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'm firmly millenial. I grew up post 9/11 and when being gay wasn't a big deal. I wasn't allowed out if the house alone until my mid teens. I call my dad every day. If I message someone and don't a response with 24 hours I start to worry about them. I've never been on airplanes etc without thorough security measures. I keep an eye out on public transport for terrorists. If I see someone who freaks me out I get off and get on the next tube. I don't see home ownership as particularly important. I think that anyone can become a millionaire if they try hard enough. I think that the state is too big in Britain and most British people don't realise the extent to which they ate dependant OK the government or how at risk this puts them in the event of a bad government. I think that people in general have too much confidence in the system whether is is state schools or the housing market. I find the rise of populism concerning and despair at the sheer lack of rational thought in contemporary politics. I always have a back up plan in case things go tits up.

1981, Gen X or Xennial. Older sibling and a long memory so my points of reference (and musical taste) go back quite deep into the 80s. I remember the Miners strikes, Kings Cross and Zenbrugge disasters. I was late to school on 16th October 1987 because the roads were blocked by fallen trees. I was an adult and at university before the Millenium and was mildly concerned about the Millenium Bug destroying the world's computer systems. It was a damp squib

My first mobile phone was a 1998 brick that could hold 8 SMS. I objected to my mum intruding on my new freedoms I was another couple of years before Snake and polyphonic ring tones. I don't miss the sound of dial up or web pages loading line by line. I began to use the internet in 1997.

Vive la cassette tape C90!

Me & DH are generation X.
All DCs are millennials.
Our parents are boomers.

Sometimes we feel like we're in a squeezed middle situation; DCs who are adults but still need us to varying degrees. Parents who are getting older and are starting to need us more.

That's middle age, I suppose 🤷🏼‍♀️

Gen X and definitely not a millennial! Love being Gen X 😊

Just squeaked into Genx
Husband is a Baby Boomer
I constantly remind him that he's over privileged and ancient 😜

Feelingoldbot on Twitter is fascinating if a little depressing in terms of presenting the time elapsed since events. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you realise things like DS listening to a Queen song is the same as me hearing something from Vera Lynn when I was his age

Definitely a GenXer here. It’s interesting what people say about the life defining moments and what you remember of growing up. Someone on the 9/11 thread commented that was the first they’d heard of terrorism. The comment threw me until I realised their memories started post GFA and they hadn’t had all the “bombs be aware” posters at stations and stuff in the 80s that I remembered.

Apparently I'm a millennial (86) but I don't really feel it.

Remember Dunblane vividly (was at primary school in Scotland), good Friday agreement etc. We had dial up internet in my late teens, first phone about 14, social media wasn't really a big thing until a bebo page at uni

DH (also 86) and I have also owned a home for 10 years, are quite established in careers and have 2 kids so we tend to think of millennials as the trainees we have at work who don't know about the millennium bug and we are closer in age to their parents 😱

TheHulk Graphista said exactly what I wanted to. Nor seeing the need for something doesn't mean 'finding it hard to adapt'. I can drive, so don't see the need for a car that can do it all for me. I find it quicker to do things in my head than use a calculator for instance.

I think the difference is that I see tech as a tool, a means to an end; whereas people younger than me see it as the be all and end all. I don't have a melt down when the internet is off...I read a book or find something else constructive to do. Ds at 18 had a tantrum as he couldn't play the beta of a new game as we had problems with Talk Talk and no Internet for three days; most illuminating as to the insidious side of the internet and over reliance upon it.

GenX, but just outside being a Xennial apparently.
I am incredibly grateful that I grew up when I did- freedom to make mistakes without it being recorded on the internet, a slower pace of life to grow up and freedom to do stuff in our own. I did stuff at 14 that DS won’t be allowed to do at the same age.

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 not patronizing at all, this is literally a definition of the difference between Gen X and millennials. And I'm 37, so a Gen X'er, and speaking from my own experience in my own field.

Nor seeing the need for something doesn't mean 'finding it hard to adapt'.

But it does. At least from a marketing/communications standpoint. The inability to see the need for things like Instagram/social media or to learn about things like SnapChat, etc, is "struggling to adapt" to ever changing technological trends. I'm not talking about learning how to use the latest version of Microsoft Word, I'm talking about using social media & tech the way young people do. If you don't see the need for it, you're behind the times. In many fields, not understanding, or seeing the need, to utilize social media would put you at an extreme disadvantage.

I'm a Xennial. I was 21 in 2000. I didn't grow up with technology, but was still young (at university) when I got my first mobile phone, started using email and the internet etc. I bought a house not long after graduating so the prices were still relatively low, but friends who waited have struggled to buy.

I don't fully identify with gen x or millenials really. I suppose I'm a bit of both.

In many fields, not understanding, or seeing the need, to utilize social media would put you at an extreme disadvantage.

There's a world of difference between me saying 'I don't want a personal FB account' and me saying 'our company doesn't need a twitter account' .

CountFosco I am literally quoting countless articles and definitions about the differences between gen-x'ers and millennials. Obviously there are people in both generations that don't fit the average definition. Steve Jobbs was a Boomer for Christ sake, and he seems to have adapted to tech pretty well. But he is not an accurate representation of his entire generation.

Here are just a few. Basically EVERY SINGLE damn piece of literature exploring the difference between Gen Xer's and millennials mentions tech and adopting tech. That's where the whole Xennial thing came from. Because Xennials' are younger Gen Xer's who take to tech like millennials, but still have common ties to Gen Xer's (issues with authority, less structured childhoods, etc).

www.business.com/articles/generations-divided-making-the-differences-between-gen-x-and-the-millennials-work-for-your-business/

www.thestar.com/life/opinion/2018/05/22/the-biggest-difference-between-millenials-and-generation-xers.html

www.wmfc.org/uploads/GenerationalDifferencesChart.pdf

appsamurai.com/generational-marketing-comparison-between-millennials-gen-x-and-baby-boomers/

globalnews.ca/news/4195080/millennial-parents-vs-gen-x-parents/

How interesting that it is the uptake of technology that defines a generation.

I can't imagine what it's like to have no experience of life before the Internet and I feel uniquely privileged to have witnessed the birth of the modern technological age.

I remember when email was so rare that the BBC children's presenters used to read out every one they received.

I remember when the first online bank accounts appeared.

I remember when everyone thought that Friends Reunited was so amazing.

I remember when Facebook came on the scene.

I remember when TripAdvisor started out and had virtually no content - and I was often the first person to add a place/hotel/restaurant and leave a review.

I was the first person to upload a family tree on a genealogy website that now has hundreds of thousands of them.

I remember when Amazon only sold books, many of which were 2nd hand.

I remember when real bargains could be had on eBay, because so few people were bidding.

What's amazing is that it was all so recent!

Zennial- millennial and Gen Z, depending on when you see Gen Z as starting

1980 here so officially Gen X but I spent 7 years at uni so actually on the cusp in some ways...there’s a real divide amongst my friends between those who got into the housing ladder in c2002 and those who are still trying to. It will follow them through to retirement.

Am Gen X though in my views on Social Media (great tool but nothing more) and culturally...I remember watching electrified as the Berlin Wall came down. And I get the references to John Major’s b@stards when Brexit is being discussed!

X

Xennial here. Born 84. Grew up with watching Friends, Biker grove and didn’t get a phone till I was almost 18.

Also big into grunge thanks to older friends and family. We pretty much accepted Kurt Cobain as our Lord and saviour in early teens

I think the main difference between gen-x and millennials is that gen-x can measure in both metric and imperial.

I was born in 1984 and i feel like i am Gen X as i don't identify with millenials at all. I remember not wanting to have a phone and finding it extremely weird how most of my friends wanted one and were willing to be found/contacted anywhere they were. I have a dear friend alao born in 1984 who is gen X. Most of my frienda born in 84-86 are clearly millennials, though. It depends on how you were raised, the place you grew up, etc.

*also

Generation X. Feel like it too for 99.999%. I quite like avocado on toast