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

[Notouchingmybhuna]

Or Z or a millenial or a boomer.

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

For full disclosure I have no clue which Gen I am actually supposed to be 😎

I find it very useful. I am gen X and work with students, who are primarily gen z. I used to get really wound up with their attitudes and apparent lack of ability to understand what I consider to be basic information presented in a logical way. Then I realised that it's a generational issue - they're not necessarily 'lazy' or 'rude' or 'entitled', they're just looking at the world through a different lens and from different frames of reference to me. And I need to learn to adjust my delivery.

They still wind me up but at least now i understand why we're so different.

I was born in 81, my mum in 61. Our childhoods and early adulthood were very very similar. My sibling is 14 years younger than me. They had a very different experience. My sibling and I are the same generation but my experience of childhood and adolecence was much more like my mothers. Those born in the early 80s had very different childhoods and early adulthoods to later millennials.

There will always be outliers of course. My sister ('81) and my mum ('60) would say they had significantly different experiences.

There are obviously changing cultural contexts in which different generations are growing up. For instance, Generation X was the first where it was much commoner for our mothers to go out to work - hence the term "latchkey children", which was heard a lot at the time (and rarely if ever anymore). We were also more likely to have divorced parents than previous generations.

I've only ever had one discussion about this with a marketing person who was talking about it in terms of market segmentation (so was relevant). Otherwise it is really wanky. I would feel like I'd want to introduce myself as 'aquarius, with an aquarius sun and moon' 😆 and watch the perplexed faces. People are made up of a multitude of things. The year you were born is just one very small thing.

Whereas I was born in 1982 and feel way more like a millennial than gen X.. with a gen Z like penchant for Nike ankle socks 😂

On reading more, maybe I am a proper Millennial as I like avocado. My partner is Gen X and hates it....

You are definitely a Gen X and a younger gen x at that being born in the late 70s. I am guessing it was a gen z who called you a boomer and class anyone over 30 as old. Gen z are just such a reactive generation who can't deal with anyone, not talking about racists, bigots etc, who disagree with them.

Okay boomer 🙄

😉

You can say youare a Xennial and this was dubbed a micro generation born from 1978-1983 who didn't quite fit in with Gen X or Millenials. There are those who are unsure if they are Millenial or gen z and dubbed Zennials. I think I need to stop going down this generation rabbit hole sitting by the fan trying not to melt.

Your irritated bewilderment at a concept you don't understand suggests you are probably a boomer, OP.

jkjkjkjk before you all come at me (millennial)
😂😂💃(gen x)

Bit ironic given your username

Huh? If they are boomers today, they were also boomers 27 years ago, because they were born during the post war 'baby boom' years. The youngest boomers were born in 1964. Making them 61 years old now.

Of course they were 'boomers' 27 years ago, if you use generational classification, because it pertains to the year of their birth.

Hahah. I have no idea why that's my username 😆 I was born many decades before then (it's not my usual one...can't work out how to change it back!)

I dislike it. People have zero control over when they're born (like their sex or race) but generational labels are frequently used perjoratively. And lumping millions and millions of people together makes me uneasy anyway.

Feeling part of a 'tribe' defined by cultural and generational things you have in common is not new or irrelevant. Giving generations names isn't that new either. As a pp said, it's sometimes useful shorthand. If you find it annoying or not useful... don't use it. I'm gen X and have no issue with being defined as such.