To say shoot me now if I ever refer to myself as Gen x

Had to Google the Oregan Trail, not a game I've heard of, although did grow up playing on the Commodore 64. Siblings were 10 years older so perhaps this as well makes me feel more like Gen X.

You seem very proud of your ignorance.

You’re a cusper; an Xennial, aka Oregon Trail Generation.

I know the cut off line has to be somewhere, but as someone born in 1981 I relate far more to Generation X than Millennials.

When I was a child in the 80s, my parents bought a special edition of Trivial Pursuit which was called the baby boomer edition. I can remember asking my mum what it meant and she explained that it was the generation of people born after WW2. As part of this same conversation, she told me that I was generation X. So this is definitely not a new phenomenon.

It sounds like people have started using their generational status in place of their personality, which is a bit crap but I still like it as a useful shorthand. My kids are gen Z and gen alpha.

Oh, dear.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation

My mum described herself as a baby boomer during the 70s when there was a discussion about working cohorts and pensions. It’s not a new concept. A bulge in the birth rate poses significant challenges to society.

Gen X were the ones after that birth rate bubble ended and get their name from a Douglas Copeland novel - although I though MicroSerfs was his better one.

It’s not your age, you don’t age in and out of a generation, it’s merely the year you were born.

Certain assumptions are useful in planning, policy making and marketing. I remember Mondeo Man, White Van Man, Pink Van Woman and other target demographics during various election campaigns. GenX and Millennials are useful in the same broad stroke way.

I’ve just attended a professional study day where speakers introduced themselves with this bollocks as if it was relevant.

My eyes would have rolled out of my head and onto the floor if I had attended that meeting. Who gives a shit what generation somebody belongs to...I don't even care what generation I belong to TBH.

Surely a professional can communicate in a way that everyone can understand regardless of their age? Offer in person training , written material and videos ? Without making reference to their or anyone else’s generation. If the justification for their style of delivery is their age, isn’t that really just an excuse for their own limitations or for using their preferred format regardless of their audience? I don’t even know what my preferred format would be. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. It depends on the quality of the info and its delivery.

😂😂🤷‍♀️

No but it seems I was one. It was originally called the Baby Boomer generation but it didn’t mean anything to us the way generation labels do today.

Because a generation refers to when you were born. I was born early 80s so am a Millenial. While the way my generation was labeled has evolved - we were Gen Y once upon a time - I was part of this generation at birth and will be until I die. I won't age up to being Gen X or a Boomer.
There's a crap load online about all of this if you genuinely find it this confusing.

You’re jumping the shark now.

Yeah boomers are politically quite meaningful because they were the largest generation (now overtaken by millennials) and as they age their pensions/healthcare needs (combined with insufficient working age adults) are going to make government budgets completely unworkable. Not the fault of any individual boomer of course.

Doesn’t this go back the First World War and the ‘lost generation’. I don’t think it’s a new phenomenon. Probably more relevant these days though because of more sophisticated marketing etc

The boomers refers to a huge baby boom after the war. Its had to shape public policy ever since. So they were baby boomers from the day they were born. The services that age category need have to expand as they reach that age. Marketeer target them because they are a big market

So boomers is 'old' now as in 60 and over, ish, but they were young once. The term first started being used when schools had to expand to fit them all in.

Can you explain the hilarity?

It is just a media way of grouping people born roughly around the same time. I would prefer born in the 1970's/80's/90's etc as some people struggle with understanding what the terms mean and 15 years is too big a band to group everyone in. Many people think millennials are those who were born circa 2000 for example.

I’m in my early 60s and was a boomer 27 years ago. Are people not boomers from the day they were born?

No idea what I am, was born late 70's although I got called a boomer the other week because someone didn't agree with something I said, if you are going to insult me call me something I know 😂

Fun fact: Douglas Coupland is actually a Boomer iirc

It’s just a framing, like jock/nerd or artistic/scientific or introvert/extrovert or left wing/right wing or northern/southern or rural/urban… useful in some ways, but it breaks if you put too much weight on it. You either find something useful in it or you don’t.

As someone else said, I find the Gen X experience of being both pre- and intra-digital very interesting, but that’s just me - I like talking about things like that. As someone else said, it can also be a nostalgia vehicle - a way of finding other people who will understand your Duran Duran references or whatever.

If nothing about it resonates with you, don’t worry about it. It’s not usually thought of as compulsory. Admittedly it’s pretty weird for anyone to ask you to include that information when introducing yourself professionally. I’ve no idea what that could achieve that a simple statement of age wouldn’t (maybe they thought it was rude to ask people to give their ages?)