Which generation?
February 8, 2023 6:51 PM Subscribe
If someone was born in 1976, are they a Gen X, a Millennial, a Xennial or something else? I have googled, but that resulted in a variety of different answers.
They would be towards the trailing edge of Generation X according to my understanding. Wikipedia seems to agree:posted by Nerd of the North at 6:54 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
This definition puts them solidly into Gen X: from mid 1960s to early 1980s.
posted by metahawk at 6:55 PM on February 8, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by metahawk at 6:55 PM on February 8, 2023 [6 favorites]
Definitely Gen X, I think.
posted by pinochiette at 6:56 PM on February 8, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by pinochiette at 6:56 PM on February 8, 2023 [9 favorites]
I was born in 1978. I consider myself the tail end of Gen X. My tastes and the friends of the same age group have Gen X tastes. I listened to Nirvana, Sublime, the Fugees, wore grunge clothes and did all the things pop culture considers Gen X now.
posted by ichimunki at 6:57 PM on February 8, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by ichimunki at 6:57 PM on February 8, 2023 [10 favorites]
Googling suggests 1981 as the first year of Millennial, which is what I thought - I'm in my late 30s, and I've considered myself an older Millennial.
posted by coffeecat at 7:01 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by coffeecat at 7:01 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
Gen X for sure.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:02 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:02 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was also born in 1978. But I don’t really consider myself Gen X, which I associate more with people that went to high school in the 1980s. Xennial feels more right for me personally.
posted by gnutron at 7:03 PM on February 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by gnutron at 7:03 PM on February 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
'77 and have always thought of myself as Gen X.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:06 PM on February 8, 2023
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:06 PM on February 8, 2023
I'm 1982 and am ok with being considered an Xennial. 1976 is 100% Gen X.
posted by gatorae at 7:07 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by gatorae at 7:07 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
1976 is definitely still Generation X. I'm 1981 and am still not sure exactly where I fit in. The cutoff for Gen X is vague. And most of the events and such associated with Gen Y happened too late for me to consider them generational touchstones.
posted by Stuka at 7:24 PM on February 8, 2023
posted by Stuka at 7:24 PM on February 8, 2023
Gen X - Born in 77, when I first started hearing the term applied to the current generation age group was in 1991 after the Coupland novel. Being 14, I did not think it applied to my generation, but those 5-15 years older than me. As I have aged, it seems like the definition has expanded a bit to include us and eventually everyone born in the 70s.
People born close to the cutoff tend to fall towards the side they socialize with more. I have a friend who is a very late boomer, and she is a lot more Gen X. Same with some of my cousins born around 1980 who socialize with people a little older than they are, they are more Gen X than Millennial.
posted by soelo at 7:51 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
People born close to the cutoff tend to fall towards the side they socialize with more. I have a friend who is a very late boomer, and she is a lot more Gen X. Same with some of my cousins born around 1980 who socialize with people a little older than they are, they are more Gen X than Millennial.
posted by soelo at 7:51 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've never seen a definition that would put people born in 1976 as anything other than Gen Xers, and only the very earliest definitions I've seen would even put them close to the line.
And as someone who considers myself an older millenial (born 1984), I don't think they would have experienced the things I think of as generational experiences the same way I did. The internet was still something that only nerds in pocket protectors or hackers in leather used until they were well into their 20's. They didn't message their adolescent crush on AIM or MSN. They didn't hear about September 11 from their classmates at school. The 2008 crash and its aftermath wasn't the defining crisis of their early working life. I'm generally skeptical of generational divisions, but to the extent that there are real shared experiences, I feel like I have much more in common with millenials born in 1992 than with someone born in 1976.
posted by firechicago at 8:13 PM on February 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
And as someone who considers myself an older millenial (born 1984), I don't think they would have experienced the things I think of as generational experiences the same way I did. The internet was still something that only nerds in pocket protectors or hackers in leather used until they were well into their 20's. They didn't message their adolescent crush on AIM or MSN. They didn't hear about September 11 from their classmates at school. The 2008 crash and its aftermath wasn't the defining crisis of their early working life. I'm generally skeptical of generational divisions, but to the extent that there are real shared experiences, I feel like I have much more in common with millenials born in 1992 than with someone born in 1976.
posted by firechicago at 8:13 PM on February 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
Yeah, I was born late 1969 and my sister was late-ish 1967 and we're Gen-X but jokingly maybe late Baby Boomers because we were in a small town in the mountains hours from anywhere that was constantly five or six years behind in culture. But if you were young around when things like the VCR and CDs and the first personal computers and cable television and MTV and the space shuttle, when they first appeared.... you're Gen-X.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:30 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by zengargoyle at 9:30 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
"Gen X" has grown since it was first noticed/created. I would say the answer is "Gen X" but, say in the 90s for example, those born in 1976 had yet to be pigeonholed.
posted by pompomtom at 9:39 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by pompomtom at 9:39 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
Gen X. I'm 1975 and I get nostalgic when I read Generation X, Bonfire of the Vanities, and American Psycho.
I wanted to be, very unironically, a yuppie and my aesthetic was Wall Street.
As a comms major, I helped set up the very first "homepages" of my country's biggest newspaper and my municipality (hardcoded html) while maintaining my own geocities page.
As a journalist, my interviewees told me about new things on the market like the first "dongles" (memory sticks), and I vividly remember writing about Y2K and the dotcom bubble.
I agree that this is very different to the millennial experience.
posted by Omnomnom at 10:24 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I wanted to be, very unironically, a yuppie and my aesthetic was Wall Street.
As a comms major, I helped set up the very first "homepages" of my country's biggest newspaper and my municipality (hardcoded html) while maintaining my own geocities page.
As a journalist, my interviewees told me about new things on the market like the first "dongles" (memory sticks), and I vividly remember writing about Y2K and the dotcom bubble.
I agree that this is very different to the millennial experience.
posted by Omnomnom at 10:24 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Born in 76, never considered myself anything else. My litmus test is the first big memory of a news story, of something beyond one's own family or daily experiences. Late Gen X (mid to late 70s) in America, that's almost always the Challenger explosion. For people born later, going along these lines, you'd looking at the Berlin Wall, Tienanmen Square, or the first Gulf War.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:27 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 10:27 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
My litmus test is the first big memory of a news story
Gosh for sure - something something Cold War and what tablets to take as a school kid when (not if!) the Russians dropped a bomb on us. We all thought for sure our future was a dystopic post nuclear hell scape.
Also, I was a latch key kid.
I am a walking cliche!
posted by Omnomnom at 10:34 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
Gosh for sure - something something Cold War and what tablets to take as a school kid when (not if!) the Russians dropped a bomb on us. We all thought for sure our future was a dystopic post nuclear hell scape.
Also, I was a latch key kid.
I am a walking cliche!
posted by Omnomnom at 10:34 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: My litmus test is the first big memory of a news story, of something beyond one's own family or daily experiences. Late Gen X (mid to late 70s) in America, that's almost always the Challenger explosion. For people born later, going along these lines, you'd looking at the Berlin Wall, Tienanmen Square, or the first Gulf War
I was born in 1976, and my first big memory of a news story is Chernobyl and the Berlin Wall.
In terms of news coverage (and public reaction) the Challenger explosion was nowhere near as big of a deal in Australia as it was in the US - I have zero memories of seeing or hearing anything about it.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:40 PM on February 8, 2023
I was born in 1976, and my first big memory of a news story is Chernobyl and the Berlin Wall.
In terms of news coverage (and public reaction) the Challenger explosion was nowhere near as big of a deal in Australia as it was in the US - I have zero memories of seeing or hearing anything about it.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:40 PM on February 8, 2023
I've heard millenial defined as those who came of age in the new millenium. Per that, the cut-off would be somewhere around 1982.
posted by lookoutbelow at 10:49 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by lookoutbelow at 10:49 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've seen the word "xennial" thrown around for folks like me who were born "on the cusp" - having a childhood offline but then getting online as a teenager is a different experience to the older Gen X's who were grown adults before The Web.
posted by slightlybewildered at 11:56 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by slightlybewildered at 11:56 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
1976 is unquestionably Gen X. The word Millenial popped up after people born in 1976 had started having kids of their own and had been working adult jobs for years. There were no thinkpieces about Millenials that were remotely intended to apply to people born in 76/77, by any stretch of the imagination. Can’t speak for the years after that, but 1000% Gen X.
posted by asimplemouse at 1:15 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by asimplemouse at 1:15 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was born in 1986 and think of myself as the older end of millennials. There's a qualitative difference in experience between me and someone born even in 1981 (mentioned as the start of millennials above)--namely being old enough to be aware of the Cold War. I'm just too young to remember the fall of Berlin Wall (my guess is Germans my age do), I was vaguely aware of the collapse of the Soviet Union (but not that Kazakhstan came into existence, I learned that way later), but I never was conscious of the threat of nuclear war. The 2008 financial crisis as mentioned above is another dividing line that probably lands a little earlier in the 1980s, but 1981 vs 1986 or 1987 is going to make a big difference there--if you went to college, graduating in 2008 or 2009 was really different than 2004.
tl;dr No way someone born in 1976 is a millennial.
posted by hoyland at 3:27 AM on February 9, 2023
tl;dr No way someone born in 1976 is a millennial.
posted by hoyland at 3:27 AM on February 9, 2023
I mean, you know this is all made up right? Demographers and sociologists and advertisers come to different cutoff points for different reasons. There may be more consensus now than there was 20 years ago, but your subjective experience and peer culture are far more complex than picking one of two (or maybe three or more!) categories based simply on birth year.
I never felt quite right with the label Gen X or Millennial or (ug) Xennial, or Gen Y (that used to be a thing, which you could totally pick, based on the range 1974-1980). Maybe you want to pick the Oregon Trail generation to identify with? That's fine too.
Anyway, my advice is to consider why you want to place yourself in such a category, and why you care whose definition you may be in accordance with. It's fine to be interested in this stuff, but it's also fine to just, not engage with it too.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:31 AM on February 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
I never felt quite right with the label Gen X or Millennial or (ug) Xennial, or Gen Y (that used to be a thing, which you could totally pick, based on the range 1974-1980). Maybe you want to pick the Oregon Trail generation to identify with? That's fine too.
Anyway, my advice is to consider why you want to place yourself in such a category, and why you care whose definition you may be in accordance with. It's fine to be interested in this stuff, but it's also fine to just, not engage with it too.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:31 AM on February 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
I was born in 1976, and my first big memory of a news story is Chernobyl and the Berlin Wall.
Fair enough about the primacy of the Challenger explosion being mostly a US thing (there was a big PR push around that launch specifically, so lots of US school children watched the explosion live on television in their classrooms), but Chernobyl was the same year.
posted by firechicago at 4:35 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Fair enough about the primacy of the Challenger explosion being mostly a US thing (there was a big PR push around that launch specifically, so lots of US school children watched the explosion live on television in their classrooms), but Chernobyl was the same year.
posted by firechicago at 4:35 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've always been of the opinion that there's a sort of 'gap' generation from around '78 to '84 or so that is a mix of the two in terms of its culture. But all the names for it suck.
There's also the course of individual life; I was born in '80 but have lived a more Millennial life, my sister '83 but her life has been more in the Gen X mold (and she is now married to an older, definitively Gen X dude).
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 AM on February 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
There's also the course of individual life; I was born in '80 but have lived a more Millennial life, my sister '83 but her life has been more in the Gen X mold (and she is now married to an older, definitively Gen X dude).
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 AM on February 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
I also think it's worth also highlighting how US-centric and advertising-driven these labels are. Do we really think that the cohorts of Turkish or Korean people should line up perfectly with cultural touchstones in the states?
Eg I have a friend that grew up in India, came to the US, now lives in UK. By birth he'd be gen X, but by culture he's got a lot in common with Boomers; his teen years were full of the Beatles and folk/hippy/radical culture.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:02 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
Eg I have a friend that grew up in India, came to the US, now lives in UK. By birth he'd be gen X, but by culture he's got a lot in common with Boomers; his teen years were full of the Beatles and folk/hippy/radical culture.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:02 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
Everyone in the US after the Boomers is positively steeped in that kind of Boomer culture (as shaded by their politics, etc), but that's a different thread.
The advertising point is important — my non-specific recollection is that 'generations' for the purposes of advertising demographics were originally around seven year long cohorts.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:06 AM on February 9, 2023
The advertising point is important — my non-specific recollection is that 'generations' for the purposes of advertising demographics were originally around seven year long cohorts.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:06 AM on February 9, 2023
My understanding was that millennials are people born in 1980 and later. But someone born in 1976, or in my case 1978, could find they generationally have more in common with the older millennials than the older genxers which I think is where xennial comes in.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:27 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:27 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm 1976 and all the culture around Generation X feels very North American to me - the Challenger Explosion, Douglas Coupland, American Psycho, grunge, flannel shirts etc - and while I was aware of all these things to some extent, they never seemed important nor defining to me.
While we can talk about generations all we like, there is also something about which culture you grew up in.
I grew up with the Berlin Wall falling, the war in Yugoslavia, Thatcher leaving Downing Street in tears, BritPop on TOTP (Jarvis mooning Michael Jackson at the BRITs!), and Nick Hornby novels. Somehow I can relate far better to younger people talking about Tracy Beaker and munching on Hula Hoops at lunch.
posted by peacesign at 5:54 AM on February 9, 2023
While we can talk about generations all we like, there is also something about which culture you grew up in.
I grew up with the Berlin Wall falling, the war in Yugoslavia, Thatcher leaving Downing Street in tears, BritPop on TOTP (Jarvis mooning Michael Jackson at the BRITs!), and Nick Hornby novels. Somehow I can relate far better to younger people talking about Tracy Beaker and munching on Hula Hoops at lunch.
posted by peacesign at 5:54 AM on February 9, 2023
I think ‘76 is pretty solidly Gen X if you were born in the US, but various quirks of your life might result in you identifying more with another group. For example, I (born in 79) went to grad school and joined the workforce in 2008. Family my age who went into the workforce right out of high school or college have seen a VERY different working life than I have, even aside from class/education. I have more in common with the millennial cousins, they get along better with the more-solidly GenX cousins.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:58 AM on February 9, 2023
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:58 AM on February 9, 2023
Response by poster: I'm 1976 and all the culture around Generation X feels very North American to me - the Challenger Explosion, Douglas Coupland, American Psycho, grunge, flannel shirts etc - and while I was aware of all these things to some extent, they never seemed important nor defining to me.
While we can talk about generations all we like, there is also something about which culture you grew up in.
I grew up with the Berlin Wall falling, the war in Yugoslavia, Thatcher leaving Downing Street in tears, BritPop on TOTP (Jarvis mooning Michael Jackson at the BRITs!), and Nick Hornby novels. Somehow I can relate far better to younger people talking about Tracy Beaker and munching on Hula Hoops at lunch
Yes, a lot of the cultural touchstones people are mentioning do not feel familiar. The cultural touchstones I can think of are
magazine articles about whether or not Lindy Chamberlain had murdered her daughter Azaria in 1980 (this was after she had been convicted and jailed. There were SO MANY magazine articles about this in Australia for years. They've since found Azaria's clothes in a dingo den, and experts now believe the dingo genuinely took the baby. Lindy Chamberlain has now been legally exonerated.)
the Rainbow Warrior being blown up in 1985
Halley's Comet in 1986
The America's Cup Yacht race in 1986 and 1987
Protests over whether US nuclear ships should be able to moor in Australian harbours
Chernobyl
The bicentenary of Australia in 1988
The fall of the Berlin Wall
Nelson Mandela and Apartheid
Racist terrorist Jack van Tongeren putting up racist posters everywhere, until he finally went to jail for firebombing his local Chinese restaurant and several other Asian restaurants (1988 and 1989)
CFCS and the hole in the ozone layer
News coverage about HIV and AIDS
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:33 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
While we can talk about generations all we like, there is also something about which culture you grew up in.
I grew up with the Berlin Wall falling, the war in Yugoslavia, Thatcher leaving Downing Street in tears, BritPop on TOTP (Jarvis mooning Michael Jackson at the BRITs!), and Nick Hornby novels. Somehow I can relate far better to younger people talking about Tracy Beaker and munching on Hula Hoops at lunch
Yes, a lot of the cultural touchstones people are mentioning do not feel familiar. The cultural touchstones I can think of are
magazine articles about whether or not Lindy Chamberlain had murdered her daughter Azaria in 1980 (this was after she had been convicted and jailed. There were SO MANY magazine articles about this in Australia for years. They've since found Azaria's clothes in a dingo den, and experts now believe the dingo genuinely took the baby. Lindy Chamberlain has now been legally exonerated.)
the Rainbow Warrior being blown up in 1985
Halley's Comet in 1986
The America's Cup Yacht race in 1986 and 1987
Protests over whether US nuclear ships should be able to moor in Australian harbours
Chernobyl
The bicentenary of Australia in 1988
The fall of the Berlin Wall
Nelson Mandela and Apartheid
Racist terrorist Jack van Tongeren putting up racist posters everywhere, until he finally went to jail for firebombing his local Chinese restaurant and several other Asian restaurants (1988 and 1989)
CFCS and the hole in the ozone layer
News coverage about HIV and AIDS
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:33 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm another 1976 baby and solidly identify as Gen-X. For me, the distinction is easy... the internet, in all its forms, was mostly an untried novelty for everyone I knew for the entirety of my childhood and teen years. Solidly analog youth. My first email wasn't until college, used weekly-ish, mostly for fun in the large computer lab. Texting, smartphones, and online relationships were only part of my digital adulthood. My sister, three years younger, I'd put right on the cusp between Gen-X and Millenial, as tech exploded and was quickly adopted during her college years.
posted by hessie at 8:48 AM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by hessie at 8:48 AM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
Born in 1976 and definitely Gen X but more towards the end of the cohort. When the nostalgia in the early 90s hit about HR PufnStuf and that sort of thing started, I couldn't identify with it because it happened before I was born, but I get that older Gen Xers were into it. My childhood cultural touchstones were: The Berlin Wall, scary news stories about nuclear winter, the Challenger tragedy, Ryan White and HIV/AIDs, news stories about rising homelessness in 80s NYC, ABC tv shows like Full House etc. One of the things I liked about Paper Girls--either the cancelled show or the comic series--was that the girls were the same age I was in 1988 and I could relate to their interests.
The internet didn't become a part of my life until the late 90s and even then it was spotty. I would say I didn't really have any sort of internet presence until 1999.
posted by Kitteh at 8:55 AM on February 9, 2023
The internet didn't become a part of my life until the late 90s and even then it was spotty. I would say I didn't really have any sort of internet presence until 1999.
posted by Kitteh at 8:55 AM on February 9, 2023
Born 1977, but don't identify with Gen X much, ie: not a slacker, no broken home, none of the '70s issues resonate with me. Was never particularly afraid of Thermonuclear War, flannel shirts were what people who worked outdoors in the winter always wore, Nirvana was cool, but the rest of grunge I could take or leave, etc. Computers were common my entire jr high/high school career, but yeah, I didn't really go on-line until 1995, my freshman year of college.
I watched the Challenger explosion at home sick from school. I recall Chernobyl but it's not something where I can recall what I was doing when I heard about it.
My wife is a bit older, solidly Gen-X, and I don't identify on social/cultural touchstones with her at all.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:21 AM on February 9, 2023
I watched the Challenger explosion at home sick from school. I recall Chernobyl but it's not something where I can recall what I was doing when I heard about it.
My wife is a bit older, solidly Gen-X, and I don't identify on social/cultural touchstones with her at all.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:21 AM on February 9, 2023
For me, the distinction is easy... the internet, in all its forms, was mostly an untried novelty for everyone I knew for the entirety of my childhood and teen years. Solidly analog youth.
This should be the definition of the boundary!
posted by pjenks at 9:25 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
This should be the definition of the boundary!
posted by pjenks at 9:25 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm (late) '76 and probably fit the Xennial mold (which some sources put between 77 and 83, to the extend any of it is valid), also being kind of a late bloomer, single and childless, and also an early adopter/nerd. Additionally, I transitioned starting around 30, which felt like a bit of a soft life reboot.
Even before that, I was socializing with a crowd a couple of years younger starting in college (being a deeply introverted commuter the first two years), lingering around for grad school, and eventually starting my current job a decade ago, where the average colleague was probably about 10 years younger than that at the time. People meeting me still usually assume I'm in my 30s, sometimes even younger, so how people treat and perceive me based superficially on that probably plays into it.
I've also noticed that it took a while for people to realize young twenty-somethings were no longer Millenials but Gen Z, and that Millenials were themselves hitting 40.
posted by Pryde at 9:50 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Even before that, I was socializing with a crowd a couple of years younger starting in college (being a deeply introverted commuter the first two years), lingering around for grad school, and eventually starting my current job a decade ago, where the average colleague was probably about 10 years younger than that at the time. People meeting me still usually assume I'm in my 30s, sometimes even younger, so how people treat and perceive me based superficially on that probably plays into it.
I've also noticed that it took a while for people to realize young twenty-somethings were no longer Millenials but Gen Z, and that Millenials were themselves hitting 40.
posted by Pryde at 9:50 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is definitely a way in which we are increasingly 'Internet years old,' for at least the subcultures or 'scenes' kept up with. There are cultural domains in which I associate -- sans embodiment -- with mostly Zoomers. I can talk to my younger sister's step-kids in idiom she doesn't have, am familiar with clout-based drama that she's never heard of, etc (and she's in a form of marketing that encompasses "influencers" across media).
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:14 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:14 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’m Gen X from NZ and for me all the things you listed resonated: Rainbow Warrior came to mind when it was suggested that you think about your first big news event. But Lindy Chamberlain and Haley’s Comet and the America’s Cup and yes I watched every minute of this big Australian Bicentenary broadcast.
I always thought I was at the tail end of Gen X but people born in the late 70s weren’t defined yet. The cut off when I was growing up was 77 but it got nudged back.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 11:46 AM on February 9, 2023
I always thought I was at the tail end of Gen X but people born in the late 70s weren’t defined yet. The cut off when I was growing up was 77 but it got nudged back.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 11:46 AM on February 9, 2023
I think internet access might be one of those "the future is already here, just not evenly distributed" kind of thing
I remember dialing up to various BBSes when I was a kid in the 80s and got my first email account (bd307@torfree.net) from the Toronto Free Net in the mid-90s. Plus there were the AOL and Compuserve CDs that would give access to the world wide web. But online and real life were still extremely separate from each other. At most I would chat with friends over ICQ. Maybe GenX are the last people whose entire lives weren't online.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:48 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
I remember dialing up to various BBSes when I was a kid in the 80s and got my first email account (bd307@torfree.net) from the Toronto Free Net in the mid-90s. Plus there were the AOL and Compuserve CDs that would give access to the world wide web. But online and real life were still extremely separate from each other. At most I would chat with friends over ICQ. Maybe GenX are the last people whose entire lives weren't online.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:48 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
The transition from Gen X to Millennial for me is if you had Google as freshman when you went to college. So people born before 1982 didn't really experience that drastic change.
posted by indianbadger1 at 1:18 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by indianbadger1 at 1:18 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
You're not going to have the same cultural touchstones as other folks of the same generation, because you still could have been born ten years apart. For what it's worth, I was born in 1973 and think of myself as solidly Gen X, and Chernobyl and apartheid and several other things you mention are all super notable touchstones for me. The lines between generations are hazy, though. These are not firm categories, where every millennial touchstone is meaningless to those a few years older, you know?
posted by bluedaisy at 3:14 PM on February 10, 2023
posted by bluedaisy at 3:14 PM on February 10, 2023
It's also about the size of the generations. The baby boom after World War II was quite large; those folks tend to be parents of millennials, also a bigger generation, and grew up in a time of growth and prosperity. Part of being Gen X and Gen Z is being in the shadow of a larger, older generation, so boomers for X and millennials for Z. (According to this website I googled, the millennials are still the largest generation, and close behind are boomers.)
posted by bluedaisy at 3:18 PM on February 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bluedaisy at 3:18 PM on February 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
One thing to think, in a more international sense, is that different cultures have completely different generational markers and names. Japan, for example, has the Bubble Generation and the Lost Generation, both formed by the massive real estate bubble in the 80s-90s and the economic dead zone that followed. I would imagine China has a very different take on generations given its history in the 20th century.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:58 PM on February 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 4:58 PM on February 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
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