Gen Y was always the same as Millennials (at least by 1999)
Posted by Overall-Estate1349@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 75 comments
Posted by Overall-Estate1349@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 75 comments
Possible-Tangelo9344@reddit
I was told I was at the tail end of Gen X when I was inn elementary school, only to become a millennial in high school
Ph4ntorn@reddit
I was never told I was Gen X, but I definitely got some confusing messages from the media where in one news story Gen X seemed to refer to teens and young adults who just didn’t care and in the next story Gen X was preteen kids about my age.
I saw the same sorts of confusion around the time the youngest millennials were entering the workforce. Some people kept using “Millennial” to mean teenagers even after all millennials were over 20.
lospotatoes@reddit
This is the correct answer. "Millennial" is an epithet used by boomers. Still is.
Thamnophis660@reddit
I too remember being told I was GenX in elementary and middle school. Maybe my parents and teachers were wrong?
greyladybast@reddit
It was the other way around for me. I was told I was Gen Y, and that Gen X were the older, cool kids we looked up to. Then suddenly I became Gen X sometime in college.
TeutonJon78@reddit
Yeah, when we were growing up X ended at like 76 or something.
queendweeb@reddit
Yes! I was salty because my brother is true gen x (late 73) and I wasn't at early 78 hahaha.
Norwester77@reddit
Same here.
Overall-Estate1349@reddit (OP)
Because parents/teachers likely didn't read sociological texts. This book from 1991 said Millennials start in 1982:
https://archive.org/details/generationshisto00stra/page/334/mode/2up?q=millennial+generation+1982
FCStien@reddit
It's the same reason that you'd see Gen Z kids labeled as Millennials through about 2020 or so — it was old people simply latching onto the most recent popular label for young people that they want to complain about.
Thamnophis660@reddit
That's probably it honestly. Older people calling every young person a "GenX slacker."
I'm not attached to either label really.
YourGuyK@reddit
Generations are generally made up. The dates have fluctuated for quite a while. It's possible they hadn't even come up with the next generation name when you were being told that.
po_ta_toes_80@reddit
Are you sure you don't regularly stay at the inn next to the armour shoppe to replenish your mana?
Possible-Tangelo9344@reddit
Me and my pal Chaucer don't have to sit here and put up with this!
rjcpl@reddit
Yeah Gen X was the latest label all the way up to high school for me. Gen Y/Millennial hadn’t been invented yet. 👴
Lobo0084@reddit
Some hallmarks that made Millennials different from Gen X hadn't happened yet or werent understood while most of us were young.
Analog age ending and becoming the digital age and 9/11 while still in school are two commonly accepted hallmarks that formed the generation. Later, our penchant for globalism, wildlife and nature preservation, and activism in general would make us clearly different from the 'I dont care' Gen X.
In hindsight, its clear Millennials are not Gen X. But in our early years, people fish hard for definitions, like many are doing now with Gen Z and Alpha.
sbotzek@reddit
Born in 1979, and I was told I was Gen Y in elementary school, only later to find out I was considered Gen X.
TijayesPJs443@reddit
Yes can we figure out how to reset this auto typing?it won’t stop capitalizing DON’T for some reason it just and lm looking really aggressive!
sunkistandsudafed3@reddit
I'm glad it did. You rant has brightened up my day!
Willing_Actuary_4198@reddit
I never remember even hearing generation names until the 2010s when boomers started blaming us for everything
ResponsibilityIcy187@reddit
it’s okay. none of those things actually mean anything out in the real world. gen x or millennial, I still have to go to work tomorrow .
Comprehensive-Fact94@reddit
I feel that where/how you grew up makes a difference.
I was born in 83, so technically a Millennial.
Grew up on a farm in a small midwest town. Spent most of my time with my Silent Generation grandparents on a farm. We had 2 channels on TV. No home internet or cable til my teens. No cell phone til I was 19. No social media til college.
Aside from having a Nintendo, that doesn't seem very 'Millennial' no me. More Gen X.
My 'rich' friends had cable and internet as kids. They were having LAN parties while the rest of us were out getting into trouble. That seems VERY millennial.
Micahisaac@reddit
Besides locale, I feel it depends on how old your parents were. I was born in 81 and my Parents were born late 40’s. When they had me in their mid 30’that was older to be parents back then.
I feel like my friends with younger parents had a different life… more helicopter parents, whereas my parents were the “he’ll be home when he gets hungry “ mindset.
BrainFartTheFirst@reddit
I was born in 84 so I'm also technically a millennial.
I grew up in Los Angeles with my parents, one boomer and one silent generation. We had cable then we got dial up when I was 10. I also didn't get a cell phone until I was 19 and I had to buy it myself. I didn't get social media until I was in my mid-20s.
So all in all I would seem fairly millennial but I also grew up with my older sister who was firmly Gen x so a lot of my early experiences we're basically hand-me-down Gen x experiences. The first console I ever used was my sister's Atari 2600. And then I got a Nintendo.
I've never really felt like I fit in with millennials.
thejunkmanadv@reddit
I feel you here. I am only 4 years older, but also grew up on a generational farm. Like some of the ground I farm now is/was part of the original home stead act ground. So land from the my ancestors "Missionary Generation" (I had to look that up) in 1862, I grew up on. And being a farmer you probably understand this, but I grew up not only around the history stories, but the living history in the way of equipment, buildings/infrastructure (that has been modified through the years). I have the first steel plow they family bought that broke out this land. Same with more mechanized farming implements, first tractor, first disc harrow, planter/drill, ect... ANYWAYS...
I had cousins that lived in larger cities and visiting them it always felt like we were about 10 years behind. I felt more like a 70's kid than 80's. For example, movies took almost a year to make it to the small town theater, long after any promotions for those films were over.
IHAVENOIDEA0980@reddit
"Echo Boomer." Rude.
normllikeme@reddit
I still prefer xennial. 83 most the time we were closer to x than the millennials after 87 or so
Spamberguesa@reddit
For a long time, nobody could seem to agree on when exactly Gen X ended. I read everything from '77 to '84, which I think is partly why the concept of Xennials became a thing.
Borracho_Bandit@reddit
83 here. I can’t relate to Gen X or millennials.
red286@reddit
The problem is that 'generations' are too large. Growing up, someone who is >5 years older or younger than you had a different experience than you did. They watched different TV shows, listened to different music, played different games, watched different movies, wore different clothes, etc. The notion that someone potentially up to 15 years older or younger than you would think they had a similar upbringing is just nonsense. I'm the tail end of GenX, but I have as much in common with an elder GenX as I do with a Boomer or a Zoomer.
Baldur8762@reddit
I refuse to accept being called a millennial. Those of us born between '77-83 are a breed apart.
wiserTyou@reddit
Being a millennial was fine until they started grouping us in with the 90s babies. They're different.
red286@reddit
I still encounter Boomers who think that Millennials are still "kids", despite the fact that the youngest ones would be 30.
lastcallhall@reddit
"Echo boomers"
What an apt title.
Unfortunate-Incident@reddit
I wish that would have stuck. Think about how much fun that would be today. I mean gen z and alpha are already calling millenials boomers anyways.
lastcallhall@reddit
It was more like Boomers and Millennials are literally mirrors to one another, and we're caught in the middle with Gen X as per usual.
Miami_Mice2087@reddit
Because we were graduating/coming of age around the millennium. Today, millennials are kids who were born around the millennium.
herseyhawkins33@reddit
The funny thing about generations is they're completely arbitrary AKA they don't matter. I stopped caring about not wanting to be called a millennial a long time ago.
Synigm4@reddit
Yeah, being born right on the line I was constantly being told I was in both, so I hung onto the 'Gen X' title for a while just because I liked the sound of it better.
But then I realized it was just another arbitrary label people used to hate on others for... so fuck it, if it matters to someone I'm whatever will piss them off more.
an_inverse@reddit
Gen Y just sounds so apathetic.
I'm glad to be defined by the millennium instead (83).
Being a part of the unique Xennial position of having a close relationship to Gen Xer's attitudes to society while having ridden so many changes is certainly worthy of a micro generation IMHO.
Unfortunate-Incident@reddit
As a 79er, I thought I was Gen Y in the 90s, but then ended up on the other side of the line. Most of my experience with Gen X was my siblings (3, 5, and 10 yrs older than me), and I could not relate to them really so I was kinda dissappointed being lumped in with them. I have been holding on to this micro-generation thing for decades now lol
this_knee@reddit
The “we don’t know what to call you. You’re a ‘SpeCiAL’ generation. What are you called, again?”
Was rampant in out time. We grew up being part of no group. Just some random people . It’s only here in 2016 onward that we look back and people go: “you were always made this one thing. What’s the problem?” Nope.
Remytron83@reddit
I kind of like Echo Boomers. Anyway, my mom always called my sister and I millennium babies. When Millennial became common I was used to it.
BeenisHat@reddit
Echo Boomers grates on my nerves so badly. Same as Baby Boomerangs.
KW5625@reddit
I (84) remember being called Gen Y (Why?) because of our ability to access information on the "world wide web" that no previous generation had.
It wasn't until the late '90s and I heard it turn into millennial.
Gullible-Apricot3379@reddit
I could write a whole essay with documented citations, but the short answer is that the media conflated Twentysomething and GenX in the early 90s and kept with it.
This had the dual effect of never acknowledging anyone under 20 in whatever given year, and quietly pushing out anyone over 30. This continued until about 1995 before someone seemed to notice it.
In the late 90s, it was also increasingly hard to reconcile the latest senior class as part of the same ‘twentysomething’ generation that was rapidly approaching 40.
Finally, the Generation X label begged to be parodied. There were a lot of ‘witty’ headlines like ‘Generation WWW’ or ‘Generation Y Not?’
Combine that, and you get a short-lived Generation Y label cropping up in the late 90s referring to the current teenagers (so probably roughly the Xennial cohort).
As a reminder, most local newspapers were owned by large media conglomerates by then, and a LOT of the content that showed up in your hometown newspaper came off the wire.
ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit
I thought I was Gen X for the longest time.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
This isn't a surprise. The surprise (heavy on the ish) is how many folks don't know it. It's not exactly classified information.
0215rw@reddit
It’s all kind of made up anyway.
PL02550@reddit
Being born in the almost dead center of the year of 80, I'm either a Gen X'er or a Millennial depending on the sociologist. I remember reading one article that broke 1980 down and the split was made there. Either way we are defined as individuals that grew up in analog and matured in digital. Now I can Airdrop the kids to get off my lawn.
thejunkmanadv@reddit
I still think of a particular strategically placed bodily function when I hear the term "air drop"
PL02550@reddit
You sure that's not called an "upper decker"?
FCStien@reddit
An upper decker is essentially defined by the target. (The tank)
An air drop is essentially defined by the position of the "bomber". (Hovering somewhere in the air)
An air drop can be combined with an upper decker, but they are in form and function two separate things.
thejunkmanadv@reddit
Damn it. I love reddit for this.
Norwester77@reddit
All the sociologists are wrong. You’ve come to the right place.
GuidoCarosella82@reddit
I never even heard the term "Millennial" until 2017. I didn't even know what it was. When I was growing up, I was told that I was on the tail end of Gen X. Then, in 2001, I heard the term "Gen Y," and that was the first inkling of not being Gen X. I have one Baby Boomer older sister and five Gen X older siblings, the youngest of whom was born in '79. When I would descriptions of Millennials (partially raised online, raised by Young Baby Boomers/Older Gen X, etc), that didn't seem to fit me at all. I didn't even learn how to email until I went to college in 2000.
timecat22@reddit
anyone who can't figure this out on their own ain't gonna make it. Which generation did they THINK was going to be between gen x and gen z?
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit
“Echo boomers”?
False_Influence_9090@reddit
I kinda like it
FoppyDidNothingWrong@reddit
Baby Boomer's Baby Boom 2: The Reckoning.
anannanne@reddit
I always heard it as “Baby Boomers’ Babies.”
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit
But are we baby boomers’ babies with a bibble baby boom or just babies of baby boomers in a bibble boom-less bubble?
janellthegreat@reddit
You likely know Baby Boomers are called such because of the post war baby boom. In terms of demographics, where that large group of people had children of their own there is an "echo" influx of population. Hence "echo boomer."
quintk@reddit
It’s easy to forget (as the word has taken on so much other meaning) that the baby boom is an actual historical event that you can see on graphs of birth rate over time. Some of the “generations” we talk about are fuzzy and maybe a little BS (like the one on this sub — we’re just having fun). But the “boomers” have a known historical cause and a beginning middle and end. And at least in some charts you see the echo (smaller in amplitude and more spread out).
dewdude@reddit
No. Because most of us born between 78 and 82 were told we were a "cusp generation"; that we fit between Gen X, and "whatever the next is".
FoppyDidNothingWrong@reddit
FoppyDidNothingWrong@reddit
Late 90s as I thought! Before that we were all Gen X. 💀
foxontherox@reddit
Growing up, I always understood Gen X to end in 78. I was born in 80, so I always thought I was a millenial.
SenorNeiltz@reddit
I'm firmly Generation Next
FCStien@reddit
I remember that specific "Gen Y (or Why?)" pun from back then.
MlsterFlster@reddit
I still call us Gen Y. I'm bringing it back.
m-nd-x@reddit
Gen Why? I can get behind that.
SlavaSobov@reddit
Experiencing the rise of the Internet made us question everything.
quintk@reddit
This backfired for me. There are a lot of awful opinions and beliefs out there that I thought were “just a few teenage edgelords role playing on the internet,” because I didn’t believe it could possibly true that statistically significant numbers of adults would say those things and mean them. But as it turns out they are real people with money and power.
Warrior-Cook@reddit
Coming from the final two weeks of the 70s, I prefer to be called a time mutt.