Per Harvard: Gen X is 1965-1984, Millennials is 1986- 2004, Boomers 1945-1964. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jan 1981, so as close to the Pew line as one can get, and really am a Xennial. I didn't get a cell phone until I was in graduate school and didn't get an email addresses until college. I filled out my college applications in hard copy, read a paper map to find my way around for the first decade I was driving, and know how to use the Dewey decimal system for research. I backpacked across Europe for three summers with no cell phone and only paper maps, only getting on Internet at cafes every 2-3 weeks. I got all the way through college before camera phones became ubiquitous. Lots of formative experiences that Millennials mostly don't have. I "adulted" before I had a cell phone or regular internet access, let alone social media.

My Millennial younger siblings had social media in their teens or earlier and cannot recall a time when everyone didn't have a camera phone to record antics.Their college experience was very different, as a result. They also don't recall how to communicate without texting, have always been in direct communication with our parents (unlike me who spent months in Europe with no phone), and can't read a map to save their lives.

But I'm also not Gen X. I don't relate to the music or culture. I don't know the politics. It was all older than me.

I'd put myself solidly in a separate category.

+1 and I was born in 1977

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jan 1981, so as close to the Pew line as one can get, and really am a Xennial. I didn't get a cell phone until I was in graduate school and didn't get an email addresses until college. I filled out my college applications in hard copy, read a paper map to find my way around for the first decade I was driving, and know how to use the Dewey decimal system for research. I backpacked across Europe for three summers with no cell phone and only paper maps, only getting on Internet at cafes every 2-3 weeks. I got all the way through college before camera phones became ubiquitous. Lots of formative experiences that Millennials mostly don't have. I "adulted" before I had a cell phone or regular internet access, let alone social media.

My Millennial younger siblings had social media in their teens or earlier and cannot recall a time when everyone didn't have a camera phone to record antics.Their college experience was very different, as a result. They also don't recall how to communicate without texting, have always been in direct communication with our parents (unlike me who spent months in Europe with no phone), and can't read a map to save their lives.

But I'm also not Gen X. I don't relate to the music or culture. I don't know the politics. It was all older than me.

I'd put myself solidly in a separate category.

+1 born in 79 (a month shy of 1980).

Nobody had a cell phone till just after college graduation and then they were flip phones. My freshman year in college was the first time I used email. I didn't have a photo phone till mid or late 20s? I used maps and followed highway signs to get around when driving. These are xennial things, millennials generally don't relate

I read elsewhere that Xennisls differ by having an analog childhood and digital young adulthood. I think that generally sums it up.

There are also significant differences in music, tv, movies for xennials who had an 80s childhood / 90s teens vs millennial experiences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 1980 and feel more Gen x than anything but at the same time don't feel connected to those born in the 60's and experiencing the 80's as 20 somethings.

+1
I also feel there’s a stark divide between people born in 1982 or later, primarily due to technology. When I started college, less than half of us had desktop computers (computer labs were always packed), we still had landline phones, high speed internet was still fairly new, etc. It felt like tech, and it’s effect on day to day living - advanced leaps and bounds in just a few short years by the time I graduated.

Agree with this. I was born in mid 1980 and my sister in late December of 1981, so pretty much 1982. She is a millennial and I am not. Same for my friends vs hers. And she married somebody a couple of years younger, and I married a 1979-er. That sealed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 34 so solidly in the millennial category. I do like avocado toast so if we are going off of that generational stereotype, the shoe fits.

I'm x and I like it too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m the tail-end of the Boomers but am definitely a Boomer because I think Starbucks is a waste of money.

That isn't a factor that makes you a boomer. It is a waste of money. Gen X

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jan 1981, so as close to the Pew line as one can get, and really am a Xennial. I didn't get a cell phone until I was in graduate school and didn't get an email addresses until college. I filled out my college applications in hard copy, read a paper map to find my way around for the first decade I was driving, and know how to use the Dewey decimal system for research. I backpacked across Europe for three summers with no cell phone and only paper maps, only getting on Internet at cafes every 2-3 weeks. I got all the way through college before camera phones became ubiquitous. Lots of formative experiences that Millennials mostly don't have. I "adulted" before I had a cell phone or regular internet access, let alone social media.

My Millennial younger siblings had social media in their teens or earlier and cannot recall a time when everyone didn't have a camera phone to record antics.Their college experience was very different, as a result. They also don't recall how to communicate without texting, have always been in direct communication with our parents (unlike me who spent months in Europe with no phone), and can't read a map to save their lives.

But I'm also not Gen X. I don't relate to the music or culture. I don't know the politics. It was all older than me.

I'd put myself solidly in a separate category.

+1 born in 79 (a month shy of 1980).

Nobody had a cell phone till just after college graduation and then they were flip phones. My freshman year in college was the first time I used email. I didn't have a photo phone till mid or late 20s? I used maps and followed highway signs to get around when driving. These are xennial things, millennials generally don't relate

I read elsewhere that Xennisls differ by having an analog childhood and digital young adulthood. I think that generally sums it up.

There are also significant differences in music, tv, movies for xennials who had an 80s childhood / 90s teens vs millennial experiences

1977 here and I agree, especially with the bolded part. I took a word processor/printer to college at a big state school, and a couple of girls on my floor in my dorm had those. One girl had an actual desktop computer. I got my first email address at college and it was a DOS system that could only be accessed from the computer lab using command prompts.

Friends who are 5 years younger had a totally different experience with education, TV shows, movies, music….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:George Masnick, of behalf of Harvard puts Generation X in the time frame of 1965 to 1984, Millennials in the time frame of 1986- 2004, and Boomers in the time frame of 1945-1964.

I know lots of people born in the early 80s prefer to identify as millennial, and "generations" has become a part of all areas of popular culture..

How old are you and how do you identify?

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/defining-the-generations-redux

Agree with Harvard years delineation.

Gen X lacked tons of internet, cell phone and email use for K-12. Through mid 1980s. We also skipped No Child Left Behind/ Common Core testing and dropped EC programs during the school day BS.

Millennials did not. They literally don’t know what a landline is and starting at 1986 makes way more sense than 1981.

My siblings and I are late 1979-1985 and never considered ourselves or HS, college work peers of the same “vintage” as 1985+ millennials. We are glad we didn’t have cell phones and social media in high school and college, respectively

[Anonymous]

DOB 1981.

First cell phone freshman year for college.
First email address then too.
Didn’t get even Facebook until grad school Edu account. Had some MySpace whilst working in early 20s.

No way consider myself a millennial.

Was working first year FT during 9/11 too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1980 and I'm a true Xennial. Not really X, but a little old for true Millienial.

My DH is 1976 and is clearly much more Gen X. It's amazing since it's only a few years.

Having the internet around for all of high school (late 90s) high school is the sign you are NOT Gen X. Even though it was slow.

I'm the same birth year and have had the same experiences with the Internet being available in high school using crappy web browsers and search engines that I doubt even exist any longer.

If pressed I'd say I feel more Gen X than Millennial but we don't really match up with either.

I remember sr year of college and my boyfriend at the time asked me if I bought my clothes on Bluefly and why I didn’t use Google for search it was better than Yahoo!

And my sprint PCS flip phone.

Which the future me would have told me never to give up my 617 cell number. Next job was till no number portability!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 1979 and really feel more like a Millenial than Gen X.

Absolutely not.

+1

Agree 1979 is Gen X.

If you wanna created a new name for fun whatever. Millennials have too many issues to count

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1970 solidly GenX. Siblings 66 and 67.

We are quintessential GenX.

Our Parents were Silent Generation. 1941, 1943.

We skipped the Boomer Gen. entirely in my family. Thank god.

Good point. I had older parents 1944 yet was born late 70s. Solid times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:George Masnick, of behalf of Harvard puts Generation X in the time frame of 1965 to 1984, Millennials in the time frame of 1986- 2004, and Boomers in the time frame of 1945-1964.

I know lots of people born in the early 80s prefer to identify as millennial, and "generations" has become a part of all areas of popular culture..

How old are you and how do you identify?

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/defining-the-generations-redux

Agree with Harvard years delineation.

Gen X lacked tons of internet, cell phone and email use for K-12. Through mid 1980s. We also skipped No Child Left Behind/ Common Core testing and dropped EC programs during the school day BS.

Millennials did not. They literally don’t know what a landline is and starting at 1986 makes way more sense than 1981.

My siblings and I are late 1979-1985 and never considered ourselves or HS, college work peers of the same “vintage” as 1985+ millennials. We are glad we didn’t have cell phones and social media in high school and college, respectively

Jesus Christ, millennials know what landlines are. We grew up in the 90s! All of us had landlines!

[Anonymous]

The years make sense, people. You are the generation you are. Not because Brianna doesn't how to use a crank to roll up a car window or Jaxon doesn't know whether tape casettes were used by teens in the '80s or by astronauts in the '60s. Familiarity with pop culture and history varies by region, upbringing, economics, etc. No xennials. No zennials. No zalphas.

[Anonymous]

I think Xennials are a legit sub-generation. I'm a 75 baby and see a stark difference between people born in the early 80s and the mid-80s onwards. But they still vary greatly from Gen Xers.

I see GenX as 65-80ish and Millennials beginning in 81, but with a Xennial sub-gen around 78 to 83.

[Anonymous]

But what generation is homogeneous? None. Why can't there be Millenials who are different from beginning to the end? Or any generation for that matter. The generations cover decades typically. There were millions of Boomers who didn't protest, weren't selfish, didn't fit the label. Millions of Millenials who weren't hipsters or didn't eat avocado toast.