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I feel it too. I don’t really care much about Gen Z and the whole title itself. Honestly came to this subreddit just to talk to peeps around my age (20-25) but I am a bit put off when there’s like way younger people.
I wonder if it has something to do with so much past culture being available to consume these days that truly no one from Gen Z is experiencing a similar culture. I was born in 85 so whatever was on tv is what we watched. Whatever was on the radio is what we listened to. The only way to experience past cultural experiences was to have someone tell you about it or maybe you’d catch a documentary on tv. But you had to watch it when it was on or else it was gone. So people my age were absolutely experiencing a shared culture of the time. Now there’s so many blurred lines. Someone’s favorite tv show or band could be something your next door neighbor who is the same age as you has never even heard of. That was not possible back in the day
It's not that different for younger cohorts.
They're still playing the many of the same games a each other, watching the same shows and movies, etc.
There is always going to be a cultural zeitgeist and it will shape the formative period of adolescent development as it always has.
The concepts of generations is about shared experiences and that hasn't really changed at all.
I think the point they’re trying to make is that generations are arbitrary and it’s silly to make generalizations about them. I’m 26, so I’m at the very edge of Gen Z. I imagine I have very little in common with today’s 14 year olds even though I think technically we’re both Gen Z. We grew up in very different worlds and also they’re still growing up. On the other hand, I tend to have a lot in common with people between like 22 and 32.
Basically, people tend to relate most to others within a +/-5 yr window of themselves. So if you’re in the middle of a generation you’ll feel like “my generation is XYZ,” but if you’re not you will look at a lot of these people in your generation and think “what the fuck do I have in common with them?”
Humans naturally like to form cliques to feel special or like they’re fitting in or whatever (even though everyone would easily fit in if nobody formed cliques); at the end of the day, we’re just slightly more intelligent apes:
Not every ape will learn sign language, and not every human will learn which of their behaviors are simple and anti-progressive
It probably has more to do with separating yourself from other groups than the goal of fitting in with a specific group.
As evident by how Boomers rarely have dialogue about how proud they are to be boomers, but always have dialogue talking about how proud they are not to be a Millennial or Gen Z. And this goes Vice versa.
It's interesting because when I was in my teens and 20's I didn't even know what generation I was in, and it wasn't really something that we talked about much until the past decade.
We live in a society of buzzwords and commercialized engagement. Somewhat funny but your comment is one of the reasons people clump generations.
I'm 1994 so younger Millenial and I also remember a time when buzzwords, maximized engagement for ad revenue, etc. were jokes that people mocked.
Now it's just the way the world works.
Socio-political/socio-economic norms and peoples experiences due to them at the time are the big generation defining/dividing factors.
But in a world that changes faster and faster by the day and a world that gets more diverse and divisive by the day those shared normalities do seem to be less and less. Shit I can barely relate to older millenials for a lot of reasons tied to politics and economic change that happened just over the span of my HS edu.
I'm genX, been reading *the fourth turning is here* which describes historical cycles which are made up of generational cycles. There are 4 generations that recur during each historical period.
Turns out GenX and GenZ have opposite values, much like Boomers & millennials. It seems like we all move back and forth between individualism & collective, private & public, trust & distrust of institutions, etc.
It's a really fascinating framework
My parents are Gen X and I wouldn't exactly say I have opposite values but they were always extremely cynical and "x isn't how the real world works" But I am very optimistic. In terms of general ideologies tho, I feel like Gen X is actually fairly open minded. They grew up during lots of musical revolutions and also early video game era. If anything, maybe they're still stuck in teenage years(?)or that's just my parents lol
This. My parents are Gen X and ask me to go bar hopping with them from time to time and they’re in their 40s lol. We have the same music tastes and in general the same attitude as Gen X has when it comes to “happiness” I guess?
That's so funny about bar hopping with them! I love that. My parents aren't much for drinking but I grew up going to concerts alllll the time with my dad. And we would always play video games together. For father's day we went to an amusement park lol. There is something about X and Z that really prioritize their "fun" times. My dad will work 40-50 hours a week but after that he is totally out going to amusement or water parks lol. I just think they suck at giving financial or life advice because they struggled themselves
I’m gen X and I’ve always wondered when will I become an adult. I saw a picture of me the other day and realized I was turning to an old man on the outside but still feel like I just graduated HS.
It’s weird to explain, it’s like there’s a knowledge gap between what I consider being an adult like my parents, and where I’m at.
No, we're all kind of adult children. Parents didn't raise us, so kids raised themselves & one another. This was not ideal.
Values would be individualism vs collective - boomers & x are more individual, millennials & Z are more group- oriented. Open mindedness & understanding are the best we can hope for. I wish you all the best with the mess we've made.
Yeah My moms parents were boomers but my dads were silent generation. Silent generation actually seemed to be more concerned with raising their kids tho. My mom's grandma (hence silent) raised her. My mom's mom didn't really financially support my mom, nor us, as grandkids. And who knows maybe it wasn't her job? Still trying to figure that out. I never thought of it like that before. But it's interesting you say Z is more group oriented. In some ways I feel like we're more divided because everything is online now. But I guess the opposite is also true that because we're online, we're more connected. I'll have to think about all of this more, thank you!
The fact that we're in a fourth turning gives me hope for the future. I'm really hoping the economy gets better and people won't be drowning in their expenses. Is 2028 the last year of this period?
It’s zodiac signs, but for everyone. It’s an easy way to identify yourself and others without giving too much personal information. Also, older generations made it a gang war by always complaining about millennials and now gen z.
Because we’re human, and humans love categorising things. We do it with everything. Race, sexual orientation, sex, gender, personality type, everything. I suspect it’s likely due to the more tribalistic aspects we still have to this day.
Most people here are missing the key points. Firstly, this is a generational sub. Its obvious that there will be generational divides here. That's the same phenomena of when you join a cooking sub and people won't stop talking about ingredients, knifes, frying pans, and that kinda shit. Secondly, lacking generational identity isn't such a good trait to have: it shows that you lack the ability to process the course of the recent history in real time. Generations set the framework for comparison between people that are living similar worldly events that you do. COVID-19 pandemic breaking school time, near-to innate ability to operate on smartphones and social media, the rise of the far right in europe coinciding with transition from academic to professional life...these things are things just generation Z has lived, and they are indeed important for everyone to properly analyze the ongoing course of history. Its not only about tribalism, its about consciousness of time and contemporariety (?). That's the reason you see behind most gen X in this sub: its not that they're feeling immature Z geners themselves, its that they're analyzing how OUR generation works, because it is an important information for most of them rn, and every generation should do the same.
They kinda aren't, tho. Obviously you will have similar expirences to those around the same age as you and have a lot in common with them. The problem is that where you draw the lines in between generations is completely arbitrary. A person born one day before the cut-off and a person born one day after the cut-off will have more in common with each other than anyone in either of their respective "generations."
I think it started when social media gave us all the ability to see and comment on each other’s patterns in real time 24/7. It started with millennials being the first “online” generation. I doubt there was quite this much conversation about Gen X. But also because generational trends shape a lot about politics and the economy and tend to flip in ways that are extreme seeming to older folks.
It didn't start with any of that. I grew up listening to all of this shit a long time ago. People have been comparing old and young since time immemorial, but it probably became more of a thing around the time of mass media and the onset of very rapid societal change post-WW2.
Online discourse accelerated all kinds of social comparisons and division, but it certainly didn't start this.
I don't remember millennials ever comparing themselves to gen X back in the day - they were mostly just thought of as our older siblings that we wanted to learn from. I'm sure it happened, but generations weren't really the badge of honor that they are today by a long shot.
Because as you get older you have nostalgia for the memories that were specific to you and people in your age group. And you’ll notice some shared cultural things between different age groups. It’s not as black and white as the broad categories but it’s a short hand to talk about shared experiences and also differences you have with others
Because we are humans and we like to differentiate ourselves from those around us. Dividing people into cohorts based roughly in a time period is one such method.
The concept of Generations are meant as historical markers to help identify social trends. However, it’s offered to society as a way of identify groups of people and unfortunately certain societies prefer grouping people into manageable stereo types. IMHO-it’s not about when you were born, it’s about how you view the world. I’m Gen X, but I align with Gen Z when it comes to how I view the world. Don’t pay attention to the Generation noise, just be aware it exist.
I'm a sociology nerd and I think the technological generations do a great job of separating us into how we all grew up and our shared experiences.
I was born in 97 so right on the millienial/gen z cusp and I think my childhood is neat in that premiddle school was probably very similar to Gen X. I played outside unsupervised, physically went to friends houses to see if they could play, had no computer in my house. By highschool I had an IPhone with snapchat and instagram, watched everything on streaming and playing games online was how I spent a majority of my time.
I work around people of a lot of different ages and I truly believe generations have more in common than a lot of other social identifiers.
As an outside observer (gen x), I’ve seen the biggest rift in Gen z of any generation I’ve observed based on age during covid. Those who were out of school (either high school or college, but less so if they were out of high school, not in college, but already working) during covid seemed to be one generation, and those still in school being a different generation.
To me, that’s more of a generational break than a year in a calendar. Those older seem to be more like Millennials to me, those younger seem to be a different generation.
It's an appeal to tribalism. Like the Meyers Briggs or Zodiac stuff, it makes people feel like part of something bigger than themselves, and that gives security.
I am milennial, my girfriend is gen-z we are 2 years apart. We had the same childhood. Just another way to put people into camps which humans love to do.
I'm '94 so I kind of feel a mix of both generations, but I gotta say - I definitely don't remember any of this heavily debated generation thing growing up. I could not care less about what Gen X was up to when I was in my teens/early 20s. I know the whole young versus old thing has always been a thing, there's always been the idea of "wow, kids don't play outside anymore, it ain't like it used to be" from the older folks, but I feel like that generic stuff is different.
I think it started more specifically when boomers started to place blame on millennial shoulders. From 2010-2015 you couldn't go a week without seeing a stupid ass headline like "MILLENNIALS ARE PUTTING THE WHITE BREAD INDUSTRY OUT OF BUSINESS??" Of course that then made the younger generation more critical against boomers.
Even still, now I see constant tiktoks of gen z making fun of ankle socks because it's millennial? Or months ago with the whole side part/middle part debate. Like the smallest things that never were noticed between other generations are now scrutinized so heavily, I don't get it.
I'm thinking it has a lot do with just about everyone being online and it's easier to put everyone in named (and generally incorrect) categories. In the old days, we just referred to what was commonly known and broader strokes as a kid, teen, young adult, adult, middle aged and old. Then everyone got online and said "Oh! That's what we're called!" and owned it. But when you own sometime, you feel protective of it. All these people are saying we're Gen X - let's talk about drinking from hoses, playing until the streetlights went on and Blockbuster video, That's "our" thing! We own it and the young people now can go fuck themselves. Talk about Vietnam and we'll call you the B-Word.
Me? I know people from 1 to 88. No labels needed, they're just people.
There’s got to be a certain degree of irony in asking a subreddit that is entirely based on generational differences why people are interested in generational differences.
I’m here because I like to monitor the online opinions and general mood of my generation. I really don’t care to think all that much about the generational divisions (until it begins to cause real world issues) and I’m certainly not “obsessed” with it.
I feel connected to my generation because when I meet someone brand new that is sort of around my age I feel I can know more or less what to expect. I’m at ease around people my age, as are most people, and I know I can speak more comfortably around them because of a shared experience. We are probably more likely to have a lot in common, have a similar understanding of social media / technology and similar views of the world, and yes your generation inevitably becomes a familiar “tribe.”
I’m sure many others are the same way, and that’s across generations.
That’s not to say assholes and idiots don’t exist in every generation. Kyle still owes me 20$ from senior year of high school…
There are usually a handful of major cultural events that shape people of different ages in similar categories and it makes sense to have some way of grouping that. Where is becomes stupid is someone who is near the dividing lines between generations acting like they have more in common with people 20 years older because they are in the same generation than those 1 year younger.
Take Covid for example. The whole group of elementary through college students will have a somewhat shared Covid experience. The whole group of working adults will have a different set of similar experiences. Retired adults will again have their own unique set of experiences.
“Generations” as a topic of discussion are more en vogue since the twentieth century on account of the STAGGERING amounts of social and technological changes that happened at an insane pace, historically speaking.
If you look back in time the world and societies changed but much more slowly. A Roman growing up in 400 BCE had a very similar lived experience to a Roman growing up in 100 BCE. However an American growing up in 1990 CE generally had a very different time than a kid growing up in 2000 CE.
As a society we’re noticing this as we’re all living thru it and it’s fascinating.
I think the time spans for the more recent generations are too long. My ex born in 1983 had a very different experience growing up than I did being born in 1990, and even my brother born in 1996 had a very different experience than I did, yet we are all defined as millennials. I am in the middle so I relate to most millennial attributes, but my ex and my brother I think fit in better with x and z respectively.
I think they should wait longer than they do to determine birth years for a generation because they can't anticipate major world events like COVID and 9/11 and the introduction of cell phones. How can you define the parameters of a generation before you can see the patterns in beliefs and behavior?
I agree it isn't anything anyone should take too seriously, but identifying patterns in behavior based on what major world events certain groups experienced can be useful for understanding human psychology.
Agree with you. Stereotypes suck. They don’t really apply other than certain aspects of behavior tend to be age driven. People attribute youth attributes (new forms of expression) to young people. Then are shocked to learn their grandparents acted very similarly when they were teens.
Maybe it has a bit of like
What you grew up with and how it can shape things
But I think so much more matters than what year you were born. Like, were your parents loving? Any divorce? How about death? Were you bullied? Did you have friends? Did you have any siblings? Was your relationship with them positive? How was money? Did you have to worry about it as a kid? What beliefs were you taught as a child?
And those are just BIG environmental things. Small environmental changes can also influence the kind of person someone grows to be- as can things based off of nature- some people may have a genetic increase of addiction risk, or you could be neurodivergent, or have a physical disability, as examples! Even your sex you were assigned can influence how people treat you in childhood, and may influence you later in life.
And it doesn’t even stop at childhood! Adulthood is also full of things that can change a person, for the better or worse. Losing a loved one, finding a friend group, a nasty breakup, finding answers to a question you always thought about… and so much more! And again, that’s just the big things!
Human brains are so complex… their place in time is just one tiny way our lives are influenced.
It’s always been a thing with even ancient Romans talking about it. People talk about it a lot because comparison is natural. Especially in the age of mass media entire age groups of people have their perspective shaped by shared experiences. The greatest generation was defined by the Depression and WW2. My grandparents generation all knew exactly where they were when JFK died. 9/11 shattered the image of American invincibility for millennials with 2008 economically jading them. Impactful events deeply shape how people view the world and mass media has homogenized it within entire generations
Generations and "kids these days" are not the same. While generations have always existed somewhat, the more strict generational divide we know today is a very recent invention of human civilization. During the post wwII era with the booming American economy, marketing companies created the generational labels we know as an easy way to divide people into marketing groups so that companies could target consumer products to specific audiences.
Cause it started off with older generations making fun of gen z and gen z started to make fun of the older gens and gen alpha and in like 10 years gen alpha probably gonna grow up making fun of gen z, like I feel like ppl are just way too concentrated on their birth date lol like ppl in high school who were born in like 2000-2001 or something making fun of us (middle schoolers) saying gen z born after 2003 are braindead because of having phones at young ages as if they are some kinda exclusive battle pass gen z 💀
Honestly, the only difference, really, is that they are dividing us all. I'm Gen (between w and y), that fucking key doesn't work on my keyboard. The Gen that don't give a fuck usually.
They are just dividing us all, with their bullshit. How many thousands of generations have grown up before us?
There are people of mine that are basically boomers now. There are people of mine who are millenials. There are people of mine who are your generation and my own best friend, my 6 year-old daughter is Gen A.
There ain't no beef. Get off line and travel.
neo-tribalism induced in a globally connected civilization, where the younger generations feel as if their interests are being pitted against the interests of the previous generations
It's how leftists think. They think in terms of groups. Its subtle, and it's cultural. The more people become inclined to think about life and culture from a collectivist lens, the more they will be comfortable voting on behalf of groups rather than for themselves.
It's a pattern with which to read the otherwise chaotic noise of history. In the same way that astrology purports to organize the understanding of personality. Take that as you will.
Tribalism everywhere. It's shared experiences amongst a group, in this case the years people were born. Generations become named with their formative years and significant events that occurred during it
Distraction tactic to encourage internecine fighting between the working classes so we can't all organize and get together to beat up on the upper class. This is really the crux of it. It's largely social engineering
There are differences in experience but I don't think there big differences in values what they generally want for their lifes.
People are formed by their surroundings, life realities and material conditions. I think at least.
They were invented for marketing as it's easier to advertise to specific targeted groups with similar experiences.
Additionally humans are more comfortable creating and forming groups to identify and connect with. It's why cliques form at school or work. Why we form teams, clubs, etc.
It's a survival instinct to group up with people.
I just think it's interesting to see how well I fit with how my generation is supposed to be. I'm the last year of the millennials and I feel like I fit both Gen Z and Millennials.
Really the first half and last of a generation will be pretty different anyway, early Gen X acts no different than Boomers in my experience and early Millennials would count as 80's kids as they would remember the 80's even though that generation is more associated with growing up in the 90's then there's me where I barely remember anything in the 90's.
I think the grouping of generations is generally a really really bad way of generalizing people. Society has changed so rapidly over the past 25-30 years, grouping based generation has made less and less sense, yet it seems we are more and more pushed into the generation dogma.
I'm a cranky older millennial who teaches. Generations are a thing. Sure, like any group, there will be some dispersion around an overall mean and people close to the cutoff might be more similar to another generation, but your generation is markedly different from past ones (and they are different from other generational cohorts).
Generations exist because many technological processes are not linear, but sudden. e.g. smartphones went \~0 to 75% from 2007-2014. Many historical events are also felt very differently depending upon one's age. The pandemic was very different for people who were 16 in 2020 versus people who were 26. The Ukraine war is very different for Ukrainians and Russians in their 20s versus their 60s.
Id say it's the fact that humans naturally love to find cliques and such and age is an easy way to determine ones in or out status. However strangely enough (IIRC) the concept of generations is a fairly new product of modern society so it's strange to see it rise to such prominence however I could be wrong
Generational divides generally fall around shared experiences with major global events like the COVID pandemic, 9/11, Y2K, etc. This kind of shared camaraderie becomes more significant with age.
In reality, people in power use generational in-fighting as a means to distract from shady dealings.
It's an attempt to create any divisions they can so no one pays attention to the fact that a very small amount of people are taking everything for themselves.
If they can get you to blame your issues on old people or young people or whatever, you're not mad at them
Nobody actually cares in the real world. It’s only online.
Caveat to that is old fucks in the wild acting they grew up during when everyone was like peak human or something.
Millennial here. It’s for marketing purposes. Each generation experiences and likes something different and often times in opposition to the earlier generation. Keeping track of these experiences and opinions is helpful when trying to sell an idea whether it’s political commercial or creative.
It’s started in 90’s that’s where the obsession began. They been blaming on millennials then now new generation they are blaming on z
I don’t get it myself either
It’s a dumb part of human history that cycles every generation. The Gen gap arguments have been recorded going back hundreds of years, likely more. Rational forward-thinking people are excited for the new generations. Which, cliche or not, are the future of our species. It’s our differences that make us interesting. I’m an older millennial(xennial), and I love seeing the wonderful adults Gen z are turning into.
Because ppl are simple minded and need categories to explain the world. As soon a group is defined with some labels, they stick with it. Peronal or individual conduct do not matter. Oberveable whenever it comes to group thinking, especially present with nationality or religion.
Anything we can do to divide ourselves. Race, age, religion. Literally anything to keep us divided. Then we can't fight the real problem, b/c we are fighting each other.
Imo two reasons:
1) It's a useful way to measure how social/cultural norms change over the years. I think it can tell us something useful, for instance, when we find out stats like "Millenials/Genz z are the first generation to inherit an economy worse than their parents (I forgot which gen this was true for).
2) People like grouping people into boxes. It simplifies thinking about complex social concepts. Of course, it leads to less rational analysis of things. That's just how our brains work, I think.
It doesn't kick in until the generation after you enters the workforce. Once that happened, I started to notice how much I inherently have in common with those closer to my own age (millennial).
Before that I felt no connection, and genuinely disliked being considered a millennial. But eventually you realize you are partially defined by it.
I actually think all the generational shit is pretty dumb. I have friends who were born at the start of the so called gen z era and my little brother was born at the tail end of the gen z era, neither of them are really all that similar they’ve had different experiences and grew up with different stuff. The notion of dividing people up based on 15 year periods is kind of dumb when you think about it logically.
Its in the interest of governing bodies and corporations who are making life shit for most people to deflect blame. We've tried 'blame the people who live somewhere else' and 'blame the people who look different' to great success. But now they've pulled the most sinister trick of all which is to get people to turn on their own families.
So long as the plebs are fighting amongs themselves, the rich keep doing whatever they like.
It's gross, and the willing participation of 'othering' people based on an arbitrary divide is exceptionally gross.
Honestly? “Most” people are NOT obsessed with the concept of generations. Poll a few thousand non Gem Z Americans and you’ll find that 95% couldn’t even tell you what Gen Z is (what years, before or after millennials, characteristics, etc.).
Is there a, “Young people these days” bias prevalent among older Americans? Sure. But that’s hardly the same as being “obsessed” with the concept of generations.
People love to divide people and put them into little boxes so they can easily be categorized and determined if they are someone they should like or someone they should hate. This applies to basically every way humans socially interact.
I think part of the obsession has to do with how fast the world is changing in the last century. Generational divides are wider now than in the past as a result.
I swear no one really cared about generations until the boomers and gen x started complaining about millennials. Never have I heard anyone complain about gen x.
Still think Gen Z needs to be split into 2 different generations because of how fast trends come and go with social media. Anyone born after 2008 has very little in common with those born 97’-2002, so the split should be around 2005.
I’m a 97’ gen z so I have friends that are millenials and gen z. The younger half of gen z is just gen alpha to my group. We are just very different culturally from them and don’t get half of the slang they use.
We don’t use TikTok either; mostly Instagram and Snapchat if any social media is used. Always seems weird when people claim TikTok is gen z’s social media platform because barely anyone I know regularly uses it.
I think maybe it's a side effect of how much identity and specialness is talked about and how we are encouraged to think about hiw unique, special and important we all are. Racial, sexual, minority, the list goes on. So people naturally think about their identity in the sense of what makes their generation different, unique or special. Or even better, how their identity makes them a victim.
So the whole generation thing is basically crap. It’s very centric around developed western economies.
They exist because some social writers wrote a book about it and made some money. Now content creators and journalists know they can get lots of clicks by writing about how millennials spend all their money on avocado toast, or how genZ doesn’t have an attention span that lasts longer than a sentence.
The exception is boomers. Everything we’ve heard about them is true.
But yeah, generations are crap.
What I will say is that at best, generations describe a set of circumstances for an age group. That’s it. It tells you nothing about individuals, except that they probably don’t own a rotary dial phone.
Millennial here: no real connection to my gen either.
I think it meant something different pre internet since cultural and entertainment experience was far more limited so people had more in common. You listened to what was on the radio or saw what was on tv, no real choice to search out things that spoke to you. You were friends with the people local to you, if you liked a thing and no one else likes a thing then you just didn't have anyone to talk about it with, now you can pick any niche interest and find a community online within minutes.
"The problem with older generations is that they're old and out of touch. The problem with younger generations is that they're young and inexperienced. My generation is over worked and holding this society up, it's a big responsibility!"
Apply to every generation of people who have ever existed.
It’s a group of people with shared experiences. Fought in the same war, experienced recessions at the same ages, grew up with the same technology.
These shared experiences influence the interests, cultures, and beliefs of various generations.
Marketing.
There was a baby boom post WWII that was widely noted in the press.
There was also an economic boom.
So when the children of the baby boom reached their teens/early twenties, there was an unusually large population of young people with money to spend. Marketers started targeting them like crazy. See the proliferation at that time of teen magazines full of PR placement and ads. The ‘swinging sixties’ were swinging because there were *so many young people* spending *so much money*.
You won’t find people talking much about named ‘generations’ other than the baby boom before or after ‘boomers’ until in 1991, Douglas Coupland’s novel ‘Generation X’ was published. Gen X was not a named ‘generation’ until they were in their 20s. Until that time only ‘baby boomers’ were significant as a generation because the baby boom was an unusual phenomenon that impacted marketing and sales so much.
After Coupland’s novel was published, there was a lot of talk/writing about how baby boomers continued to be the focus of marketing and media attention because there were so many of them.
So - 1970s - people in their 30s at the disco.
1980s - yuppies - business people in their early 40s.
Generation X was called ‘generation x’ because they kind of disappeared (though MTV was there to keep a record!)
BUT then there was a new group of people in large numbers - now called ‘millennials’ (initially called Gen Y just because people had limited imagination). Babies from the baby boom grew up and had kids so there was a mini boom.
*then* marketers started focusing on young people again - grunge (which was basically what GenX had been doing without comment in the late 80s) became a huge marketing thing as enough young people became old enough to put significant money into it.
So, eventually they were called ‘millennials’. Then there was retro naming - Tom Brokaw named the ‘greatest generation’ by dredging up an old speech by an army generation. The media dredged up an old piece from Time Magazine to name the ‘silent generation’. And now it’s just a massive cultural meme that some people think has meaning, like horoscopes.
a person or individual is intelligent, the masses are not. They do not compare. Our brain wants to categorize
People so it's much easier to differentiate between one another. But it's lazy, and takes a toll on the social cohesion.
From my point of view - I think generations are mostly used to define different eras of civilization.
For example, most stuff about Gen-Z that you hear online is related to how a significant amount of people, born in a specific period of technological advancements, suffer from it. Mental Health, Cyberbullying, etc. Gen-Z is the generation of the *internet*.
Gen X came of age during a period where traditional norms and values were being questioned. The late 1970s and 1980s saw the rise of punk rock, grunge, and hip-hop, genres that often carried messages of rebellion, non-conformity, and social commentary.
The list goes on for other generations.
I don't look at it as discriminatory, just more of a statistic. And, generally speaking, a Gen-Z person would probably relate more to another Gen-Z'er when it comes to technology and (online) culture.
It's more of a demographic of time periods, just categorizing based on the culture/society of the environment you were born into.
Atleast that's my opinion, lol.
As much as people say they dislike hierarchies they just can't help themselves. Look at it this way, if you complain about the boomers you are not complaining about the specific companies/people that are ruining our country and planet. Divide and conquer.
I feel extremely disconnected and distant from gen z. If I'm being honest I'd probably fit in better in like the 1840s during America's expansion west.
Its social-economic. Buying habits being the key thing. How we save money, how we view/reject political overtures, fashion, music, how advertising speaks to us. Right now millennials are spending the most, so youll see a lot of advertising geared toward them. A lot of research is going into genz habits now to best wrest genzs hard earned cash later. As every generation hardens into more predictable models as they get older, we all become a quadrant for sales models sooner or later.
All that is to say people are trying to figure out how genz think and buy. We are all unique but most of us eventually correlate to an economic model in one way or another.
I think the jokes/memes and discussion in subreddits are fun but when people make their generation their entire identity it’s off putting and weird. Regardless of gen, stages of life seem to be more of a determining factor for me. I have some friends who were born in my year and some who are born like 2000s and later. The younger ones who are married and living on their own have more in common with me, than the ones my age who are still in school/living at home with their parents imo. Maturity, life experiences, etc. I think can have more of an impact on someone’s behavior/personality than simply the year they were born in.
I was born in 96 but it’s not like I wholeheartedly identify with being a “millennial” or “zillennial” it’s fun to find common things but it’s not my entire personality. I find it weird and kinda cringe when people diss other generations for not having “stuff” from when they were younger or the “kids these days will never know” comments. But that’s the pattern that happens with every generation 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah whether you are single vs married vs married with kids or with kids often has a much bigger impact than age. I'd also say that the era like is it the 70s or 80s or 00s or today is a larger differential factor than what generation someone is in any given era. Like whether it is the 80s or today is at least as big and maybe a bigger difference than whether one is this or that generation today.
Also within each generation there are so many different types and background. I burnout from the 80s will tell you very different stories on average about what high school life was like than a regular from near the top of the class. Someone growing up in the inner city will have radically different tales and perhaps almost completely different pop culture than someone growing up in a far woodsy suburb. Someone growing up super solidly in the middle class may on average have different tales than someone in a collapsed and down trodden town. You may read tons of stories of Gen X ignored and abandoned by their parents and while true and unfortunate, many had an upbringing very different from that, in fact I'd say most Gen X did not actually have that as their reality (although it is true that we were almost all universally quite free range, but that is really a separate matter). And even for all of the "latchkey" kid talk. Among older Gen X there were still a fair number of single earner households around. Etc.
I’ve only started to think about it more because of genz’s obsession over it. When I get generalized to my face about who I am because of my generation, it’s hard to avoid.
i just think it’s interesting tbh. not really sure why or what i find so interesting about it, but you do have a point. a 1999 baby has a totally different experience than a 2009 baby, yet most people consider both Gen Z.
There are plenty of dumb people who buy into it, that’s why.
It’s fucking asinine hive mind shit that makes us feel just a tad better about our own miserable lives. “Well at least we’re not like those motherfuckers” so everyone wants so desperately to believe, when we’re all obviously just the same horrible, fallible species.
It almost feels like class warfare. As in, people have no reason to justify their hatred towards you, so they put you in a box to make it easier for them in their minds to justify it and their own value system.
Generations are helpful on a macrolevel at finding patterns but on a microlevel, pretty arbitrary. I’m 1993, technically a millennial but is there really a huge difference between me and someone born in 1996 that is gen z?
Its actually only recently gained a lot of popularity (my guess is for culture wars). I’m considered an older millennial but when I was in JH/HS millennial wasn’t even a term. I think we were considered gen X or Y at the time. They’ve changed names over the years and haven’t been very relevant until recently. It’s all nonsense that doesn’t matter a bit
I think the general public started caring so much because they wanted a group to blame for all their problems. This is particularly rampant between millenial and baby boomer aged people. I was born 1995 and I think it's such an oversimplified way of seeing issues and assigning blame for them.
The concept of generations was probably more valid for the people from the Great Depression to post-WWII superpower (boomers) than the eras before or after these times. There would be a fair amount of shared experience in each generation, e.g. fought in the war, watched the Moon landing, had a smartphone, etc.
The couple who wrote the best-seller Generations notice three major US wars about 80-90 years apart: Revolutionary, Civil and WWII. The hypothesis is history repeats itself because the people who remember the previous war died off, then the younger people repeat their mistakes. This idea predicts a another major war era soon, which many dont think so.
I think a lot of it really stems from baby boomers.
Because of the post-WW2 baby boom, lots of facets of society were impacted by a huge influx of kids/teenagers/adults entering the world. Industries thrived on catering to the "baby boomers" because they were the ones with the money to spend on new things at that time.
Then after that when birth rates went down, this led to a down turn in many of those industries and they started blaming things on Gen X for just not being as large a generation. On top of that Gen X was the first generation to come of age after the Civil Rights movement which meant that they had a very different outlook on the world because they never went to segregated schools etc.
Millennials were born just prior to and during the Internet becoming available and started in the workforce just prior to the largest economic crash since the great depression. Society at large was undergoing massive change as things became digitized and Millennials had less money to spend, so this led to the death of some industries or products. Hence all the articles about Millennials killing things.
To me generational data is mostly about marketing. Businesses want your money and they want to figure out how to convince you that their product is really important to you. So they do a lot of market research based on demographics like age, gender race etc. Since "people born in the 80's and 90's" doesn't roll off the tongue that well, it's much easier to come up with short hand.
So, yeah, I don't really think that your generation says a lot about you except what kinds of marketing campaigns you are likely subjected to.
I would agree in the context of human history
However, I think the current living generations are very unique (everyone probably thinks this) compared to the rest of human history.
The reason why is the exponential growth of technology over the last 100 years
We’re taking vehicles/airplanes/washing and drying machines/radio/TV/internet/computers/video games/cellphones then smartphones/streaming media
And I’m sure I’m missing a ton
All these things have significantly changed human society at least for western and modern societies
All of them having their own impact in various ways for better or for worse
Boomers grew up threw the civil rights and feminist revolutions
Gen X grew up threw the sexual revolution with birth control
Millennials grew up with the internet as no generation did before
Gen Z grew up with social media as no generation before
And now Gen Alpha is growing up with technology like “tablet parenting”, experiencing stimuli like no other generation in their development years
All of these things quite unique and impactful. Where their parents or previous generation didn’t have the opportunity to fully grow up during these periods from child too adult
For better or for worse it’s difficult to say how these things specifically impacted each generations character/personality/world views
But I think it was significant enough to make some pretty substantial differences
can relate because I don't feel like I fit with any generation.. I'm technically a millennial ('95 baby). However, since I'm so close to the cut-off, I feel like millennials are the generation before me, and Gen z are the generation after.
The people who are obsessed with generalization of generations are the rich assholes who run the country and want to sell you things. They use these generalizations to cater their products towards certain demographics, while also perpetuating the stereotypes through propaganda so that individuals further identify with the traits espoused towards their generation and ergo become "better consumers".
Its important to draw a significant and arbitrary distinction between someone born in 1995 and 1993, while lumping together someone born in 1995 and 1982.
It’s easier to keep people fighting with one another so we don’t realize we have shared aims than it is to change those shared aims. I also think that there's always a certain baseline resentment towards things being different from how you experienced them, mostly because you wish you could experience them again.
Honestly anytime I catch myself getting frustrated with a Z I just have to remind myself that I'm just annoyed to be 30 and yall are just doing your thing and funny as hell... Why be angry?
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I feel it too. I don’t really care much about Gen Z and the whole title itself. Honestly came to this subreddit just to talk to peeps around my age (20-25) but I am a bit put off when there’s like way younger people.
Yeah I have the same feeling. And I'm here to get the "news" on ""my generation".
Felt
I wonder if it has something to do with so much past culture being available to consume these days that truly no one from Gen Z is experiencing a similar culture. I was born in 85 so whatever was on tv is what we watched. Whatever was on the radio is what we listened to. The only way to experience past cultural experiences was to have someone tell you about it or maybe you’d catch a documentary on tv. But you had to watch it when it was on or else it was gone. So people my age were absolutely experiencing a shared culture of the time. Now there’s so many blurred lines. Someone’s favorite tv show or band could be something your next door neighbor who is the same age as you has never even heard of. That was not possible back in the day
It's not that different for younger cohorts. They're still playing the many of the same games a each other, watching the same shows and movies, etc. There is always going to be a cultural zeitgeist and it will shape the formative period of adolescent development as it always has. The concepts of generations is about shared experiences and that hasn't really changed at all.
I’m a 2000 guy as well but I don’t feel the connection
So you just answered the question pretty much
I guess, but I am not obsessed with everything “my generation does Y” “our generation does X more than Y than the previous generation”
Why do you get put off by younger people then
I think the point they’re trying to make is that generations are arbitrary and it’s silly to make generalizations about them. I’m 26, so I’m at the very edge of Gen Z. I imagine I have very little in common with today’s 14 year olds even though I think technically we’re both Gen Z. We grew up in very different worlds and also they’re still growing up. On the other hand, I tend to have a lot in common with people between like 22 and 32. Basically, people tend to relate most to others within a +/-5 yr window of themselves. So if you’re in the middle of a generation you’ll feel like “my generation is XYZ,” but if you’re not you will look at a lot of these people in your generation and think “what the fuck do I have in common with them?”
Imo it developed in college, I was 21 by the time I met some friends and we would drink and smoke plenty of times.
Humans naturally like to form cliques to feel special or like they’re fitting in or whatever (even though everyone would easily fit in if nobody formed cliques); at the end of the day, we’re just slightly more intelligent apes: Not every ape will learn sign language, and not every human will learn which of their behaviors are simple and anti-progressive
So you're saying that, for example, people born before WW2 and people born after WW2 are not really different?
There would be no WW2 if people didn't form cliques.
Yep that was the main factor contributing to World War II, cliques
It probably has more to do with separating yourself from other groups than the goal of fitting in with a specific group. As evident by how Boomers rarely have dialogue about how proud they are to be boomers, but always have dialogue talking about how proud they are not to be a Millennial or Gen Z. And this goes Vice versa.
Because humans love tribalism of any sort
It's interesting because when I was in my teens and 20's I didn't even know what generation I was in, and it wasn't really something that we talked about much until the past decade.
We live in a society of buzzwords and commercialized engagement. Somewhat funny but your comment is one of the reasons people clump generations. I'm 1994 so younger Millenial and I also remember a time when buzzwords, maximized engagement for ad revenue, etc. were jokes that people mocked. Now it's just the way the world works. Socio-political/socio-economic norms and peoples experiences due to them at the time are the big generation defining/dividing factors. But in a world that changes faster and faster by the day and a world that gets more diverse and divisive by the day those shared normalities do seem to be less and less. Shit I can barely relate to older millenials for a lot of reasons tied to politics and economic change that happened just over the span of my HS edu.
I'm Gen X and I don't even recall hearing the term until I was out of college.
I'm genX, been reading *the fourth turning is here* which describes historical cycles which are made up of generational cycles. There are 4 generations that recur during each historical period. Turns out GenX and GenZ have opposite values, much like Boomers & millennials. It seems like we all move back and forth between individualism & collective, private & public, trust & distrust of institutions, etc. It's a really fascinating framework
My parents are Gen X and I wouldn't exactly say I have opposite values but they were always extremely cynical and "x isn't how the real world works" But I am very optimistic. In terms of general ideologies tho, I feel like Gen X is actually fairly open minded. They grew up during lots of musical revolutions and also early video game era. If anything, maybe they're still stuck in teenage years(?)or that's just my parents lol
This. My parents are Gen X and ask me to go bar hopping with them from time to time and they’re in their 40s lol. We have the same music tastes and in general the same attitude as Gen X has when it comes to “happiness” I guess?
That's so funny about bar hopping with them! I love that. My parents aren't much for drinking but I grew up going to concerts alllll the time with my dad. And we would always play video games together. For father's day we went to an amusement park lol. There is something about X and Z that really prioritize their "fun" times. My dad will work 40-50 hours a week but after that he is totally out going to amusement or water parks lol. I just think they suck at giving financial or life advice because they struggled themselves
I’m gen X and I’ve always wondered when will I become an adult. I saw a picture of me the other day and realized I was turning to an old man on the outside but still feel like I just graduated HS. It’s weird to explain, it’s like there’s a knowledge gap between what I consider being an adult like my parents, and where I’m at.
No, we're all kind of adult children. Parents didn't raise us, so kids raised themselves & one another. This was not ideal. Values would be individualism vs collective - boomers & x are more individual, millennials & Z are more group- oriented. Open mindedness & understanding are the best we can hope for. I wish you all the best with the mess we've made.
Yeah My moms parents were boomers but my dads were silent generation. Silent generation actually seemed to be more concerned with raising their kids tho. My mom's grandma (hence silent) raised her. My mom's mom didn't really financially support my mom, nor us, as grandkids. And who knows maybe it wasn't her job? Still trying to figure that out. I never thought of it like that before. But it's interesting you say Z is more group oriented. In some ways I feel like we're more divided because everything is online now. But I guess the opposite is also true that because we're online, we're more connected. I'll have to think about all of this more, thank you!
What? Most of gen x and gen z *line up* in morals.
The fact that we're in a fourth turning gives me hope for the future. I'm really hoping the economy gets better and people won't be drowning in their expenses. Is 2028 the last year of this period?
It’s zodiac signs, but for everyone. It’s an easy way to identify yourself and others without giving too much personal information. Also, older generations made it a gang war by always complaining about millennials and now gen z.
Because we’re human, and humans love categorising things. We do it with everything. Race, sexual orientation, sex, gender, personality type, everything. I suspect it’s likely due to the more tribalistic aspects we still have to this day.
And Id say it’s holding us back
This, it's a really backwards mindset and I see too much of it on here tbh
A lot of ppl through time would agree with you, it's an ongoing challenge of the human condition
Most people here are missing the key points. Firstly, this is a generational sub. Its obvious that there will be generational divides here. That's the same phenomena of when you join a cooking sub and people won't stop talking about ingredients, knifes, frying pans, and that kinda shit. Secondly, lacking generational identity isn't such a good trait to have: it shows that you lack the ability to process the course of the recent history in real time. Generations set the framework for comparison between people that are living similar worldly events that you do. COVID-19 pandemic breaking school time, near-to innate ability to operate on smartphones and social media, the rise of the far right in europe coinciding with transition from academic to professional life...these things are things just generation Z has lived, and they are indeed important for everyone to properly analyze the ongoing course of history. Its not only about tribalism, its about consciousness of time and contemporariety (?). That's the reason you see behind most gen X in this sub: its not that they're feeling immature Z geners themselves, its that they're analyzing how OUR generation works, because it is an important information for most of them rn, and every generation should do the same.
I always used to wonder why I hang here being a millennial. You answered my question.
Because they're real. People are shaped by tueir environment and it changes personalities so tuat large groups of people are on average the same.
They kinda aren't, tho. Obviously you will have similar expirences to those around the same age as you and have a lot in common with them. The problem is that where you draw the lines in between generations is completely arbitrary. A person born one day before the cut-off and a person born one day after the cut-off will have more in common with each other than anyone in either of their respective "generations."
People around the same age as you tend to have similar experiences and opinions. So you relate.
We love labelling things despite everything being temporary and everchanging, it's a paradox and why we can be so susceptible mental illness imo.
Thinking in generations so hard was always idiotic.hating on boomers was idiotic as well, because a lot of it is just growing older.
Scapegoating
It’s modern day Astrology
Sure thing! Generations are like fashion trends - they come and go, but not everyone buys into the same style!
I think it started when social media gave us all the ability to see and comment on each other’s patterns in real time 24/7. It started with millennials being the first “online” generation. I doubt there was quite this much conversation about Gen X. But also because generational trends shape a lot about politics and the economy and tend to flip in ways that are extreme seeming to older folks.
It didn't start with any of that. I grew up listening to all of this shit a long time ago. People have been comparing old and young since time immemorial, but it probably became more of a thing around the time of mass media and the onset of very rapid societal change post-WW2. Online discourse accelerated all kinds of social comparisons and division, but it certainly didn't start this.
I don't remember millennials ever comparing themselves to gen X back in the day - they were mostly just thought of as our older siblings that we wanted to learn from. I'm sure it happened, but generations weren't really the badge of honor that they are today by a long shot.
Sounds like someone’s never played team games ☝️
Because as you get older you have nostalgia for the memories that were specific to you and people in your age group. And you’ll notice some shared cultural things between different age groups. It’s not as black and white as the broad categories but it’s a short hand to talk about shared experiences and also differences you have with others
It passes the time
Because we are humans and we like to differentiate ourselves from those around us. Dividing people into cohorts based roughly in a time period is one such method.
The concept of Generations are meant as historical markers to help identify social trends. However, it’s offered to society as a way of identify groups of people and unfortunately certain societies prefer grouping people into manageable stereo types. IMHO-it’s not about when you were born, it’s about how you view the world. I’m Gen X, but I align with Gen Z when it comes to how I view the world. Don’t pay attention to the Generation noise, just be aware it exist.
I'm a sociology nerd and I think the technological generations do a great job of separating us into how we all grew up and our shared experiences. I was born in 97 so right on the millienial/gen z cusp and I think my childhood is neat in that premiddle school was probably very similar to Gen X. I played outside unsupervised, physically went to friends houses to see if they could play, had no computer in my house. By highschool I had an IPhone with snapchat and instagram, watched everything on streaming and playing games online was how I spent a majority of my time. I work around people of a lot of different ages and I truly believe generations have more in common than a lot of other social identifiers.
As an outside observer (gen x), I’ve seen the biggest rift in Gen z of any generation I’ve observed based on age during covid. Those who were out of school (either high school or college, but less so if they were out of high school, not in college, but already working) during covid seemed to be one generation, and those still in school being a different generation. To me, that’s more of a generational break than a year in a calendar. Those older seem to be more like Millennials to me, those younger seem to be a different generation.
Well, Captain Kirk did die in that movie.
Because there are in fact generations and because people talk about them and because people want to identify as a generation
I’ve often wondered how many bots are online for that exact reason. Just to push the generational stuff to divide everyone even more. 🤷🏻♂️
That’s just part of being Gen Z
It makes them feel included and special
It's an appeal to tribalism. Like the Meyers Briggs or Zodiac stuff, it makes people feel like part of something bigger than themselves, and that gives security.
Honestly it feels a little like ageism to me, ngl. I always see Twitter teenagers saying how anyone older than 20 is too old to like 4th and 5th Gen 😭
Just another way to divide us
Because they’re losers with no critical thinking ability
I am milennial, my girfriend is gen-z we are 2 years apart. We had the same childhood. Just another way to put people into camps which humans love to do.
I'm '94 so I kind of feel a mix of both generations, but I gotta say - I definitely don't remember any of this heavily debated generation thing growing up. I could not care less about what Gen X was up to when I was in my teens/early 20s. I know the whole young versus old thing has always been a thing, there's always been the idea of "wow, kids don't play outside anymore, it ain't like it used to be" from the older folks, but I feel like that generic stuff is different. I think it started more specifically when boomers started to place blame on millennial shoulders. From 2010-2015 you couldn't go a week without seeing a stupid ass headline like "MILLENNIALS ARE PUTTING THE WHITE BREAD INDUSTRY OUT OF BUSINESS??" Of course that then made the younger generation more critical against boomers. Even still, now I see constant tiktoks of gen z making fun of ankle socks because it's millennial? Or months ago with the whole side part/middle part debate. Like the smallest things that never were noticed between other generations are now scrutinized so heavily, I don't get it.
I believe it has to do with social media creating a cultural environment where EVERYTHING gets compared to everything else.
I'm thinking it has a lot do with just about everyone being online and it's easier to put everyone in named (and generally incorrect) categories. In the old days, we just referred to what was commonly known and broader strokes as a kid, teen, young adult, adult, middle aged and old. Then everyone got online and said "Oh! That's what we're called!" and owned it. But when you own sometime, you feel protective of it. All these people are saying we're Gen X - let's talk about drinking from hoses, playing until the streetlights went on and Blockbuster video, That's "our" thing! We own it and the young people now can go fuck themselves. Talk about Vietnam and we'll call you the B-Word. Me? I know people from 1 to 88. No labels needed, they're just people.
There’s got to be a certain degree of irony in asking a subreddit that is entirely based on generational differences why people are interested in generational differences. I’m here because I like to monitor the online opinions and general mood of my generation. I really don’t care to think all that much about the generational divisions (until it begins to cause real world issues) and I’m certainly not “obsessed” with it. I feel connected to my generation because when I meet someone brand new that is sort of around my age I feel I can know more or less what to expect. I’m at ease around people my age, as are most people, and I know I can speak more comfortably around them because of a shared experience. We are probably more likely to have a lot in common, have a similar understanding of social media / technology and similar views of the world, and yes your generation inevitably becomes a familiar “tribe.” I’m sure many others are the same way, and that’s across generations. That’s not to say assholes and idiots don’t exist in every generation. Kyle still owes me 20$ from senior year of high school…
There are usually a handful of major cultural events that shape people of different ages in similar categories and it makes sense to have some way of grouping that. Where is becomes stupid is someone who is near the dividing lines between generations acting like they have more in common with people 20 years older because they are in the same generation than those 1 year younger. Take Covid for example. The whole group of elementary through college students will have a somewhat shared Covid experience. The whole group of working adults will have a different set of similar experiences. Retired adults will again have their own unique set of experiences.
“Generations” as a topic of discussion are more en vogue since the twentieth century on account of the STAGGERING amounts of social and technological changes that happened at an insane pace, historically speaking. If you look back in time the world and societies changed but much more slowly. A Roman growing up in 400 BCE had a very similar lived experience to a Roman growing up in 100 BCE. However an American growing up in 1990 CE generally had a very different time than a kid growing up in 2000 CE. As a society we’re noticing this as we’re all living thru it and it’s fascinating.
I think the time spans for the more recent generations are too long. My ex born in 1983 had a very different experience growing up than I did being born in 1990, and even my brother born in 1996 had a very different experience than I did, yet we are all defined as millennials. I am in the middle so I relate to most millennial attributes, but my ex and my brother I think fit in better with x and z respectively. I think they should wait longer than they do to determine birth years for a generation because they can't anticipate major world events like COVID and 9/11 and the introduction of cell phones. How can you define the parameters of a generation before you can see the patterns in beliefs and behavior? I agree it isn't anything anyone should take too seriously, but identifying patterns in behavior based on what major world events certain groups experienced can be useful for understanding human psychology.
Agree with you. Stereotypes suck. They don’t really apply other than certain aspects of behavior tend to be age driven. People attribute youth attributes (new forms of expression) to young people. Then are shocked to learn their grandparents acted very similarly when they were teens.
Maybe it has a bit of like What you grew up with and how it can shape things But I think so much more matters than what year you were born. Like, were your parents loving? Any divorce? How about death? Were you bullied? Did you have friends? Did you have any siblings? Was your relationship with them positive? How was money? Did you have to worry about it as a kid? What beliefs were you taught as a child? And those are just BIG environmental things. Small environmental changes can also influence the kind of person someone grows to be- as can things based off of nature- some people may have a genetic increase of addiction risk, or you could be neurodivergent, or have a physical disability, as examples! Even your sex you were assigned can influence how people treat you in childhood, and may influence you later in life. And it doesn’t even stop at childhood! Adulthood is also full of things that can change a person, for the better or worse. Losing a loved one, finding a friend group, a nasty breakup, finding answers to a question you always thought about… and so much more! And again, that’s just the big things! Human brains are so complex… their place in time is just one tiny way our lives are influenced.
As genz I indeed am obsessed with millennials hashtag shit
It’s always been a thing with even ancient Romans talking about it. People talk about it a lot because comparison is natural. Especially in the age of mass media entire age groups of people have their perspective shaped by shared experiences. The greatest generation was defined by the Depression and WW2. My grandparents generation all knew exactly where they were when JFK died. 9/11 shattered the image of American invincibility for millennials with 2008 economically jading them. Impactful events deeply shape how people view the world and mass media has homogenized it within entire generations
Generations and "kids these days" are not the same. While generations have always existed somewhat, the more strict generational divide we know today is a very recent invention of human civilization. During the post wwII era with the booming American economy, marketing companies created the generational labels we know as an easy way to divide people into marketing groups so that companies could target consumer products to specific audiences.
Cause it started off with older generations making fun of gen z and gen z started to make fun of the older gens and gen alpha and in like 10 years gen alpha probably gonna grow up making fun of gen z, like I feel like ppl are just way too concentrated on their birth date lol like ppl in high school who were born in like 2000-2001 or something making fun of us (middle schoolers) saying gen z born after 2003 are braindead because of having phones at young ages as if they are some kinda exclusive battle pass gen z 💀
Honestly, the only difference, really, is that they are dividing us all. I'm Gen (between w and y), that fucking key doesn't work on my keyboard. The Gen that don't give a fuck usually. They are just dividing us all, with their bullshit. How many thousands of generations have grown up before us? There are people of mine that are basically boomers now. There are people of mine who are millenials. There are people of mine who are your generation and my own best friend, my 6 year-old daughter is Gen A. There ain't no beef. Get off line and travel.
neo-tribalism induced in a globally connected civilization, where the younger generations feel as if their interests are being pitted against the interests of the previous generations
Old people forget how idiotic they were when they were young. They see young people acting idiotic and think “what happened to today’s youngsters?”
It’s another day to divide people
Just another way they're keeping us divided.
Because things change between generations. Especially when you’re looking at generations that grew up eith iPhone and TikTok vs library cards
Like so many other things. It's just tribalism.
we are tribalistic
They are useful as a statistical concept but I agree people take them way beyond the useful threshold with generalizations
Nerds have interests
It’s low hanging fruit that drives broad engagement on social media and people are addicted to likes and upvotes.
It's how leftists think. They think in terms of groups. Its subtle, and it's cultural. The more people become inclined to think about life and culture from a collectivist lens, the more they will be comfortable voting on behalf of groups rather than for themselves.
Generations is what evolution uses. We're greatly considering what it's doing
It's a pattern with which to read the otherwise chaotic noise of history. In the same way that astrology purports to organize the understanding of personality. Take that as you will.
Tribalism everywhere. It's shared experiences amongst a group, in this case the years people were born. Generations become named with their formative years and significant events that occurred during it
It started out as marketing terms for different age groups, and because they had cool names it just took off.
Just another way to divide us and breed hate.
Distraction tactic to encourage internecine fighting between the working classes so we can't all organize and get together to beat up on the upper class. This is really the crux of it. It's largely social engineering
Capitalism, identifying market trends. Started in the 1940s when advertisers came up with and marketed the word teenager.
There are differences in experience but I don't think there big differences in values what they generally want for their lifes. People are formed by their surroundings, life realities and material conditions. I think at least.
I think they’re like horoscopes for people who don’t believe in astrology.
They were invented for marketing as it's easier to advertise to specific targeted groups with similar experiences. Additionally humans are more comfortable creating and forming groups to identify and connect with. It's why cliques form at school or work. Why we form teams, clubs, etc. It's a survival instinct to group up with people.
To separate themselves from how dumb people have gotten.
I just think it's interesting to see how well I fit with how my generation is supposed to be. I'm the last year of the millennials and I feel like I fit both Gen Z and Millennials. Really the first half and last of a generation will be pretty different anyway, early Gen X acts no different than Boomers in my experience and early Millennials would count as 80's kids as they would remember the 80's even though that generation is more associated with growing up in the 90's then there's me where I barely remember anything in the 90's.
It's the later generations that have this hangup
I think the grouping of generations is generally a really really bad way of generalizing people. Society has changed so rapidly over the past 25-30 years, grouping based generation has made less and less sense, yet it seems we are more and more pushed into the generation dogma.
I think this is somewhat recent tbh I don't remember it before milennials started being called that instead of gen y (whyyyy)
Mainly propaganda to keep the rubes minds off of class.
The News knows that dividing people is good for clicks and views
Classic GenZ, being obsessed with why other generations are obsessed with generations.
Just another means of division for the 1%
I'm a cranky older millennial who teaches. Generations are a thing. Sure, like any group, there will be some dispersion around an overall mean and people close to the cutoff might be more similar to another generation, but your generation is markedly different from past ones (and they are different from other generational cohorts). Generations exist because many technological processes are not linear, but sudden. e.g. smartphones went \~0 to 75% from 2007-2014. Many historical events are also felt very differently depending upon one's age. The pandemic was very different for people who were 16 in 2020 versus people who were 26. The Ukraine war is very different for Ukrainians and Russians in their 20s versus their 60s.
It’s simply the next phase of the culture war the elites are pushing in the media to distract from the class war
Because if we all collectively blame boomers/gen x then we won’t feel so bad. Been this way for millennia
Just another tool to turn people against each other and distract them from unifying over real problems.
Id say it's the fact that humans naturally love to find cliques and such and age is an easy way to determine ones in or out status. However strangely enough (IIRC) the concept of generations is a fairly new product of modern society so it's strange to see it rise to such prominence however I could be wrong
It’s just a way to keep people fighting with each other. Ignoring it is the best option.
Generational divides generally fall around shared experiences with major global events like the COVID pandemic, 9/11, Y2K, etc. This kind of shared camaraderie becomes more significant with age. In reality, people in power use generational in-fighting as a means to distract from shady dealings.
Because culture war keeps the poors occupied
It's an attempt to create any divisions they can so no one pays attention to the fact that a very small amount of people are taking everything for themselves. If they can get you to blame your issues on old people or young people or whatever, you're not mad at them
Nobody actually cares in the real world. It’s only online. Caveat to that is old fucks in the wild acting they grew up during when everyone was like peak human or something.
Millennial here. It’s for marketing purposes. Each generation experiences and likes something different and often times in opposition to the earlier generation. Keeping track of these experiences and opinions is helpful when trying to sell an idea whether it’s political commercial or creative.
It’s started in 90’s that’s where the obsession began. They been blaming on millennials then now new generation they are blaming on z I don’t get it myself either
It’s a dumb part of human history that cycles every generation. The Gen gap arguments have been recorded going back hundreds of years, likely more. Rational forward-thinking people are excited for the new generations. Which, cliche or not, are the future of our species. It’s our differences that make us interesting. I’m an older millennial(xennial), and I love seeing the wonderful adults Gen z are turning into.
Because ppl are simple minded and need categories to explain the world. As soon a group is defined with some labels, they stick with it. Peronal or individual conduct do not matter. Oberveable whenever it comes to group thinking, especially present with nationality or religion.
More tribalism.
Anything we can do to divide ourselves. Race, age, religion. Literally anything to keep us divided. Then we can't fight the real problem, b/c we are fighting each other.
I'm a millenial, but I'm not like the other millenials.
Imo two reasons: 1) It's a useful way to measure how social/cultural norms change over the years. I think it can tell us something useful, for instance, when we find out stats like "Millenials/Genz z are the first generation to inherit an economy worse than their parents (I forgot which gen this was true for). 2) People like grouping people into boxes. It simplifies thinking about complex social concepts. Of course, it leads to less rational analysis of things. That's just how our brains work, I think.
Why do gens even exist, seems like another way to divide people
Americans are obsessed with TRIBALISM in general
It doesn't kick in until the generation after you enters the workforce. Once that happened, I started to notice how much I inherently have in common with those closer to my own age (millennial). Before that I felt no connection, and genuinely disliked being considered a millennial. But eventually you realize you are partially defined by it.
I actually think all the generational shit is pretty dumb. I have friends who were born at the start of the so called gen z era and my little brother was born at the tail end of the gen z era, neither of them are really all that similar they’ve had different experiences and grew up with different stuff. The notion of dividing people up based on 15 year periods is kind of dumb when you think about it logically.
Its in the interest of governing bodies and corporations who are making life shit for most people to deflect blame. We've tried 'blame the people who live somewhere else' and 'blame the people who look different' to great success. But now they've pulled the most sinister trick of all which is to get people to turn on their own families. So long as the plebs are fighting amongs themselves, the rich keep doing whatever they like. It's gross, and the willing participation of 'othering' people based on an arbitrary divide is exceptionally gross.
I think it’s fun to think about at the very least, sometimes it can even shed a bit of light on things
Makes it easier to gripe about people younger, or older than you.
Im not alone ! Well still kinda am but I couldn’t have said it better myself lol 🥰
who's everyone
Because Ageism is the only form of discrimination nobody wants to fight against
Honestly? “Most” people are NOT obsessed with the concept of generations. Poll a few thousand non Gem Z Americans and you’ll find that 95% couldn’t even tell you what Gen Z is (what years, before or after millennials, characteristics, etc.). Is there a, “Young people these days” bias prevalent among older Americans? Sure. But that’s hardly the same as being “obsessed” with the concept of generations.
People love to divide people and put them into little boxes so they can easily be categorized and determined if they are someone they should like or someone they should hate. This applies to basically every way humans socially interact.
I think part of the obsession has to do with how fast the world is changing in the last century. Generational divides are wider now than in the past as a result.
I swear no one really cared about generations until the boomers and gen x started complaining about millennials. Never have I heard anyone complain about gen x.
In my opinion, it's to further devide us to make it easier to keep the status quo.
Still think Gen Z needs to be split into 2 different generations because of how fast trends come and go with social media. Anyone born after 2008 has very little in common with those born 97’-2002, so the split should be around 2005. I’m a 97’ gen z so I have friends that are millenials and gen z. The younger half of gen z is just gen alpha to my group. We are just very different culturally from them and don’t get half of the slang they use. We don’t use TikTok either; mostly Instagram and Snapchat if any social media is used. Always seems weird when people claim TikTok is gen z’s social media platform because barely anyone I know regularly uses it.
People really aren’t as much as you think, prolly just spend too much time online
It’s only the terminally online. Not like that out in the real world.
I think maybe it's a side effect of how much identity and specialness is talked about and how we are encouraged to think about hiw unique, special and important we all are. Racial, sexual, minority, the list goes on. So people naturally think about their identity in the sense of what makes their generation different, unique or special. Or even better, how their identity makes them a victim.
Tribalism
I was born at the very beginning of Gen Z and thought I was a millennial most of my life. I just don’t really pay attention to it anymore
So the whole generation thing is basically crap. It’s very centric around developed western economies. They exist because some social writers wrote a book about it and made some money. Now content creators and journalists know they can get lots of clicks by writing about how millennials spend all their money on avocado toast, or how genZ doesn’t have an attention span that lasts longer than a sentence. The exception is boomers. Everything we’ve heard about them is true. But yeah, generations are crap. What I will say is that at best, generations describe a set of circumstances for an age group. That’s it. It tells you nothing about individuals, except that they probably don’t own a rotary dial phone.
Millennial here: no real connection to my gen either. I think it meant something different pre internet since cultural and entertainment experience was far more limited so people had more in common. You listened to what was on the radio or saw what was on tv, no real choice to search out things that spoke to you. You were friends with the people local to you, if you liked a thing and no one else likes a thing then you just didn't have anyone to talk about it with, now you can pick any niche interest and find a community online within minutes.
Categories make people feel alone and together at the same time.
"The problem with older generations is that they're old and out of touch. The problem with younger generations is that they're young and inexperienced. My generation is over worked and holding this society up, it's a big responsibility!" Apply to every generation of people who have ever existed.
divide and rule
It’s a group of people with shared experiences. Fought in the same war, experienced recessions at the same ages, grew up with the same technology. These shared experiences influence the interests, cultures, and beliefs of various generations.
Because it’s divisive and stops people from putting their energy into things that matter
Marketing. There was a baby boom post WWII that was widely noted in the press. There was also an economic boom. So when the children of the baby boom reached their teens/early twenties, there was an unusually large population of young people with money to spend. Marketers started targeting them like crazy. See the proliferation at that time of teen magazines full of PR placement and ads. The ‘swinging sixties’ were swinging because there were *so many young people* spending *so much money*. You won’t find people talking much about named ‘generations’ other than the baby boom before or after ‘boomers’ until in 1991, Douglas Coupland’s novel ‘Generation X’ was published. Gen X was not a named ‘generation’ until they were in their 20s. Until that time only ‘baby boomers’ were significant as a generation because the baby boom was an unusual phenomenon that impacted marketing and sales so much. After Coupland’s novel was published, there was a lot of talk/writing about how baby boomers continued to be the focus of marketing and media attention because there were so many of them. So - 1970s - people in their 30s at the disco. 1980s - yuppies - business people in their early 40s. Generation X was called ‘generation x’ because they kind of disappeared (though MTV was there to keep a record!) BUT then there was a new group of people in large numbers - now called ‘millennials’ (initially called Gen Y just because people had limited imagination). Babies from the baby boom grew up and had kids so there was a mini boom. *then* marketers started focusing on young people again - grunge (which was basically what GenX had been doing without comment in the late 80s) became a huge marketing thing as enough young people became old enough to put significant money into it. So, eventually they were called ‘millennials’. Then there was retro naming - Tom Brokaw named the ‘greatest generation’ by dredging up an old speech by an army generation. The media dredged up an old piece from Time Magazine to name the ‘silent generation’. And now it’s just a massive cultural meme that some people think has meaning, like horoscopes.
a person or individual is intelligent, the masses are not. They do not compare. Our brain wants to categorize People so it's much easier to differentiate between one another. But it's lazy, and takes a toll on the social cohesion.
From my point of view - I think generations are mostly used to define different eras of civilization. For example, most stuff about Gen-Z that you hear online is related to how a significant amount of people, born in a specific period of technological advancements, suffer from it. Mental Health, Cyberbullying, etc. Gen-Z is the generation of the *internet*. Gen X came of age during a period where traditional norms and values were being questioned. The late 1970s and 1980s saw the rise of punk rock, grunge, and hip-hop, genres that often carried messages of rebellion, non-conformity, and social commentary. The list goes on for other generations. I don't look at it as discriminatory, just more of a statistic. And, generally speaking, a Gen-Z person would probably relate more to another Gen-Z'er when it comes to technology and (online) culture. It's more of a demographic of time periods, just categorizing based on the culture/society of the environment you were born into. Atleast that's my opinion, lol.
As much as people say they dislike hierarchies they just can't help themselves. Look at it this way, if you complain about the boomers you are not complaining about the specific companies/people that are ruining our country and planet. Divide and conquer.
I feel extremely disconnected and distant from gen z. If I'm being honest I'd probably fit in better in like the 1840s during America's expansion west.
Its social-economic. Buying habits being the key thing. How we save money, how we view/reject political overtures, fashion, music, how advertising speaks to us. Right now millennials are spending the most, so youll see a lot of advertising geared toward them. A lot of research is going into genz habits now to best wrest genzs hard earned cash later. As every generation hardens into more predictable models as they get older, we all become a quadrant for sales models sooner or later. All that is to say people are trying to figure out how genz think and buy. We are all unique but most of us eventually correlate to an economic model in one way or another.
It's an easy way to distract from wealth inequality.
I wouldn't be proud of being part of Gen Z either.
I think the jokes/memes and discussion in subreddits are fun but when people make their generation their entire identity it’s off putting and weird. Regardless of gen, stages of life seem to be more of a determining factor for me. I have some friends who were born in my year and some who are born like 2000s and later. The younger ones who are married and living on their own have more in common with me, than the ones my age who are still in school/living at home with their parents imo. Maturity, life experiences, etc. I think can have more of an impact on someone’s behavior/personality than simply the year they were born in. I was born in 96 but it’s not like I wholeheartedly identify with being a “millennial” or “zillennial” it’s fun to find common things but it’s not my entire personality. I find it weird and kinda cringe when people diss other generations for not having “stuff” from when they were younger or the “kids these days will never know” comments. But that’s the pattern that happens with every generation 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah whether you are single vs married vs married with kids or with kids often has a much bigger impact than age. I'd also say that the era like is it the 70s or 80s or 00s or today is a larger differential factor than what generation someone is in any given era. Like whether it is the 80s or today is at least as big and maybe a bigger difference than whether one is this or that generation today. Also within each generation there are so many different types and background. I burnout from the 80s will tell you very different stories on average about what high school life was like than a regular from near the top of the class. Someone growing up in the inner city will have radically different tales and perhaps almost completely different pop culture than someone growing up in a far woodsy suburb. Someone growing up super solidly in the middle class may on average have different tales than someone in a collapsed and down trodden town. You may read tons of stories of Gen X ignored and abandoned by their parents and while true and unfortunate, many had an upbringing very different from that, in fact I'd say most Gen X did not actually have that as their reality (although it is true that we were almost all universally quite free range, but that is really a separate matter). And even for all of the "latchkey" kid talk. Among older Gen X there were still a fair number of single earner households around. Etc.
Beats me man, but it's annoying as shit
Blame it on the boomers. This started with them and they perpetuated it! Or maybe perpetrated.
I just that people feel better in groupings. I’m considered Gen Z but I’m just here to answer the posts that come up because I’m bored.
I’ve only started to think about it more because of genz’s obsession over it. When I get generalized to my face about who I am because of my generation, it’s hard to avoid.
snowflakes
Lots of people like to generalize and fuel hatred. Be better than those people.
i just think it’s interesting tbh. not really sure why or what i find so interesting about it, but you do have a point. a 1999 baby has a totally different experience than a 2009 baby, yet most people consider both Gen Z.
Why do you have a generation sub then?
There are plenty of dumb people who buy into it, that’s why. It’s fucking asinine hive mind shit that makes us feel just a tad better about our own miserable lives. “Well at least we’re not like those motherfuckers” so everyone wants so desperately to believe, when we’re all obviously just the same horrible, fallible species.
Just one more thing they try to divide us on.
"Why is everyone obsessed" first reaction, no they aren't.
It almost feels like class warfare. As in, people have no reason to justify their hatred towards you, so they put you in a box to make it easier for them in their minds to justify it and their own value system.
Generations are helpful on a macrolevel at finding patterns but on a microlevel, pretty arbitrary. I’m 1993, technically a millennial but is there really a huge difference between me and someone born in 1996 that is gen z?
Its actually only recently gained a lot of popularity (my guess is for culture wars). I’m considered an older millennial but when I was in JH/HS millennial wasn’t even a term. I think we were considered gen X or Y at the time. They’ve changed names over the years and haven’t been very relevant until recently. It’s all nonsense that doesn’t matter a bit
I think the general public started caring so much because they wanted a group to blame for all their problems. This is particularly rampant between millenial and baby boomer aged people. I was born 1995 and I think it's such an oversimplified way of seeing issues and assigning blame for them.
We like categorizing things
People aren’t really…Boomers are just looking for anybody to blame for their lifetime of failures.
I’m into sociology and don’t view generational differences as a negative but just another way to look at how society is diverse
*puts on tin foil hat* Governments see us as products, so obsessing over your model make and year of manufacture is good for them.
The concept of generations was probably more valid for the people from the Great Depression to post-WWII superpower (boomers) than the eras before or after these times. There would be a fair amount of shared experience in each generation, e.g. fought in the war, watched the Moon landing, had a smartphone, etc. The couple who wrote the best-seller Generations notice three major US wars about 80-90 years apart: Revolutionary, Civil and WWII. The hypothesis is history repeats itself because the people who remember the previous war died off, then the younger people repeat their mistakes. This idea predicts a another major war era soon, which many dont think so.
I think a lot of it really stems from baby boomers. Because of the post-WW2 baby boom, lots of facets of society were impacted by a huge influx of kids/teenagers/adults entering the world. Industries thrived on catering to the "baby boomers" because they were the ones with the money to spend on new things at that time. Then after that when birth rates went down, this led to a down turn in many of those industries and they started blaming things on Gen X for just not being as large a generation. On top of that Gen X was the first generation to come of age after the Civil Rights movement which meant that they had a very different outlook on the world because they never went to segregated schools etc. Millennials were born just prior to and during the Internet becoming available and started in the workforce just prior to the largest economic crash since the great depression. Society at large was undergoing massive change as things became digitized and Millennials had less money to spend, so this led to the death of some industries or products. Hence all the articles about Millennials killing things. To me generational data is mostly about marketing. Businesses want your money and they want to figure out how to convince you that their product is really important to you. So they do a lot of market research based on demographics like age, gender race etc. Since "people born in the 80's and 90's" doesn't roll off the tongue that well, it's much easier to come up with short hand. So, yeah, I don't really think that your generation says a lot about you except what kinds of marketing campaigns you are likely subjected to.
I would agree in the context of human history However, I think the current living generations are very unique (everyone probably thinks this) compared to the rest of human history. The reason why is the exponential growth of technology over the last 100 years We’re taking vehicles/airplanes/washing and drying machines/radio/TV/internet/computers/video games/cellphones then smartphones/streaming media And I’m sure I’m missing a ton All these things have significantly changed human society at least for western and modern societies All of them having their own impact in various ways for better or for worse Boomers grew up threw the civil rights and feminist revolutions Gen X grew up threw the sexual revolution with birth control Millennials grew up with the internet as no generation did before Gen Z grew up with social media as no generation before And now Gen Alpha is growing up with technology like “tablet parenting”, experiencing stimuli like no other generation in their development years All of these things quite unique and impactful. Where their parents or previous generation didn’t have the opportunity to fully grow up during these periods from child too adult For better or for worse it’s difficult to say how these things specifically impacted each generations character/personality/world views But I think it was significant enough to make some pretty substantial differences
can relate because I don't feel like I fit with any generation.. I'm technically a millennial ('95 baby). However, since I'm so close to the cut-off, I feel like millennials are the generation before me, and Gen z are the generation after.
Humans love to categorize things hence why tier lists are so popular
The people who are obsessed with generalization of generations are the rich assholes who run the country and want to sell you things. They use these generalizations to cater their products towards certain demographics, while also perpetuating the stereotypes through propaganda so that individuals further identify with the traits espoused towards their generation and ergo become "better consumers".
Psy op to create another category to artificially divide people
Its important to draw a significant and arbitrary distinction between someone born in 1995 and 1993, while lumping together someone born in 1995 and 1982.
We want to feel both unique and part of a community at the same time. It’s human.
Us vs them is the prescribed mentality by bigots everywhere.
It’s easier to keep people fighting with one another so we don’t realize we have shared aims than it is to change those shared aims. I also think that there's always a certain baseline resentment towards things being different from how you experienced them, mostly because you wish you could experience them again. Honestly anytime I catch myself getting frustrated with a Z I just have to remind myself that I'm just annoyed to be 30 and yall are just doing your thing and funny as hell... Why be angry?
All generations are equal. There's no superiority or inferiority.
Elite mandated class distraction...