I am a Xennial. Born in 1982, I am technically a millennial, but the archetype as described fits those born after 1990 best. The older millennials I know, like me, recognize the strange divide between us and our younger counterparts. Many younger millennials don't think of us as millennials at all. They see us as from before the internet, when really, we grew up online; we're just from before social media.
The Millennial generation should have been split into two: those who remember the world before the internet, and those who don't.
2
So, where is the key to determine how the color of the answer means anything. Or does just asking for the color-key means I a boomer!
4
Born in 1966 but more closely relate to the Baby Boomers. I can barely relate to someone born in 1976.
1
Same here. I think what it mostly has to do with is our parents' generation. Mine were members of the Silent Generation. As a result, I think that we were raised a lot differently than the youngest Xers, whose parents were more likely to be Baby Boomers.
Here’s a simple litmus test: If you know who Jessica McClure is, a.k.a. ”Baby Jessica” (without looking it up!), then you are NOT a Millennial.
1
Come on, people. Josh Charles from Dead Poet's Society!
11
Generations are an even more artificial construct than is race, and categorizing (or even worse, stereotyping) people based on the year in which they were born is statistically specious at best. I was born in 1964, for example, and thus am often categorized as a Baby Boomer. Yet, my parents were 10 and 8 when WWII ended, I was 11 when US involvement in Vietnam ended, 5 when Woodstock was playing, and in utero when JFK was shot. The old notions of generations are simply not valid.
3
I'd never throw BEE in the trash.
I prefer the term "Oregon Trail Generation."
You know if you are in that generation if you played Oregon Trail on a school computer.
12
I played Oregon Trail on a school computer but was born in '85, which is firmly within the boundaries of the millennial generation.
I approve of the term Xennial so much that I'm doing a podcast about being one!
Millennials are Ruining the World? an Xennial perspective
"I'm not woke, but I'm awake."
www.soundcloud.com/sethbhdotcom
It's also available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play and TuneIn.
2
Please-o-please, put me in another box -- right away! And be sure to get right,
I don't want any mistakes. Without another box how ever will I know what to think or what is true about me?
2
As someone born on the back half of '64....I feel too late to be a boomer and to old to be an X-er. I refer to myself as "Gen Gap"
4
My brother and I ('61 and '62) are right there with you - came out of college straight into a recession, and have always agreed we fit neither group's profiles.
1
No one ever talks about us "Tweeners" - those of us born during JFK's administration. Too young to be real Boomers and too old to be real Generation Xers as pseudo-defined as those being born 1964-65ish and later. Indeed, Douglas Copeland who popularized the term "Generation X" with his 1991 book "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" was born in 1961. Furthemore, William Strauss and Neil Howe, author of the famous 1991 book "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069" consider we "Tweeners" (1961-1964) are of Generation X which they consider as those born 1961-1981.
Frankly, this concept of generations, while important, is really too broad. One's cultural cohorts are more like half-generation spans, say ±7 years. Born in 1963 myself, one born in 1976 is fundamentally an alien to me. I was 18 when IBM released the PC in the shuttle was first launched in 1981. I remember life before Reagan including the late 1960s, the moon landings, the first Earth Day, Watergate, Munich, the Energy Crisis, TMI. Yet, unfortunately, a child born in 1976 spent K-12 in the 12 years of Reagan-Bush and has no memory of those critical value building years so our ideologies are fundamentally different because of that. Yet, if I was born in 1964 and formally considered a Generation-X member, would I really be that much different than I am now? No - and I certainly would consider the Gen-Xer born in 1976 to be an alien.
5
My parents are what you call Tweeners, too, and I think they would appreciate your separate category, as they're not like Baby Boomers and they're not like Gen Xers. My grandparents are Silent Generation, and no one seems to talk about them much. I'm a Xennial (born in 1982). My entire family seems to be stuck in the spaces between that no one really talks about. You are right that official generation markers are too long; the world changes so fast now that even five years between birth years seems to be an insurmountable cultural gulf.
I think people do talk about that tail end of the Boomers--people born in those few years of the early 60s, who missed out on the postwar prosperity their elder siblings benefitted from, but missed the GenX cutoff. There's a similar mini-cohort born in the last years of the war--too young to be Silent Generation, too old to be Boomers.
all that said, yes, the idea of "generations" with particular characteristics is a broad brush, indeed.
1
I thought "slacking" when I have a work question meant ignoring it and reading online news.
That's how Gen X I am.
14
I absolutely thought this too.
1
Me too!
These questions were not ideal. For several of them, I simply did not have an answer. The questions should be re-tooled.
9
Yes -- my answer (as a BoomXer -- born at the OTHER extreme of Gen X) to a lot of these was "what?" or "who?"
1
I have some Xennial qualities despite being born in 1986! I was an avid MTV watcher from age 7 probably and had a bunch of single cassettes. I recall the home phone numbers of my top 5 childhood friends to this day and NIN is my alltime fave. Just an old soul perhaps, though I love exclamation points!!
1
Silly fun, I guess but I needed a third option for the quiz.
Guys, if you're breathing, you're aging.
I mean: Guys! If you're breathing, you're aging!!!!
1
i'm 65 and wondering what Slack is.
And some of us are secret Gen Xers. Born at the end of 1964, I have never self identified as a Baby Boomer. Perhaps people born in '64 who had older siblings fit more easily into that category?
4
I like to define "millennial" as anyone who was born, but not yet 18, on 1/1/2000. Having been born in April of 1981, that leaves me safely on the Gen X side of things.
1
That generation is known as Gen Z. Definitely not Millennials.
2
I'm an old Millennial, apparently. But I was born in 1974, and am solidly Gen X in that sense. I think this quiz skews urban folk into younger categories.
3
As a small point of confusion. I chose 'slack' over 'email' because I thought 'slack' meant doing nothing. Apparently that's the name of an app, so I lost gen x points because of a confusion only gen x people could have.
28
Slack does mean doing nothing - I answered the exact same way.
Love the Oregon Trail generation reference.
We're really on the cusp...
I was born in '79 and have been married for 17 years, have a 13 year old, and a seven figure retirement account.
My siblings were born in '81 and '84 and still live/work/play like they have no responsibilities other than a bunch of dogs to care for.
1
i'm solidly an emotional Xer. BUT i work in media and they MAKE me use slack. so sadly i use it, but i don't like it. resent having my results skewed by it. Also, can't i love daria, say anything and ethan?
I absolutely thought the same thing. Kevin Smith would have, too!