketing term. It is a general market segment whose members tend to share a set of common traits that are considered distinct from different generations, and tend to respond similarly to certain types of marketing tactics. It is not something that ought to define one personally, as individuals vary. For example, there are members of Generation Z who don't even have internet, and I'm pretty sure there are members of Generation X who were internet addicts before they turned 20. 

One thing that should be said is that there is a misconception that "digital technology" (things that Millennials are associated with) only refers to the most recent or up-to-date gadgets like smartphones, modern social media and iPads - it does not. It also refers to things like personal computers, cable TV, video game consoles, dial up internet, etc. Someone born in the early 80's may not have grown up with social media, high speed internet, Wifi, etc. but it is highly likely that their lives were immersed and profoundly affected in some way or another by other forms of digital technology.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

I was born in 1956 and used computers since the early 1980s. I went to journalism school in pre-internet days. We typed our articles on computers and the editors had access to the articles. In our basic newswriting and editing classes, however, we used typewriters. Cut and paste was literally cut and paste. It was great fun to chop up an article with a pair of scissors and rearrange it with extra paper and rubber cement. Or maybe I just like playing with scissors, lol


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## shameless

lenyr said:


> What a lot of people fail to realize is that "Millennial" is merely a marketing term. It is a general market segment whose members tend to share a set of common traits that are considered distinct from different generations, and tend to respond similarly to certain types of marketing tactics. It is not something that ought to define one personally, as individuals vary. For example, there are members of Generation Z who don't even have internet, and I'm pretty sure there are members of Generation X who were internet addicts before they turned 20.
> 
> One thing that should be said is that there is a misconception that "digital technology" (things that Millennials are associated with) only refers to the most recent or up-to-date gadgets like smartphones, modern social media and iPads - it does not. It also refers to things like personal computers, cable TV, video game consoles, dial up internet, etc. Someone born in the early 80's may not have grown up with social media, high speed internet, Wifi, etc. but it is highly likely that their lives were immersed and profoundly affected in some way or another by other forms of digital technology.


Uh yeah I was born in the early 80s they call us the front end of millennial and gen Y though. But yes you are right.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

I was born in 1956 and used computers since the early 1980s. I went to journalism school in pre-internet days. We typed our articles on computers and the editors had access to the articles. In our basic newswriting and editing classes, however, we used typewriters. Cut and paste was literally cut and paste. It was great fun to chop up an article with a pair of scissors and rearrange it with extra paper and rubber cement. Or maybe I just like playing with scissors, lol


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## PowerShell

Ghastly Ghoul Starr said:


> I was born in 1956 and used computers since the early 1980s. I went to journalism school in pre-internet days. We typed our articles on computers and the editors had access to the articles. In our basic newswriting and editing classes, however, we used typewriters. Cut and paste was literally cut and paste. It was great fun to chop up an article with a pair of scissors and rearrange it with extra paper and rubber cement. Or maybe I just like playing with scissors, lol


I have been tempted to actually do this when I write my blog entries. I'm wanting to start a blog on productivity and efficiency and maybe even a political one. I know how distracting the internet can get and how disconnecting and doing things the old analog way can foster creativity or eliminate as many distractions as possible. Computers are great (I mean how else would we all be talking now), but they can be insanely distracting.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

PowerShell said:


> I have been tempted to actually do this when I write my blog entries. I'm wanting to start a blog on productivity and efficiency and maybe even a political one. I know how distracting the internet can get and how disconnecting and doing things the old analog way can foster creativity or eliminate as many distractions as possible. Computers are great (I mean how else would we all be talking now), but they can be insanely distracting.


I agree about computers and the internet. They are so incredibly distracting, especially for someone like me (easily distracted). I have never written about computers in my blog, which has been growing a great deal lately, in terms of readership. I have an art blog but that has been sadly neglected lately.


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## PowerShell

Ghastly Ghoul Starr said:


> I agree about computers and the internet. They are so incredibly distracting, especially for someone like me (easily distracted). I have never written about computers in my blog, which has been growing a great deal lately, in terms of readership. I have an art blog but that has been sadly neglected lately.


Do you have a link to your art blog?


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## California Kid

lenyr said:


> One thing that should be said is that there is a misconception that "digital technology" (things that Millennials are associated with) only refers to the most recent or up-to-date gadgets like smartphones, modern social media and iPads - it does not. It also refers to things like personal computers, cable TV, video game consoles, dial-up internet, etc. Someone born in the early 80's may not have grown up with social media, high-speed internet, Wifi, etc. but it is highly likely that their lives were immersed and profoundly affected in some way or another by other forms of digital technology.


That's very true. It does seem that a lot of people especially older Millennials forget that those things were digital technology, and they practically grew up with them in some way. 



PowerShell said:


> Wedding was good. I probably have 25-30 games with it.


I apologize for the late post. Who got married at the wedding, and what type of games do you have?


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## PowerShell

SuperYoshi said:


> I apologize for the late post. Who got married at the wedding, and what type of games do you have?


Good question. What page was this even on? Not even sure what I was saying there lol


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## California Kid

PowerShell said:


> SuperYoshi said:
> 
> 
> 
> I apologize for the late post. Who got married at the wedding, and what type of games do you have?
> 
> 
> 
> Good question. What page was this even on? Not even sure what I was saying there lol
Click to expand...

It was on either the previous one or two pages.


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## JaguarPap

Juvenoia (VSauce channel)


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

PowerShell said:


> Do you have a link to your art blog?


Yes, I do. I will send it to you.


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## California Kid

Hey, I found something interesting regarding Millennials about a month ago, and it caught my attention. I think this would be a great read people.

How to Manage the “I’m-Not-a-Millennial” Millennial - dummies


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## LindsyClarke80s

I'm born in 1980's and a lot of Generation Y's feel some way with the label because there has been many changes i.e. way of life, music, clothing, being present when the internet didn't come out to the public etc.

I understand there is Xennials as a Generation but I personally think it should extend to 1988 as an end year. A lot changed after 89 and that is when the truth birth of the 90s generation began.

I agree with MetLife Generation timeline which uses birth dates ranging 1977–1994 for Generation Y, if not this range should be given another cohort.


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## AvengedEightfold

I don't understand why millennials get so much shit. I love my generation. We care about current events from a young age. We're nice to food service and retail workers. We're self-aware. We're skeptical, but also hopeful. I'm extremely proud to be a millennial and I don't understand why someone wouldn't be.


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## Blazkovitz

I don't identify with _any_ typically millennial trait. I don't like teamwork, I'm not obsessed with digital technologies (I love days when I don't interact with them at all - it makes me feel pure in some way), I'm not narcistic or entitled. I don't think I'm special. In terms of Strauss-Howe generational theory, my personality is more like the prophetic than the civic archetype.


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## Preciselyd

Some people are also indenial or do not accept the Millenial span cohort because at a particular age or year should I say, the way others of a latter period had grown up was different. Different way life, different culture, and just many difference were present.

I will speak for myself and say when I look at the UK people that were born in the late 90's onward, they have a different orientation to life, different want to life, different interest to life, children are not children anymore.

In London there is an increase in children involved in gun crime and violence. Growing up there was not that increase of gun crime and violence, many children were interested in going to theme park, going to park, and sitting in the children play area even at the age of 8 to 11. Now many children are asking their parents for phones of a popular brand when they are in primary school. Children as young 2-3 years old know how to access their parents phone. I blame a part of society for making children not children anymore. These are the same children who are being put in the same generation cohort as someone who has grown up different. Generation span is a wide gap.

So some people similar to myself will bring awareness that they cannot relate to the way children of today are, the things they want, the childhood they had, the music they heard, the clothes they wore etc.

But I have realised that people feel they can relate to certain generations due to what they were exposed too, how they grew up, the technology, the same presidents or figures popular on the TV at that time, childhood to name a few that was present. Some of things make more sense why their is a Generation Jones and Xennials. There should be more Generation cohorts like this or just an understanding that the different Generation spans by researchers is a positive, and it's okay for a group of people to identify to different types of generation cohorts.


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