Generation Xer's do you feel more similar to baby boomers or millenials?

[Anonymous]

Another 1978 here and I agree, I'm an Xennial or whatever you want to call the microgeneration. I don't identify with genx or millennials, just my little age cohort.

[Anonymous]

I was born in 1976. I am NOT Generation X -- I'm an Xennial. I was born after Vietnam and Watergate (real GenXers were alive for both), but before the original Star Wars came out. In fact, I would say my childhood was a Star Wars childhood: defined mostly by the original film trilogy, but also by the Reagan-era [as it turned out equally fantastical] missile defense shield plan.

I didn't get a computer at home until 1992, but the Oregon Trail name for my cohort is still both funny and accurate. Yes, I definitely do remember playing it on the Commodore 64s in the computer lab in my middle school -- although, to be perfectly honest, I always preferred Summer Games on the Commodore 64 or Spy Hunter on the Atari 2600.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another 1978 here and I agree, I'm an Xennial or whatever you want to call the microgeneration. I don't identify with genx or millennials, just my little age cohort.

Same although I’m 1981 so technically the oldest of the millennials. I don’t feel like one or an X-er.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 71 and hate all things reminiscent of the 60s because I grew up with boomers yammering about that decade being the best ever.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1996 is the year the internet became ubiquitous. 13 is the commonly accepted milestone age where you transition from child to teen. So I'm going to declare that the real Millenial generation starts at 1983 -- the first generation of kids to go through their entire adolescence with the Internet. (the next generation will be those who turned 13 in the smartphone world - so I think that will mean 1994 - on.

A little harder to draw the line between Boomers and Gen X, but I'm going to say that Boomers are everyone who experienced the 60s and 70s as adolescents onward. So starts at 1947 and ends at 1967.

So: Boomers are 1947-1967.
Gen X are 1967-1983
Millenials are 1983-1994
Xennials are 1994 -on.

As the pace of technology and world events quickens the generations shorten.

OMG no. People born in 1967 are definitely not boomers. I think there should be a generational divide between people who came of age before and after the cultural/sexual revolution of the 60's. There was a huge social change that happened in the mid-late 60's and you can see big differences in attitudes and experiences between people who are only a few years apart who happened to come of age right before/after that change. My own mom graduated HS in 1967 and her sister graduated in 1971 and their HS/adolescent experiences were worlds apart. When my mother graduated HS, girls were still wearing skirts to school daily, had high maintenance hairstyles, were expected to say "no" to boys, and drugs weren't yet common place. My Aunt's HS experience was that of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Even though they are only four years apart, I don't see them as being part of the same generation at all.

[Anonymous]

I relate more to my parents (pre-boomer) than either of these groups. I'm frugal, save money, don't do flashy cars, and have fully funded my kids education. I also don't expect everything handed to me in my work life while I work 6 hours between avocado meals.

[Anonymous]

PP Xennial. My parents were boomers so I think we were part of the vanguard of safe parenting movement (in response to things on America's Most Wanted and similar shows) as well as the participation trophy movement, although less so than later Millennials because much of it was in response to the complete absence of parenting that most Gen-Xers experienced (hence the latch key kid stereotype) Gen-Xers for me were children of the Silent Generation (i.e., those that were too young to serve in WW2 and too old really participate in the 60s youth movements but were couples who divorced en masse in the 1970s). Gen-Xers were the ones exposed to sex, drugs and the like at way too young of an age and were characterized at the "Demon Child" in films like The Omen and Rosemary's Baby. I immediately think of the Smashing Pumpkins' video, 1979, when I think of Gen-X although with Reality Bites when they hit their 20s.

However, like Gen-X, we, Xennials, were expected to "pay our dues", by accruing experience before assuming the trappings of leadership and senior management and the like. This is marked contrast with true Millennials who seem to discount actual work experience and assume, that they are able to immediately step in as peers to much more senior professionals. It also appears to be an element of the startup culture of the late aughts/teens and less so of the late 90s/early 00s dotcom era. They also seem to seek constant feedback in a way that we never did. I'd also note that Xennials generally seem to be able to step back from social media (and have some perspective on its drawbacks) in way that true Millennials can't or won't because we didn't spend our formative teenage years on social media without knowing the dark side of those experiences.

I think of Gen-Z as I-Gen or iphone generation as those that came of age when the iPhone became ubiquitous in our culture and in their life experiences (born 1995 or later).

[Anonymous]

Born in 1972 and realizing I've had such quintessential gen-x experiences:

-1970s, my parents bought a farm and dropped out after my dad came home from Vietnam. Spent most of the 70s playing unsupervised with the other hippie kids while our parents baled hay, drank jug wine, and smoked pot
-1980s-my parents moved to town and did better financially so I had fair isle sweaters and laura ashley dresses. I lived in NH, so I met a ton of presidential candidates, and also Barbara Bush. Lived near an air base and was terrified of nuclear annihilation. My parents were in their own stuff and checked out parenting for most of my high school years.
1990-stereotypical slacker. Had a lot of friends in bands, went to shows, partied, worked bad jobs, moved to Seattle for a bit, went to 4 colleges and earned a BA over 8 years
1998-such a misstep. I graduated from college in 1998 and should have moved to San Francisco with my friends and made some money before the dot com bust

[Anonymous]

I'm a 1972 X-er. I don't really see myself as having much in common with either group, to be honest. The boomers could get pretty far with a high school degree, and that's not true for my generation. And I feel like so many of them voted for Trump, and I just can't relate to that. Some of them seem very short-sighted, like they don't care what kind of world they are leaving for their kids and grandkids.

I don't really identify with the millenials either. They seem constantly buried in their phones, and that drives me crazy. Millenials on phones have pretty much ruined the gym for me, because they are all hogging the machines but not using them - just sitting on them, texting and scrolling. I get tired of having to navigate around them - in a car or on foot - because they never look up.

They also don't seem to realize that a career involves some sacrifice of work-life balance and dues paying. Most of the people I know who are my age did some sort of sh*t work to get through college or the years afterward. We worked jobs with super long hours for very little pay and eventually didn't have to do that anymore. We took jobs because we had to, even if it wasn't our dream. It's annoying when you have a 22-year-old person who is the junior person in the department who isn't willing to make some copies. Kid, we all made copies. And we all have a degree or two - and still made the copies. We all pulled all-nighters at some point. We all missed happy hour at some point for a deadline. That's work.

So yeah. I don't really identify with either.

[Anonymous]

My birth year is 1966. My parents are the boomers, so I’m early GenX. No internet access until well after adulthood. I really only feel similar to those born between 1965-1975. People born after 1976 had earlier exposure to a lot more technology, which changes the pre-adult shared experience.

[Anonymous]

Born in 1978 and married to a 1974 DH since i was 22. Which tilts my world view more than direction that to the younger generations.

My parents are old boomers - born right after WWII.

All that said, I feel way more in common with millennials than boomers. Boomers are my parents generation plus their slightly younger friends. They are a different generation.

I have had a lot of nannies and babysitters from the millennial generation (5-8 years ago - lots of college aged kids, who are now late 20s). I have way more in common with them and they are more like friends, than my parents generation who are old people that i'm polite too.

The millennials: i can talk about music, podcasts, (some) pop culture stuff, use the same language and vocabulary, talk about dating and hookups without shame (their dating life looks more like mine did 20 years ago; versus my generation's dating life looks nothing like the boomer dating life), we socialized in the same way (hanging with friends, bars, dinners out etc).

I have stuff in common with younger boomers (late 50s) , as i'm really into that era of music and movies too. But it's definitely "classic" stuff for me, and not my own generation of music/movies.

[Anonymous]

Born in 1980 so whatever that makes me.

Parents born in 1948, so "older" boomers.

The differences between generations is wildly overstated, it's much more a difference between subcultural groups in each generation than the generation as a whole.

I laugh at all the young people ranting against boomers, because not only do I remember boomers ranting against their selfish, uptight, greedy, racist, sexist parents (the greatest generation ever), I also know my history so I know the boomers were very much part of the whole sexual revolution and saving the environment and civil rights. My mother campaigned for Eugene McCartney and went on civil rights protests in the 1960s! (and later voted for Reagan, what can you say). The millenials did not invent environmentalism. And there are just as many millenials who don't care about the environment or their carbon footprint as there are boomers who have spent the last 50 years dedicated to environmentalism. Today's "green" millennial has a much bigger carbon footprint than her boomer equivalent in the 1960s/70s because only the very rich at the time could afford to travel internationally regularly whereas today it's NBD to pop to Costa Rica to save the rainforest this year and then go to India for your spiritual awakening six months later and a girls weekend in SF then a wedding in Florida.

If there is a difference, it is that the older boomers did grow up in a sharply different time that they rebelled against. My mother, for example, went off to college in the mid 1960s when there were still visiting hours for women's dorms and no overnight guests. Think about that very carefully. The older boomers are much more aware of a world of values that no longer exists and which the millenials and whoever the current young generation are, have no clue about when they judge older people for being intolerant, yet demonstrating their own even harsher intolerance at the same time.

That aside, most people across the generations simply want to get on with life as best as they can, live simply and decently and be nice and fair. Angry people today would have been the angry people of yesterday and tomorrow's angry people too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 1976. I am NOT Generation X -- I'm an Xennial. I was born after Vietnam and Watergate (real GenXers were alive for both), but before the original Star Wars came out. In fact, I would say my childhood was a Star Wars childhood: defined mostly by the original film trilogy, but also by the Reagan-era [as it turned out equally fantastical] missile defense shield plan.

I didn't get a computer at home until 1992, but the Oregon Trail name for my cohort is still both funny and accurate. Yes, I definitely do remember playing it on the Commodore 64s in the computer lab in my middle school -- although, to be perfectly honest, I always preferred Summer Games on the Commodore 64 or Spy Hunter on the Atari 2600.

So gen X is 9 years? 65 - 74. Um nope.

I would argue the X'ers are those that came of age when computers and video games were present, but the connectivity was limited (AOL) or none.

I was born in late '63. My first memories were in the very late 60's (Moon landing). But, I also grew up without the threat of a draft, and with mostly peace (though a threat of global thermal nuclear war.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 71 and hate all things reminiscent of the 60s because I grew up with boomers yammering about that decade being the best ever.

+1000

+100,000

[Anonymous]

I'm barely a Gen-Xer, born 1967. Definitely don't relate to Boomers. Or millenials.

Thought this was funny: https://gizmodo.com/generation-x-is-sick-of-your-bullshit-5851062?fbclid=IwAR22uJtvjJcA1XU42gaYZLF27u_65mBlbNhrZ-K6Z9_t-cWw3E3krR5QYow