The cutoff is currently 1980, but generations are just weird retrospective categories anyway. They sorta shift a bit as new divisions become noticeable.
I can be Gen x if you want, it’s just financially and experientially I’ve lived much more of a millennial’s life.
That being said, the birth years from 1978-1984 seem to comprise a fuzzy cohort with an even more unique shared experience; some have dubbed this “generation Catalano,” “the Oregon Trail generation,” or even “Xennnials.” We each may personally find our experiences here closer to Gen X or Y, but this millennial cusp coinciding with the advent of the Internet has certainly yielded something interesting.
Generations are about your social cohort and shared experiences, not a calendar.
I think late X folks who got the internet in their teen years mostly fit in better with millennials than X. Being able to anonymously talk about anything with people from all over the world while still in your adolescence is something that most Gen X didn’t get, and I think that particular experience is critical for understanding the differences between X and millenial.
I was born in 78, and I definitely have a lot of X characteristics, but when I talk to other people my own age about things like the futility of working hard for recognition from society/employers it becomes really clear that I understand millenials a hell of a lot better than most gen X do…
Eh, 3 months before the cutoff doesn’t really count.
Then what’s the point of a cutoff?
Honestly, anything before 1985 doesn’t feel millennialish.
The cutoff is currently 1980, but generations are just weird retrospective categories anyway. They sorta shift a bit as new divisions become noticeable.
I can be Gen x if you want, it’s just financially and experientially I’ve lived much more of a millennial’s life.
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies disagrees: https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/defining-the-generations-redux
That being said, the birth years from 1978-1984 seem to comprise a fuzzy cohort with an even more unique shared experience; some have dubbed this “generation Catalano,” “the Oregon Trail generation,” or even “Xennnials.” We each may personally find our experiences here closer to Gen X or Y, but this millennial cusp coinciding with the advent of the Internet has certainly yielded something interesting.
I guess it’s changed since I last looked, but also the fuzzy zone idea fits with the retrospective nature of generations I was talking about.
TIL I’m the Oregon Trail Generation. Probably gonna die of dysentery.
This is a pretty gatekeepy take.
Generations are about your social cohort and shared experiences, not a calendar.
I think late X folks who got the internet in their teen years mostly fit in better with millennials than X. Being able to anonymously talk about anything with people from all over the world while still in your adolescence is something that most Gen X didn’t get, and I think that particular experience is critical for understanding the differences between X and millenial.
The boundary is nebulous enough that social scientists even came up with this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials
I was born in 78, and I definitely have a lot of X characteristics, but when I talk to other people my own age about things like the futility of working hard for recognition from society/employers it becomes really clear that I understand millenials a hell of a lot better than most gen X do…