Are you Generation X or a Millennial?

[twattymctwatterson]

This is just for fun as I was reading something that caught my interest. Depending on what you read I could be classed as either, I suppose I'm a Xennial. According to Wikipedia, you're Generation X if you're a child of Thatcher, possibly a latch key kid, grew up with Friends, Nirvana, remember the fall of the Soviet Union. I think that's me. Apparently Gen X are more cynical while Millenials are more confident, more civic minded and better at collaboration but also more sheltered. I'd be interested to see if just being born 2/3 years later than me could really make that much difference? Surely someone born in 83 would also consider themselves a child of Thatcher's Britain, remember life before the internet etc?

I think I'm Gen X (born in 66). TheHulks I wouldn't say that people my age find new tech 'difficult' (how patronising), but having grown up without it, we don't always see the need for it. I can walk around a city looking at things, not glued to a bloody smartphone.

One of the saddest things I've seen was on the Charles Bridge in Prague and at the Astronomical clock...people glued to their phones or filming it, as opposed to taking the time to put the tech down, take a deep breath and just look closely at the architectural details or the swans on the river. I think people miss so much.

I'm at the tail end of Generation X. I can remember all those major news events as well OP. I was 17/18 when I first went online, 18 when I first first used email, 21 when I had my first mobile phone.

Watching Black Earth Rising made me feel very old to think that of course younger people won't remember the Rwandan genocide, as it's nearly 25 years ago, although I am surprised when some say they haven't even heard about it. I was 15 at the time and remember the news appeals on TV.

TheHulks I wouldn't say that people my age find new tech 'difficult' (how patronising), but having grown up without it, we don't always see the need for it.

Good thing I didn't say Gen X'er's find new tech difficult. I said they generally struggle to adapt to new technology and trends. Which you confirmed by saying that because you didn't grow up with it, you don't see the need for it. That's called "struggling to adapt"

DH and I are both GenX - 78/77.
I kind of get the Xenial thing as we both started university in '95 and I remember the very basic internet, floppy discs. Edinburgh uni had some kind of IM system too, on which we flirted. I remember the Berlin Wall and the scud missiles of the first Gulf War.

Je suis un Boomer...

It's all your fault you know- house prices, Brexit, fortnightly bin collections

I'm gen x and I think we came of age during really exciting times, the Berlin Wall coming down after the Cold War and that feeling of hope as an eighteen year old was brilliant.

Many years on I've developed wrinkles and cynicism 😂

i'm very much a xennial (84)

i remember a time before mobiles and internet (and i miss it)
my music era was spice girls/backstreet boys/placebo (depending on your taste)
tv was saved by the bell/friends/south park/red dwarf
my first 'i remember where i was when' moment was when diana died, the first war i remember was bosnia and then Kosovo

Basically a Gen Xer will always tell me i'm a millenial and a millenial with always tell me i'm a gen xer! so i must be a xennial!

Yeah Bosnia was the first war for me, I remember on blue peter them showing a video of a girl whose house was bombed on her birthday and it was like her birthday present was the bombing. Then Kosovo I remember watching all the build up on the news. 9/11 was definitely the big defining event of my childhood/adolescence though (where the fall of communism is for gen xers), I have a clear sense of the different mood before and after because I was old enough to recognise it (which was not at all true for the fall of communism for me).

I'm gen X and so is Dh ( late 60's ) I think the difference is the expectation that your parents will look after you well into your 20's and that their lives revolve around the kids. As kids we were just expected to fit in with whatever parents decided to do and whinging wasn't an option. Probably why Gen X are quite resourceful!

I was born 81 so was 18 in the year 2000. Is that coming of age?

I don't really remember Thatcher, the fall of the Soviet Union but do remember Nirvana and Friends.

My sister is born 83 and I'd say we have the same experiences of childhood and growing up so not sure those 2 years make much difference.

Thehulks - not seeing the need for a thing is NOT the same as struggling to adapt to it.

As it happens I'm better on tech than my post-millenial daughter is!

Got my first computer at 13 pre-Windows when you had to programme it before you could do anything with it. I've worked on computers my entire working life including bespoke software which I learned to 'fix' out of necessity as calling in outside IT support back when most companies didn't have their own IT support was expensive and discouraged. I can do a lot more on my tablet and phone than she even realises is possible!

So please, lose the patronising 'older folk can't work tech' Schtick please! We were using it when it was a damn sight slower and trickier than you guys are used to or would accept!

I'm a 89 born Millennial. But I remember Dunblane, Princess Diana pegging it and the Good Friday Agreement (because my parents watched the news, and at primary school in Scotland, so Dunblane was huge) and remember a world without internet because we didn't get it until I was 10 - although I suppose I was aware of the internet before then, hardly anyone actually had it where we lived. But the millennium and 9/11 were the defining moments of my childhood/early adolescence.

I think the issue with people not wanting to be a millennial when they're born in prime Millennial years is that they're seeing it as a value judgement rather than a rough age descriptor.

minecraft its not that for me really, its just most of the descriptors dont fit me - the key one seems to be the 'growing up with technology/internet/social media' for millenials and that is not me - i didnt have a phone until i was 17, i had dial up internet until 18, i had no social media at all until i was 21/22 (although that was my choice, it was around slightly before). i remember so clearly life before all this crap hence why i cannot relate to the 'selfie generation'

I was born in 1990 so I'm a millennial. People use it as an insult but I'm too busy Instagramming my avocado toast to pay much attention

@amusedbush

😃

I just googled it! Bloody hell - I am a Generation X!! v. excited:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

Older Millenial.

I identify with some of the cliches (house prices! Like avocados) but not all of them (married my uni boyfriend so never used tinder etc. Have a DC so tend to hang out with slightly older people, i'm not sure if woke is a real term or used ironically)

Gen x can see the internet and social media as a separate, fabricated world while it's true reality for millennials. Don't know if anyone knows what I mean!

I know exactly what you mean. Obviously Gen X here.

A cynical Generation X (1965) .
On a profile site ! we are averse to Authority . This is correct , in my personal case.

Haha! Another Xennial here, in fact both DH and myself are. Myself born in the late 70s and him early 80s.

I feel really lucky actually, because technology just seems to come easily to us, but we were fortunate enough to not have all the nonsense of social media when we were children. We also managed to just buy a house before the market went loopy. (although I bought it at the tender age of 18 - had I gone to university (it was free!) I would have missed out on this opportunity. The irony!

I also do love a good eyeroll when I hear about Millennial issues such as the 'avocado on toast' one..

Reckon I'm a bona fide Xennial. Born in 1985. Remember all the hype and excitement of getting my first mobile (desirable flip) phone at 15.

Remember the advent of the internet as part of everyday life. Am definitely not a digital native (held out against smartphone tech until 2012) and shudder and thank my lucky stars my teens were not lived on social media.

I think my childhood/ early teens were influenced by Gen X, then older adolescence and young adulthood very much Millennial - especially so because chronic illness meant I spent a long time getting my degree.

I resonate with aspects from both Gen X and Millennial cultures. A perfect blend

I was born in 1981 and definitely relate the most to being a Xennial - I remember learning computers being on the old Apple 2es, then internet being introduced at my high school, first mobile phone in 1st year uni etc. We always had laptops and internet quite early at home as Dad worked in IT. I remember having to write a report on the fall of the Berlin Wall at primary school - the first big “world event” I recall, although I don’t think I had any appreciation of what it meant.

I feel like gen xs were just a little bit older than me - the reality bites generation, the reality is whilst I watched/listened to a lot of gen x cultural stuff I was a pre teen and didn’t really get it in the same way.

I keep wondering this! Born in 85, definitely do not feel like a Millennial; social media, clean eating, selfies etc just is not my life, but equally I view gen x as older than me and even those only slightly older imagine they caught the end of the last boom so more secure with property and income.

I don't own property or have a generation to call my own!

Millennial (1990).

Those from 95 onward are apparently generation z. Which sounds like a zombie film.

What will they call 2010 norms then? That's my kids and heard none yet.

I've always considered myself a millennial. I was born 82. Turned 18 in 2000.

Ah apparently born 2013 onwards is gen alpha.