Anyone else fed up with all the Millennial and Gen Z chat?

[Duvetstay]

Anyone else sick of this whole Millennial/Gen Z thing?

I'm 44 and have teens... all of a sudden everything that I do is "Millennial". Skinny jeans binned ages ago, side parting gone. Now they want my winged eye liner. The way I dance is "soooo millennial coded".

Everything online/with my kids seems to be tailored to laugh at me. Even when I try to get it right (by not wearing trainers socks) I get it wrong (apparently trainer socks are ok)

I get I should just suck it up as technically I am middle aged and the youth will always want to be different and mock the square oldies but it feels so defined with this generational chat everywhere.

Obviously I should just wear/dance/do wheat I want but it's getting me down!!!!

Your kids sound pretty mean

I'm Gen X and I do know what you mean about this phenomenon on social media.

Having said that, my 18yo is always asking me to dig out my 90s stuff and I've just been to see The Cure and Slowdive with my 16 yo, so I think your kids need to check their heads and stop being so easily lead

Be Millennial and proud.

I'm Gen X and I absolutely love it! Husband is a happy Boomer.

No one has to feel apologetic or justify themselves because of the year they were born in.

Different time periods have always had their own style. Normally it was defined by decades rather than generations , but it’s always been a thing. You can blame the adults of the generation before us for millennial being such a thing. All the articles in mainstream and social media.

Gen X and proud. I don’t want to look like a kid or even a 20-something. Complaining about online contact aimed at young folk is like complaining that Just17 magazine prioritised teen fashion over older women.

To be fair, naming generations is less to do with SM and more to do with marketing strategy.

Naming generations (demographic groups) is a useful way to target the audience you want.

When I am watching Midsomer Murders on ITV3 this afternoon, I know the tv adverts will be for River Cruises, Funeral Plans and Travel insurance for the over 50s.

Naming the generations is just a loose method of explaining general behaviour, spending habits and life stages. It doesn’t mean EVERY Boomer wants to go on a river cruise, but they’re more likely to book it than a Gen Z.

Same with clothes and styling. And that has always been the case. Each generation tries to be different and create an identifier, whether that’s flicked eyeliner or “socks with everything”

Try not to take it personally. It was probably the same in Roman times. I don’t do SM aside from MN and my mental health thanks me!

I'm Gen X so don't get pulled into this generational crap very often as everyone has forgotten about us, however it does seem to border on very nasty sometimes. I didn't take the piss out of my parents clothes when I was younger, it didn't even occur to me to care about what they wore. And if I had I'd have had a rollicking for being so rude.

I didn't even know I was Gen X until relatively recently! I just thought it was a cool name for a band when I was growing up 😂

Gen "Zed" will get their comeuppance eventually though.

I’m also Gen X and yes, we famously don’t give a shit.

You are absolutely right that eventually Gen Z will be the objects of pity by the super cool generations below them, Gen Alpha and Beta. It’s completely normal.

You’re watching too much crap online, way way too much

I'm a millennial. I remember when the media accused us of being the downfall of society and now we are old they have moved on to gen z
Gen z and younger have no right to make fun of millennial trends either. We also though we were the height of cool at that age! And hilariously teenagers dress like it's the early 2000s again, the same as we did.
It's all just pitting generations against each other to sow discord.

isn't this the same for every generation of parents and teens though?

Id tell my children not to try to bully me with trivia, tbh. Not worth headspace, commenting on various generational modes.. ho hum.

And Boomers were painted as the downfall of society in the sixties. It’s nothing remotely new or specifically about Millennials.

When I was in my teens I thought basically everyone over 40 was not very on trend and quite old. That’s normal, I think?

Your points seem to contradict each other though - I agree that it's all media-driven but therefore it can't be exactly the same as in roman times!

Yes younger people have always considered those older than them to be old-fashioned and perhaps rolled their eyes a bit at some of their views but there wasn't this constant need for categorisation or obsessive classification by age group of everything from socks to hair partings!

I think that's what OP is getting at. 20 years ago someone being older than you and therefore wearing slightly different clothes or listening to different music to you wouldn't be cause for merriment or even taking any notice of, it would just be completely normal. I had colleagues who were 10, 20, 30 years older than me who I was friendly with, I wouldn't have thought about making fun of them as boomers or gen x or whatever!

It might seem like just a silly joke but I think it's both divisive (yet another way to split the 99% and have us blame each other for things rather than the 1% who are actually in power and hoarding the world's wealth), and also reflects an ever increasing focus on youthfulness and ageism - which normally disproportionately impacts women.

This.

Yes, this is exactly what I mean. Thanks for expanding so eloquently... I had some rather nutty replies and didn't think people understand my point that everything from the size of handbag to how to stare is now seen as generational signifier.

I don't remember anyone being so constantly rude and mean about older generations when I was younger. Millenials got crapped on massively by the boomers and now by Gen Z. Your kids sound pretty mean and disrespectful. I could not imagine making comments about what my mum wore and making fun of her. I don't remember seeing anyone doing that. So yeah I do think it is a new thing and I hate it too. I remember when I went out raving when I was younger I saw older generations, we loved to see them there, I said to them, I hope I'm still doing that at your age. Now the younger ones look down their noses and ask why we haven't given up on life yet. So yeah I do think it's been a big change

“Nutty replies”

Aka replies pointing out our kids are making you feel shit, which is… shit

It’s sad really. Lots of Gen Z and below look to millenials as having everything they don’t. It’s a jealousy thing. We are cool. They want to be cool 😎

Also… this

But why do you care? Why does it matter if your handbag is a ‘generational signifier’?

I don’t think this has ever crossed my mind but I don’t use insta etc.

Too much time on SM I suspect

I also don’t get this idea that teens are the ultimate arbiters of style, they aren’t. Some have style & grow into adults with style, many have no style.