How come we only got 15 years?

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user_number_666@reddit

Millennials only got 15 years, and same for Gen Z.

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False-Storm-5794@reddit

Because it's all about marketing. The name generations are all about splitting people into groups to figure out the best way to sell them shit.

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MetalSufficient9522@reddit

Most of us were aborted anyway... We're lucky to get 15.

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The Boomers stole extra years in the early 60s that are rightfully Gen X. Strauss and Howe went with 1961-1981. 1961 is certainly debatable for X, but the idea that a baby born in 1964-65 somehow counts as a Boomer is ludicrous.

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momandmax@reddit

The guy who wrote the book gen x (douglas copeland) put it at 1960

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That-1-Red-Shirt@reddit

My mom was born in 1957 and her brother was born in 1964. My mom barely counts as a boomer, although has started doing the "if I saw it on the interwebs it must be true" instead of using her critical thinking skills (gods above she thinks a photo with a quote on it is God's own Gospel truth instead of fact checking). Other than that she really always seemed more an elder gen X, but a lot of that might have been my grandparents not raising any of their kids to be fucking selfish weenies.

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Bromodrosis@reddit

I married a woman born in 65, she was absolutely not Gen X. She was an old lady in her 30s.

Definitely a Boomer mentality.

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Valuable-Stock-7517@reddit

They should have let generation Jones stay separate from the boomers.

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DocCEN007@reddit

They definitely changed the years for us. We used to be 1960-1980, then at some point it changed to make us a smaller group. Even with the change, we're not much smaller than Boomers, but they keep gaslighting everyone to believe that somehow there was a population collapse that started in 1965. Ridiculous.

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momandmax@reddit

It did change. Thought that was weird

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Tberd771@reddit

In the 70s, we were 1966-1975, then that changed to 1965-1980, then 1960-1981. Now, who knows, and I don't care. It's so arbitrary for the changes. I have my own theories, but really who cares. I remember life in the 70s, and that's good enough. Let's all put on the electric company, kojak, wacky Racers and share memories as friends. Regardless of age 🍻

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KindCommentary@reddit

The term Generation X was coined by Douglas Coupland in his classic novel 'Tales for an Accelerated Culture'(1991) defined as the generation born from 1960 to 1978.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250810779/generationx/

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Gloomy_Narwhal_4833@reddit

The term existed before Coupland, he just popularized it. Paul Fussels used the term first in 1983.

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Tberd771@reddit

Not trying to argue, but I clearly recall us being called Generation X as early as 1989, and said we would be the the first Generation to have several careers in life as a defining feature. Again, who cares lol. Let's all share memories of the 70s and raise a glass 🍻

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Hefewiezen1@reddit

They’re trying to squeeze us out.

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elidan5@reddit

I’m still going with 1960-1980. It’s all arbitrary anyway…

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blaspheminCapn@reddit

To scare everyone about the Pill and abortion.

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Able_Cartographer655@reddit

I'm technically a boomer (1964)but have identify as GenX. I think the Kennedy assassination should have been the changing point. My brother is 18 months younger, but he seems more like a boomer to me.

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Thatstealthygal@reddit

But we weren't even alive at the time!!!

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Thatstealthygal@reddit

Boomers booming in the front end so they can still think they're young /s

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Commentator-X@reddit

It's because you're parents were the smallest generation in modern history, the silent generation. So by extension X is also a smaller shorter generation.

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shackspirit@reddit

Were the smallest because of the contraceptive pill. That’s all

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midwesternmayhem@reddit

Our parents are Boomers. The early Boomers who didn’t go to college or who had kids right after college (mine) had Gen X kids. The Boomers who went to grad school/had fun in their 20s/were later Boomers are Millennials parents.

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Commentator-X@reddit

No, if your parents are boomers you're a millenial. You might be one of the oldest millenial, but you're still a millenial

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koda5225252@reddit

? Huh?

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Proper-Painting-2256@reddit

Both of mine silent. Both of my wife’s parents are boomers. It depends.

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Bromodrosis@reddit

Same on both counts.

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Sea-Oven-7560@reddit

speak for yourself, both my parents were silent as were many of the early X'ers.

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Accomplished_Fee5965@reddit

I was born in 1980. My parents were boomers.

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toripotpie@reddit

Agreed, we are gen X. I was always considered X until at some point it changed, but it’s like horoscopes…I’ll always be a Scorpio too. You can’t just change it. 1980 is historically accepted as gen X

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Commentator-X@reddit

Then you're not genx

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Sad-Reflection-3499@reddit

My parents were both Boomers, born in 1956.

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BisonIllustrious9449@reddit

Because that's actually when they started classification and making it a social awareness thing. I was supposed to graduate in 96. Never associated with my age/ class. Actually associated and related to people older, or younger than me... that gap you talk about. Is real. We should be called the missing/ ghost gen. Lol. We dont fit anywhere.

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TerrainBrain@reddit

Cause 15 year old started having kids?

The definition of generation has been totally lost.

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dezmd@reddit

What?

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ThirdSunRising@reddit

The dictionary definition of a generation involves a parent-child relationship. Three generations means grandparents, parents, children. Four generations would involve great grandparents.

This use of the word “generation” to refer to the people within a specific group of birthdates, is pretty far divorced from the original meaning of the word

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ExhaustedHungryMe@reddit

Nice try, but 15-year-olds have been having kids for as long as humans have walked the earth. The teen birth rate is down in most of the world. Women are having their first babies at an older ages than in previous generations.

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ThirdSunRising@reddit

31 year old grandparents are uncommon. 46 year old great-grandparents are even more uncommon.

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ExhaustedHungryMe@reddit

Yes, I get that. I was replying to the person who suggested that GenX was a smaller generation than previous ones “because 15-year-olds started having kids.” That’s not only not a new thing, but it’s exceedingly uncommon, so their reasoning does not make sense.

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TerrainBrain@reddit

This exactly.

I'm Generation Jones which is only 11 years.

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RobDGenX@reddit

Every generation has a major moment that marks the end, but it isn't when you are born, it's a shared experience of those that saw it. Challenger Disaster to Fall of the Berlin War is a micro generation. I was in Kindergarten and not i. He gym for Challenger, but remember some about the Wall. So, Solid Gen X would be those 1st through 20yrs old and the clinger Xellenials would be that small group that don't remember Challenger, but do know Communism. Then you have 15 years where don't remember either, so 1984ish to 1997, Millenials had ALL of the good, bring the world together after Communism. The next great moment was the iPhone. Of course a 3 year old wouldn't have an iPhone, this would be 10 year old at the youngest, so 1997 and on have only known the iPhone and touch screens. I call this The G.U.I. Generation.

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zodiac6300@reddit

My wild take is the generation thing is marketing BS, but whatever.

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momandmax@reddit

Guy who wrote the book gen x started it at 1960

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HarbingerofBurgers@reddit

Because the older generations have despised us from the onset. And then the Zoomers came at us from the other side of self-righteousness. Why? Because we tell the ugly, had truth.

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starksfergie@reddit

I always felt like it was because for most of Gen X, our parents also weren't boomers, where the next Generation their parents mostly are (mine and my husbands were both silent gen)

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

I think a lot of the younger end of X came from boomer parents. Those of us on the elder end of X with Silent Gen parents definitely got a different upbringing. My wife and I especially, as both of us came from military families, which is its own subculture.

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RunRunRabbitRunovich@reddit

1975 here my parents were 1940 and 1941 and raised in a USMC household… shit was a whole other level of neglect and accountability.

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starksfergie@reddit

I thik you are right, I'm from the early/middle (born in 1970) - all of my siblings ARE boomers (born 57, 59, 61), the two earliest are the most boomer like and my sister from 61 is less so - and yes, odd that you mentioned that, both me and my husband are from military familys (hubby's were out of military early in his life and mine, but we moved around the world 5 times before I settled down in South Texas) - you are so right, it is its own subculture

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

Yeah, we’re similar there. My wife was born in 66 and I’m from 68. She wife came along after her dad retired whereas I grew up all over the world. But some parts of that upbringing are universal. We both got the “Early is on time, on time is late, late is unacceptable” traits from it.

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starksfergie@reddit

Yeah, Due to where we landed, I always felt as "other" in Texas as I was born and started in Japan and then Germany and felt weirdly cosmopolitan as a child - it'd been hard to shake that (so we even did the same things as adults and moved around a lot) - and you nailed that too, I've always been early my entire life (and hell, even had a few jobs where we had a lot of ex-military members, so I've experience hurry up and wait quite a lot too)

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

Oh yeah. I grew up doing the Italy / Germany / Japan trifecta with multiple other stateside locations.

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starksfergie@reddit

Never did Italy - we were at Yokota and Tachikawa (born here) and then Ramstein and Weisbaden in Germany for my first 5 years of life, then Kansas City (which both parents despised) and we settled in San Antonio (great place to grow up, not so much to stay if you don't like the straight suburban life). Dad retired after Kansas City and then they never moved house again, when we got to SA, they lived and died in the same house (my 2nd eldest brother now owns it, so it's still in the family, which is nice) - where else did you live in the States?

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

Ah. Yeah. My dad was USAF but did some temporary assignment at a Navy base in Naples. Rhein Main in Germany, and Yokota Japan. Being in Japan for my high school years was cool.

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starksfergie@reddit

Very cool - okay, final story, so not to bore you, was flying in 2024 to see one of my besties in Brighton (England) and wanted to fly to Gatwick and not Heathrow just for a quicker commute to his place, so in Keflavik, I boarded and the lady next to me in the queue happened to also be my seatmate. We started chatted and eventually got around to our lives etc. Turns out she was ALSO born in Tachikawa and she's the only person I've ever met that was born in the same place as me (and very similar circumstances) - thanks for all your details too, fun to read and yeah, would kill to have had Japan for high school. Embararssed to say, I have yet to go back (so it's been 54 years since I've been there). We were going to go last year, but airline tix were way to high and this years vacation was already spoken for (YVR for the World Cup), but 2027, the plan is Japan :)

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Sad-Reflection-3499@reddit

Somebody did a poll on this a few days ago, parents were evenly split between silent and boomers.

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HistoricalTowel1127@reddit

They know we can do more with less

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rich4pres@reddit

They offered an extra five years but we said “whatever man”.

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SBInCB@reddit

Because generations are a social construct…

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zombie_spiderman@reddit

... except for the Boomers. They genuinely had a unique societal impact, what with their quantity having a quality all its own.

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FloppyFerrett1@reddit

Not just boomers, also the ones who were actually fighting the WWs as the Greatest Generation. They had even more of a societal impact AND they understood the idea of sacrifice for the greater good, I.e., stuff going for "the war effort".

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SBInCB@reddit

It didn’t hurt that there was an actual greater good to reference. Wars since WWII haven’t been so easy to pin down. Opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the only defensible position available these days and too few realize it.

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Talydia@reddit

Some of us older millennials stole your last few years to make xennials a thing.

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Flat-Product-119@reddit

You sons of bitches, And if they want to be part of xennials, then who needs them

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Kreesto_1966@reddit

Generation Jones should have been part of us.

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Emergency_Rutabaga45@reddit

You’re Gen X if your parents got divorced, or you were a latch key kid, or you saw the Challenger explode at school.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

Most people didn’t actually see the Challenger Disaster at school.

It was only broadcast live on satellite, and few Americans had satellite tv then. Very few schools had it.

A satellite feed was established at Christa McAuliffes school so her students could watch and some children that lived near Cape Canaveral took a field trip to watch the launch.

Most people saw the play back on the news later on.

I know my elementary school did not have satellite or cable. We didn’t even pick up the standard 3 channels at school. We had 1 tv on a rolling cart at the time. It was used to play VHS tapes or laser disks.

That said, I have classmates that believe they watched the Challenger disaster unfold live at school.

We weren’t even in school that day. It was a snow day where we lived.

I initially thought I was out sick and watched it live at home but I later learned it was a snow day and I just saw the breaking news playback on one of the 3 channels we had at the time.

There has been some truly interesting research on this topic over the years.

A flood of news stories about Americas children being traumatized after watching it live created false memories.

Some Uni professor did a study at the time. They asked their students to write down where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the Challenger right after it happened.

They asked them to do the same a year later and almost all of their recollections were completely different. They were influenced by news stories about students watching it live at school and teachers running out of the room crying at McAuliffes school.

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thetotalslacker@reddit

Not sure what you’re talking about, we watched it live at my gradeschool in Wisconsin, but blizzards never kept us home from school, they were just a normal winter day. I distinctly remember the TV on the big metal cart with the VCR tuned to the local ABC affiliate, it was not satellite or cable. I remember Steve Bell and Peter Jennings coming on to calm things down after everyone was in complete shock.

In case anyone needs a reminder or questions my recollection, here’s the proof of the broadcast from ABC.

https://youtu.be/Ki_WGCmBhyQ

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

I’m talking about the fact that the majority didn’t actually watch it live in school because of the capabilities at the time.

CNN was the only network that broadcast the launch live. They utilized satellite broadcast technology to do it.

The majority of American schools didn’t have satellite or cable at the time.

I’m sure a few here and there did but the majority did not.

ABC did not broadcast live. They showed a playback of the footage of the challenger breaking apart after the fact.

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thetotalslacker@reddit

No, it wasn’t just CNN, our local ABC station showed it live, and then broke in with the news broadcast a few minutes later and kept showing it over and over again.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

Please feel free to search which network broadcast the Challenger launch live. You will also be able to see that ABC broke in with coverage after the shuttle broke apart (11:39 am), at precisely 11:43 am.

Unless your class had a crystal ball and knew that the shuttle was going to break apart, you were most likely not watching the launch on ABC in class because they did not broadcast it live.

Again, when I saw the research on the false memories surrounding the Challenger disaster (a topic studied for 150 years and one I was already interested in due to the role of false memories played in the Satanic Panic) I had to ask myself some questions about my elementary school, my classmates memories and my memories of that day.

Did we ever watch the main 3 networks on tv in school?

No. We only had 1 (eventually 2) tv on a rolling cart that was used to watch VHS tapes and laser disks.

Did we have cable or satellite tv at school?

No. This was an important one when considering that it was only broadcast live on CNN using satellite broadcasting.

I had to figure out why I remembered being home but some of my classmates remembered being at school

We were not. It was a snow day where I lived and we weren’t at school at all.

Media coverage after the fact played a large role in the discrepancies.

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thetotalslacker@reddit

Please see the link to the ABC broadcast I already shared in my previous comment for this very reason.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

There is no need to take this personally. It’s still something much of Gen X shares, just not in the way many think.

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thetotalslacker@reddit

I literally gave you the video and have pictures of me and everyone else from my 4th grade class sitting in Brenda Snowden’s 2nd grade classroom with all of my K-8 schoolmates watching it live. Perhaps you don’t know everything? Good grief, get over yourself. You seriously think they would have pulled an entire gradeschool into a classroom to watch the ABC news coverage after it happened? That’s ridiculous.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

The main claim made for decades is that Gen X as a whole watched the launch live in their classrooms and was traumatized by seeing it break apart in real time.

I have said, repeatedly, that some schools had the capabilities to watch the launch live (McAulfies class had a special feed, there were schools with larger budgets that had access, etc) but the majority did not.

The launch was only broadcast live by CNN using satellite capabilities.

ABC, CBS, NBC…. Did not show a live broadcast of the launch. You can easily google and fact check this.

Many people saw the breaking news reports after the shuttle broke apart/after the fact. I saw it at home during a snow day.

I did not watch the launch live in my classroom, as some of my classmates falsely believe, because we did not have the capabilities to watch it at school and we were not in school at all that day.

If your 4th grade class watched the breaking news report, on ABC, in the second grade classroom after the shuttle broke apart that was a bizarre decision made by your teachers.

It’s also not the main claim.

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thetotalslacker@reddit

We watched in broadcast, again, you don’t know everything about everything. I just talked to my father and he said our local ABC channel picked up the satellite feed from CNN and broadcast it locally because it was a local news interest story with one of the other teachers who could have been on the shuttle being in another close by city with the same broadcast station. Maybe seek to understand rather than relying on your limited knowledge and calling everything else BS? Google doesn’t know everything either. I’m not just relying on my own memory, I have pictures from that day since it was such a big deal to watch it live. You’re exasperating.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

Google if ABC broadcast the space shuttle challenger launch live and tell me what you see.

Then google which network broadcast the launch live.

Steve Bell handled the special report that interrupted regularly scheduled programming after Challenger broke apart, and did a good job. You can see people discussing this in the comment sections of videos about it. He had nothing to go on but the video of the launch and disaster occurring, after the fact, and did a solid job. His broadcast lasted hours and others came in to discuss.

That’s not me saying I know everything. It’s what I discovered after I saw research on the topic.

Research that showed many people did not have solid memories of the event (including myself). Their memories had been influenced by coverage.

This does not mean that no one watched it live at all. Again, some did, but several believe(d) they did when they did not.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

ABC came in with their broadcast after the shuttle had broken apart.

Google it.

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Sad-Reflection-3499@reddit

We watched it live in the school library in Ohio. Afterwards, we had to be taken to a little room with no windows, where we were told it was OK to feel sad or scared, although a lot of us were not really fazed.

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Resident_Zebra933@reddit

I am going to disagree with you on this. It was broadcast live over one of the three TV networks, perhaps all three. My mother watched it live in our tiny small town, she did not have satellite TV.

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Kodiak01@reddit

It was only live on CNN and a couple of local/regional channels such as NBC4 in CA.

ABC/CBS/NBC all cut in ~1-3 minutes after it happened.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

Your mother could have watched the breaking news playback of the footage, just like I did.

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Resident_Zebra933@reddit

I just did some research you seem to be correct. It was only on CNN live, and on a NASA feed. She must have seen a "breaking news" story moments after it happened.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

The research into it prompted me to dig and see if my memories were correct.

As I said in my initial comment, I still have classmates that believe they watched it live at school but we were not in school that day.

I originally thought I saw it live while home sick because many of my classmates said we watched it at school and I knew I was not at school that day.

I checked the school records and saw that it was a snow day.

We did not have satellite or cable at the time. I live in the Appalachian mountains but at the time I was in my childhood home which was pretty easy to access. That said, all of the cable lines were on the opposite side of the highway that ran past my house and it took them years to run the lines across the road.

We still only had access to 3 networks.

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Breklin76@reddit

I was home sick that day. By myself. I watched those astronauts die all by myself. Called my mom at work crying. “THEY ALL DIED!”

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

I did the same on a snow day but I didn’t watch it live.

I did not have cable or satellite at the time.

I saw a playback of the footage during a breaking news report.

Our antidotes do not change the fact that there was a lot of interesting research done on this topic, or that many people believe they saw it live at school when their school most likely didn’t have the capabilities to show the livestream. Only some did.

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Odd-Tomato3956@reddit

I saw it at school. I think a lot of kids did.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

The number of homes, let alone schools or businesses, with a satellite dish at that time was incredibly low so I wouldn’t say a lot of kids did.

Some, yes, but flying saucer sized satellite dishes were not a common fixture at schools.

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Odd-Tomato3956@reddit

It was aired on CNN which was pretty widely available. I didn’t read your whole essay, because whatever, but you’re incorrect. Plenty of kids watched it in school happen live.

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TheChocolateWarOf74@reddit

CNN used a lot satellite broadcasting capabilities when they launched.

It wasn’t a channel I would have gotten at my home or school at the time.

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Far_Cauliflower_3637@reddit

Also saw it in class on a television that had been brought in. I doubt they would have done that if they had known it would blow up.

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Ivotedforher@reddit

What do I get for a hat trick?

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ThatNeverHappenedBro@reddit

Crippling depression

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SigmundFloyd76@reddit

They came out with non-addictive opiates for that in the 2000's.

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ThirdSunRising@reddit

Way too late for that, gotta power through it and hustle for my retirement

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WeedBubby@reddit

And lots of therapy

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ThirdSunRising@reddit

That you have to pay for yourself

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FiddleStrum@reddit

What if all three apply?

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Pekkerwud@reddit

You're Gen XXX

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Kodiak01@reddit

BINGO! I GOT BINGO!

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Strong_Medium_6646@reddit

Nope, not me, my parents stayed married, I had a stay at home mom, and I was well into my career when the Challenger exploded, I totally relate far more to Generation Jones than I do X, but accept that I belong to both!

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otchris@reddit

Well, my actual parents were never married, but my mom did divorce the guy she told me was my dad. (The story is more bizarre than that… nuff said.)

But I have solid checks on the other 2! 🤣😂🤣

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nmitchell86@reddit

Check, check aaannndd check.

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Potstar1@reddit

gif

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ikediggety@reddit

Whatever

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Curious_Instance_971@reddit

Nevermind

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thetotalslacker@reddit

Hello

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Alarcahu@reddit

They’ve made 15 years official now. It used to be around defining cultural moments and movements but it’s all a blur now.

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Doc_Widdershins@reddit

Maybe because we're cut from a different, visibly unique cloth?

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ShimmyxSham@reddit

So you want to add millennials on the tail end?

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Jasdak@reddit

I feel like it shifted once Obama got elected. Thanks, Obama!

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spsled@reddit

Fictional boundary.

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AshDenver@reddit

I’m in the IDGAF category. Gene for the last 29 years and that’s it. I got what I got and that’s my hill.

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Ok_Addendum_5853@reddit

I don't understand it either.. just accept the first five years of the 1980s in already..

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PabloFive@reddit

Gen Jones gets what 10? If you subscribe to their existance...

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alwaystenminutes@reddit

Gen Jones was created in recognition of the fact that the early 1960s kids were culturally really different to the boomers. They were the punks, not the hippies.

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PabloFive@reddit

Yep to young to be a true hippy, missed woodstock, too old to be as cool as Gen X...18 y/o before PCs...boomer like now they are older tho.

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Araneas@reddit

Not every area had a gen Jones. The names are convenient labels, the experience is what's important.

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Ill_Pressure3893@reddit

X is 1961-1981 according to this sub’s homepage. 🤷🏻

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syzygialchaos@reddit

I swear to god growing up it was through 1985

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Existing-Leopard-212@reddit

Yesterday a thing said 65-85. Could be right.

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Silly-Power@reddit

I've seen 1964 to 1981.

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

The test I sometimes use is, how many women in the U.S. born in 1980 would want to date, and be in a relationship with a man who was born in 1966? That's 14 years older. There's your generational divide.

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Silly-Power@reddit

You could look at what each end was listening to growing up. A 10 year old born in 1964 was listening to Disco Duck. A 10 year old born in 1981 was listening to Just one Fix. There's your generation divide.

(And yes, I know Disco Duck came out in 1976, and Just one Fix in 1992. I was exaggerating for effect in order to show just how much music changed in so short a time. I could have used Kerosene which came out just 10 years after Disco Duck)

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

I was born in 1966; I remember "Disco Duck" because it was a radio novelty hit, but ten year old me could have also been listening to the Sex Pistols, Throbbing Gristle, or Suicide.

Ministry was entrenched in their aggro-metal phase by '92, but the band started in '81. And while they at least had major label distribution in the early 1990s, and were a modest alternative success, I seem to recall you had to seek their late 80s/early 90s music out at places like Mtv's 120 Minutes, or if you were in a large enough media market and knew about one, an alternative commercial radio station or college radio program. I don't think most ten year olds were likely to hear "Just One Fix" on whatever pop/Top 40 station their parents had the radio tuned to.

I don't think using the extremes of culture from any given generation is particularly useful.

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Silly-Power@reddit

The Ministry in 1981 were vastly different to the Ministry in 1987. Hard drugs changes a person. They did show the music video for Just one Fix on TV in 1992 but definitely did not show Throbbing Gristle in 1978. By 1992 the sort of music Ministry was putting out was considered mainstreamish. Certainly didn't cause the sort of outrage and shock the Sex Pistols or Dead Kennedys did a decade or so earlier.

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tjeepdrv2@reddit

As someone born in 83 who remembers all of the Gen X advertising aimed at me, I was nearly 30 and highly surprised to find out I was a Tide Pod eating Millennial.

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Emergency_Rutabaga45@reddit

A friend of mine was born in 1959 and he identifies as a Gen X.

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Lampwick@reddit

'61 kind of drags in the Gen Jones folks. They're technically a subset of the Boomers, with a lot of similar cultural history, but they're more like Gen X in the sense that they were "behind the curve" in regards to the huge fixation on the main cohort of the Boomer generation. My wife is Gen Jones, and graduating high school in '81 when the big part of the boomer generation was in their 30s and the "hippie party years" were over. As she puts it, it was like getting to the party just in time to get stuck cleaning up after everyone left. Douglas Coupland was Gen Jones and experienced this generational divide, which is what drew his attention to the younger generation after him that was getting that same effect, only worse... which led to him writing Generation X.

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snuggas@reddit

15 years is a long time. 1965 and 1980 are two totally different generations.

[-]

RTVGP@reddit

Because we had different cultural upbringings-Millenials were raised differently, especially when it comes to advances in technology, and GenZ with the biggest leaps in social media.

[-]

IBreakCellPhones@reddit

For every Boomer and Millennial hating each other, there's nine tenths of a Gen Xer hating them both.

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

Nah. The true GenX attitude is to not care as long as it doesn’t directly affect you.

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Tberd771@reddit

Really? I'm Gen X. I don't remember hating on Baby boomers ever being a thing until millenials started that. Now apparently if you don't understand tech you're called a "Boomer" as some type of slur. I don't get it. We used to respect those who came before. But what do I know.

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Street_Barracuda1657@reddit

gif

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DKBeahn@reddit

Greatest Generation (G.I. Generation) – 1901–1927 (26 years)
Silent Generation – 1928–1945 (17 years)
Baby Boomers – 1946–1964 (18 years)
Generation X – 1965–1980 (15 years)
Millennials (Gen Y) – 1981–1996 (15 years)
Generation Z (iGen) – 1997–2012 (15 years)
Generation Alpha – 2013–2025 (12 years)

Since math is clearly not OPs strong suit, I went ahead and did it for them.

[-]

quasifun@reddit

This is one of many such definitions of generations. Originally the millennials went to 2000, that’s why they were called that.

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

Originally the millennials went to 2000, that’s why they were called that

Precisely. Clearly, logic is not DKBeahn's strong suit.

[-]

DKBeahn@reddit

Precisely. Clearly, logic is not DKBeahn's strong suit.

So, logically, you think I created the official scientific classification for generations? Better go get some burn cream - that's one of the most wicked self-burns I've seen!

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

I really can't stand thick-headed people, like yourself. You come in an make an insult, but can't handle it when one gets thrown your way. Way to take a tongue-in-cheek comment/thread way too seriously.

Go fuck yourself, twat. How' that for a Gen X response?

[-]

DKBeahn@reddit

Are you sure you aren't a Zoomer snowflake? You left yourself open, I insulted you, you insulted me, I insulted you back - a GenXer would have answered with another banter style insult, not the salty butthurt you answered with.

I don't blame you - it's clear that you came unarmed to this battle of wits, so trying to wrap up with vulgarity was all you really had left. Low brow and uncreative - so to answer your question (which was "How' that for a Gen X response?):

Meh. weak - maybe a 3 out of 10. I bumped you 2 points up out of pity.

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

I thought I told you to go fuck yourself? What are you doing here?

[-]

DKBeahn@reddit

Oh, I see! You’re such a dim bulb you think you own a post you made.

OK, Karen.

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

Jfc, you really are fucking loser, both in real and on Reddit aren't you?

I feel kind of sad for you. It's pretty apparent that you're a miserable person and I'm willing to bet people don't like you right away when they meet you.

And yeah, I do own the post I made, dipshit. Who do you think owns it? You?

[-]

Icy-Astronaut-9994@reddit

You forgot Generation Jones. /rjones

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DKBeahn@reddit

No I didn't - because "Generation Jones" isn't a generation. It's a marketing cohort. Congrats for falling for the marketing campaign I guess?

If it makes you feel better, "Xennials" aren't a generation either - that's also a marketing cohort. Marketers need to divide up generations because from a non-scientific perspective, the experience of early Gen X and late Boomers (aka generation Jones) is more similar than early Gen X and middle Gen X, just like late Gen X overlaps with early Millennials (generation Xennial).

Since OP specified "15 years" it is clear they are talking about the scientific generation classifications :)

[-]

DreadPirateWade@reddit

Because as the “middle children of history”, we always get shorted.

Thanks Chuck!

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dfh-1@reddit

We fuck up the curves a lot of sociology wonks like, so they keep making us smaller and smaller.

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sandsonik@reddit

Because its all arbitrary. They changed the beginning of Gen X. It used to be 1960 but they changed it to 1965. I was born in 1963 and now I'm considered a boomer. Someone came up with the term Gen Jones to bridge the gap between boomers and Gen X. We definitely feel more Gen X than Boomer.

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Sea_Pie_Star@reddit

I used to be X and now I’m a millennial (1981). The cutoff was 83/85 and now its 80. It bothers me more than it should. I don’t mind being called a Xennial tho.

[-]

sandsonik@reddit

It's all bullshit. I can't wait for people to recognize that rather than conforming to a Madison Ave marketing ideal

[-]

themiracy@reddit

All of you born 1960-1964 can take a brief test and if we think you’re not lame then whatever, welcome to the club.

[-]

sandsonik@reddit

Lol. Thanks?

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Interesting-Match-66@reddit

One of my friends told me his test is if you listen to AOR you’re a boomer, and if you listen to indie and alt rock you’re GenX.

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sandsonik@reddit

Lol, I listen to both. I love Clash, Talking Heads, REM, Pretenders, Sex Pistols, Eno, Ramones, Nirvana, Replacements, Radiohead...but also Who, Kinks, Stones, Beatles. And Belle and Sebastian, Strokes, White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand.

I hate categories. I don't own any AC/DC but I'll admit they have a few songs I'm blasting when they come on.

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nmitchell86@reddit

It's because we're all "slackers."

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Next_Chapter_Now@reddit

I disagree - I think we were the generation with a very broad spectrum of expectations. Some women were expected to get married and have children others were expected to break the glass ceiling. It’s exhausting living with all that. I wanted to break the glass ceiling but was expected to do the other. It broke me.

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blaspheminCapn@reddit

No, you were supposed to do BOTH.

[-]

Genny415@reddit

And rejoice because we had it ALL!

All the credit taken by others at work as well as all the housework and childcare at home

Yep, we got it ALL

[-]

3Gilligans@reddit

I'd prefer to shrink it, 1965-1975

[-]

KindCommentary@reddit

The term Generation X was coined by Douglas Coupland in his classic novel 'Tales for an Accelerated Culture'(1991) defined as the generation born from 1960 to 1978.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250810779/generationx/

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Cranks_No_Start@reddit

Similar thoughts. I’m a 66 edition and even the early 70s seem worlds apart.

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Street_Sand_8788@reddit

Same!!!

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Ancient-Text9990@reddit

Same too

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MaddaddyJ@reddit

I was born in 75. No matter how it gets divided I can't escape

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steveoa3d@reddit

Actually seems too long. Someone born in 1965 had a LOT different childhood than someone born in 1980.

Being a teenager in 1979 versus being a teenager in 1994….

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cruisereg@reddit

Absolutely!! I feel like you need to have actually been old enough to be aware of the 70’s to really be GenX and not just have some GenX traits.

[-]

KindCommentary@reddit

The term Generation X was coined by Douglas Coupland in his classic novel 'Tales for an Accelerated Culture'(1991) defined as the generation born from 1960 to 1978.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250810779/generationx/

[-]

ResearcherHeavy9098@reddit

Someone born in 1964 had a very different childhood than someone born in 1946. Being a teenager in the 70's was very different than 50's.

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TheGnarlo@reddit

…and our GI Joes were 12 inches tall!… 😊

[-]

KindCommentary@reddit

The term Generation X was coined by Douglas Coupland in his classic novel 'Tales for an Accelerated Culture'(1991) defined as the generation born from 1960 to 1978.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250810779/generationx/

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Affectionate_Yak8519@reddit

I mean Xennials are kind of a thing and Probaly should just be lumped in with Gen X proper or at least make the cut off 81 instead of 79

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heeden@reddit

The cut off used to be 1982, Millennials were the kids who became adults in the new millennium.

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middlegroundnb@reddit

The cutoff used to be 1975, back when 1975-1985 was Gen Y. The term millennial came around and we gradually lost 1975-1980 to Gen X.

[-]

KindCommentary@reddit

The term Generation X was coined by Douglas Coupland in his classic novel 'Tales for an Accelerated Culture'(1991) defined as the generation born from 1960 to 1978.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250810779/generationx/

[-]

EnvironmentalPack451@reddit

We were "Generation Y" for a little while there before the millenium

[-]

1989DiscGolfer@reddit

Anybody here read that book called "13th Gen" that came out in like 1993, attempting to describe why and how we were different than previous generations? We weren't called "Gen-X" yet. It was a good book.

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tiger_knots185@reddit

You Yankees are so self-centred. There are other Gen Xs around the world. The book Generation X was written by a Canadian.

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medievalhedgehog@reddit

It was better than Gen X, honestly.

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Academic_Ad_8229@reddit

I just saw a YouTube news clip about this circa 1993-1994. Right about that time they coined it Gen-X and said that it was the 13th generation since the US became a country. Then described us as slackers trying to pave our own way and panned to early 20's wearing combat boots with Smells Like Teen Spirit playing in the background.

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nehibetty@reddit

The closest thing to the authority on generational labels is the Pew Research Center and I can’t take them seriously because every time I mention them someone makes finger guns and shouts ‘pew-pew’.

It’s all silly.

(But Xennials are the mostest silly)

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phunkmunkie@reddit

I laughed. Thanks.

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onions-make-me-cry@reddit

Yeah, agreed. I've always thought that at least PART of the reason we're a much smaller generation than Boomers and Millennials is because we only really get 1964-1979.

Also, when I was in high school, we were distinctly NOT considered X. At that time, I'm not sure the term Gen X had come out.

Rolling Stone Magazine had a big cover story in 1993 or 1994 on the "Reality Bites" generation, the Slacker Generation... and my birth year - 1979 - was specifically excluded from it. The years have shifted.

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Defiant-Variety-9473@reddit

I vaguely remember after 1975 was called generation Y for a time

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coopnjaxdad@reddit

Now we after 75ers are “Xennials” a micro generation.

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JayJoeJeans@reddit

That's the group I feel more aligned with

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coopnjaxdad@reddit

Yeah, for sure.

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DavePHofJax@reddit

You know they were called the Y generation? Parents: "Go clean your room." Y generation: Why? Go get a job. Why? Do your homework and study. Why? Need i say more? Lazy fuckers.

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HHSquad@reddit

1964 always belongs with 1961-1963, so wherever they land. Nice try.

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onions-make-me-cry@reddit

What exactly does nice try mean? Why would I care one way or the other where they land? That birth year is significantly closer to my mother's birth year than my own.

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HHSquad@reddit

Forget I said it, it doesn't matter really. I'll delete my message.

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Apprehensive-Bag-900@reddit

I'm 78 and we used to be a micro generation, I can't remember the name though. They rolled us into gen x sort of recently (like in the last 15- 20 years).

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onions-make-me-cry@reddit

Oh we still are - Xennials. I feel most at home there. Most of what's talked about on the Gen X subreddit I have absolutely zero memory of.

Even with my husband (birth year 1971) and most of what he is nostalgic about... I just can't relate.

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Apprehensive-Bag-900@reddit

I had an older brother and my cousins were all at least a decade older than me so I remember a lot of it.

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pennyflowerrose@reddit

Yeah I remember being labeled gen Y for a while there ('77)

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FETTACH@reddit

Gen x, millennial, and gen z are all 15

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wtfover@reddit

Uh oh, better blame the boomers like you do for everything else.

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Breklin76@reddit

Get outta here, Boomer.

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

See... Gen X has no trouble admitting we suck. We know; we grew up hearing it.

Boomers on the other hand... well... case in point.

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Pladohs_Ghost@reddit

People got stupid.

The first time I ran across any generational titles decades ago, each was 20 years, beginning at the start of a decade. Boomers were '41 - '60, Silent were '21 - 40, and so on, with us '61 - '80, and Millennials '81 - 00.

Since then, I've seen many variations on it, none of which add anything. I ignore them.

[-]

crashin70@reddit

I am generation "Don't label me asshole, I'm my own person"!

Fukkoff

[-]

Breklin76@reddit

This.

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CK_CoffeeCat@reddit

Technology shifted and spread too fast.

We’re the generation between strictly digital outcast/immigrant folks (computers and tech were not a common factor when Boomers and earlier were growing up so they need to work on gaining understanding of them in adult life) and entirely digital native folks (Millennials and later for whom computers and tech are well rooted in society and part of daily life when they were kids and the concept of not understanding how to use technology or communication tech is alien).

Gen X is the generation that adapted to rapidly changing tech resources on the fly, often with no formal demonstration or education in using it, since older gen instructors were either non-existent or were trying to keep up with rapidly changing tech themselves and lagged behind the available tools. As part of a digital outreach position in the early 2000s, a Boomer instructor that was supposed to teach us HTML literally said: “find a web page somewhere that does the thing you want, open the source code, copy the section that does the thing, and paste it into your page.” No clue what the tags meant or did, just copy off someone else.

At jobs working for older generations, we were sometimes the digital translators. Early Boomer Boss got you to google stuff, or get the printer to connect, or install software updates because tech would be ‘new and scary’ to them for most of their adult life. (Boss at my old job refused to use any operating system past Win 3.1, right up until she retired in 2016.)

Because computers and technology were growing at the same time we were growing, our narrow cohort holds a unique cultural place. As far as tech is concerned, most of us are self-taught, self-reliant, and resourceful. Fits right in with the whole Gen X vibe. 😁

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MiddleAgedBitcoiner@reddit

We are both the last analog and the first digital generation,

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CK_CoffeeCat@reddit

Exactly! Much more concise way of putting it. 😆

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CheesecakeSea6471@reddit

Hell. I'm still the digital translator between the boomer C-suite and millennial developers.

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CK_CoffeeCat@reddit

Yep. Until I started working exclusively from home I was the only one at the office the Millennial IT guy would try to talk to or let troubleshoot computer issues. he got so frustrated trying to communicate with anyone else there. Including his mom, the owner. 😆

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yanknga@reddit

Remember that generation years were created by marketing firms so they’re not set in stone. The ‘63 and ‘64 kids that I went to school with were GenX for the most part.

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HudsonValleyNY@reddit

Ehh that’s pushing it…that’s right up on voting for Reagan old…they could reasonably have had kids in school when SLTS dropped.

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yanknga@reddit

SLTS?

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HudsonValleyNY@reddit

Smells like teen spirit.

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yanknga@reddit

Of course. A duh moment for me.

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Dull-Acanthaceae191@reddit

Just be glad we got something. Half the time we’re not even on the list.

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Rand_74@reddit

I prefer it that way.

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Cool_Lingonberry_399@reddit

We're starving out here. Gen X are the gypsies of the world....(sad violin accompaniment)

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AwardSalt4957@reddit

It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.

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TulsaOUfan@reddit

Technogy means the world and the people living in them change so much faster now than before. Personally I view GenX as 2 generations - older and younger. And it isn't even split based on age, it's based on culture.

I'm the oldest brother, but the most like a mellunial whereas my younger brother is most like a boomer.

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Starfury7-Jaargen@reddit

There are lists that have cusp generations. Those at the end of Gen X and those at beginning of Millenials are Xenniels and late Boomers and early Gen X are names like Baby Xs or such. Those in between (years change but around 68 to 76) are called pure Gen X.

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Individual_Check_442@reddit

That’s the why I look at it. We should really come up with a different word than “generation” because that sort of implies it should be the same time period as family generations, but really they’re shaped by events/advances in the world and there’s no reason why those things should occur in the same time intervals as family generations.

[-]

absherlock@reddit

Surprised we got that many.

Now excuse me, I have a bonfire in the woods I need to get to.

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Grafakos@reddit

The generations after us only got 15 years as well. It's only the ones before us that were longer. But it is a fair question: who suddenly decided that a generation is only 15 years long?

Greatest: 1901-27 (26 years)
Silent: 1928-45 (17 years)
Boomers: 1946-64 (18 years)
X: 1965-80 (15 years)
Millennials: 1981-96 (15 years)
Z: 1997-2012 (15 years)

Even more ridiculous, several search results are claiming that Alpha is only 2013-2025 (12 years) or even 2013-2024 (11 years).

[-]

DcubedWY@reddit

And even those are BS. My mom and mil were 10 years apart and were really different culturally, though both silent according to that (1932 and 1942). Mil was big band era for her teen years, mom was early rock ‘n roll. Mil graduated in 1950 so her high school years were in the 40s, my mom graduated in 1960 so her high school years were the more famous 1950s like Happy Days and Grease. My mom and aunt (1946) were much more similar.

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FloppyFerrett1@reddit

Interesting, l mistakenly thought Greatest & Silent were the same. Good to know.

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Grafakos@reddit

Greatest = our grandparents, silent = our parents. (Some of Gen X's parents were boomers, though.)

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FloppyFerrett1@reddit

Thanks for the clarification. Evidently my parents are the silent gen & that makes a lot of sense ✌🏻

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padall@reddit

Yeah. Last year when they said the babies being born would start the Beta generation, I was like, what? How can the Alpha Gen be done already? It's getting a little crazy.

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Grafakos@reddit

Maybe that's their punishment for inflicting "skibidi toilet" and "rizz" and 6-7 onto the world. =)

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zombie_spiderman@reddit

Are they coming up with a name for the current babies?

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Epicassion@reddit

I doubt they’d latch onto Betas.

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Grafakos@reddit

That seems to be the name, for now at least. It may not stick, similar to how people originally called millennials "Gen Y".

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FloppyFerrett1@reddit

I thought they were gen Alpha, but l could be wrong.

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zombie_spiderman@reddit

I mean the ones born in the last year or so

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gcfio@reddit

Cause less of us survived since we weren’t coddled

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dafuqizzis@reddit

I get the idea they were kind of sort of going from Boomers to Millennials, and someone said, “hey, wasn’t there a bunch of kids born around this time?“

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SweaterSteve1966@reddit

They forgot us because the streetlight hadn’t come on yet.

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W0gg0@reddit

It wasn’t 10:00 pm.

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Novel_Willingness721@reddit

We lost 81-84 to Xenniel.

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Cysteine_Chapel64@reddit

If it was up to boomers we'd be lucky to get a day.

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Sweaty-Possibility-3@reddit

Generation Jones is only 11 years 1954-1965.

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JediRebel79@reddit

They broke the mould early because we were too independent

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Mumchkin@reddit

By making us the latch-key generation, they made us independent.

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squeakybeak@reddit

Cos we’re special.

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joeythemouse@reddit

Needs Children.

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Cool_Lingonberry_399@reddit

gif

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Sitcom_kid@reddit

it was easy for them to pull the wool over our eyes. watching TV turned our brains to mush and watching MTV gave us limited attention spans.

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heeden@reddit

They took the revolution, commoditised it and sold it back to us.

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ViolentWampa@reddit

I wanted money for nothing AND my MTV 🎸🤘

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woozleuwuzzle@reddit

Wait…what?

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GboyFlex@reddit

When we finally got noticed they didn't know where to exactly put us..or call us. Slackers? The Accidents? How about X because whatever...

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iamdrshank@reddit

Sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads... Whatever, we're righteous dudes.

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BT_Artist@reddit

I heard if Ferris dies, he's giving his eyes to Stevie Wonder.

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GboyFlex@reddit

For real, what didn't kill us made us stronger. I was a skater frock new wave maxi zoom dweebie O.o

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BT_Artist@reddit

I feel like it was a conspiracy to discredit Douglas Coupland.

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brandrikr@reddit

Because all those 80s kids were so damned dead set on being their own thing and not being associated with anyone else

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

But isn't that true of every generation's "youth culture?" Dead set on being "unique," and "doing their own thing," often by looking back and implementing nostalgia for a time 20 years prior?

When I was a teenager in the 1980s much of alternative and counter-culture took their cues from the 60s: Paisley Park, fascination with the Manson Family, jangly-guitar college rock.

The pop-culture of the 70s was nostalgic for the 1950s: "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," Sha Na Na, leather motorcycle jacket, three chord punk rock.

[-]

thepuncroc@reddit

Because some.asholes got cute and decided that late gen x needed to be renamed millennials to make a math joke that doesn't remotely work with the social realities.

Just fully adopted your oregon trail generation buddies.

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sbruno33@reddit

I didn't get nothing. I had to pay fifty dollars, and pickup the garbage.

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Lampwick@reddit

Heh. I was thinking about that line the other day, and looked up what $50 in 1965 would compare to. It's the equivalent of a $500+ fine today. That had to hurt!

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Top-Scarcity5937@reddit

Nice one !

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boilerbullionaire@reddit

Ha ha, love this comment. Arlo in the house!

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demarisco@reddit

But you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant (excepting Alice)!

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Psycosteve10mm@reddit

With Gen X, there are many different dividers that define them. The Challenger explosion, the Rodney King riots, the satanic panic, and your age at the time of Baby Jessica are dividers. If you were not 13 by 1987, you were allowed in the house and actually were watched.

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DaveFoucault@reddit

Gen Xers are not just from the US.

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Psycosteve10mm@reddit

As an American, it is the only view I have. What events would you say are dividers for Gen X?

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Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

How dare you view things from your own perspective!

Outrageous!

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Psycosteve10mm@reddit

Don't worry, I will go chug a bottle of Mad Dog as penance.

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

Easy there – it’s not like you burned down a record store or something.

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Psycosteve10mm@reddit

It's not like I said, I am going to do shots of Everclear.

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

Heh, I've had both -- particularly MD 20/20 back in the late 1980s. Personally, I prefer Everclear (not straight, of course).

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HudsonValleyNY@reddit

Are there any other views?

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Reasonable_Bid3311@reddit

we’re x, always discounted. we used to include at least 1963 and 1964 and they stole them. I mean really, 63 and 64 do not want to be boomers. it’s insulting.

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mrsxpando@reddit

Yeah, my sister wasn’t happy about that, and she’s very much not a boomer. She went to a Def Leppard concert when the drummer had two arms.

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Reasonable_Bid3311@reddit

Not gonna lie, if Rick still had two arms your sister is a little old, but I’d still claim her on the old end of Gen X.

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mrsxpando@reddit

July 1980, she was 15 and bribed/blackmailed her friend’s brother to take them along.

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Slipstream_Surfing@reddit

I remember being amped to catch the Pyromania tour in '83, only for them to not come within a two hour drive of NYC area. Had to wait until '87.

[-]

yanknga@reddit

I always say that the boomers don’t want to die off so they keep stealing the original early GenX years like ‘63 and ‘64. I’ve noticed that Generation Jones includes ‘65 so I’m guessing ‘65 will be taken from GenX soon too.

[-]

Butterfly_Cat777@reddit

I feel like the Boomers are doing a steady creep into stealing GenX years. In the beginning 1961 was the starting year. Then I remember when 1964 was the first year of Gen X for a good while. Now I see they're trying to grab at 1965. Soon the Baby Boom Generation will be well into the 1970s before we know it. And GenX will continue to get smaller and smaller...

[-]

phinz@reddit

My wife is an October, 1964, model and she’s all Gen X.

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

Look at this guy bragging he's married to a model.

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HHSquad@reddit

1961-1964 were ALL included, and they are still together. 1965 should be also.

[-]

BettieNuggs@reddit

we do what we want

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itsmebrian@reddit

They couldn't handle an additional 33% of us

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thirtyone-charlie@reddit

They had to cut it short because we had no fucks to give.

[-]

Imaginary_Office1749@reddit

Whatever

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Ill_Ocelot7191@reddit

To keep the wannabes out.

[-]

OldDudeWithABadge@reddit

I grew up chugging hose water. Having lawn darts, fireworks, and BB’s launched at me. Skin torn up and bones broken from playing hard. Having my tail beaten with whatever solid object mom or dad could grab first. Watched heroes die on live TV 73 seconds after liftoff. Wondering if I’d make it home from school to see my parents one last time if the Soviets fired their missiles first.

The last thing I’ll be bothered by is a label.

[-]

Personal_Secret_234@reddit

Preach

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viking12344@reddit

BB gun wars were awesome

[-]

blaggard5175@reddit

"Damnit!! No more than 5 pumps!!!"

[-]

viking12344@reddit

Rofl. I did have a crossman pumper. Could put about ten good pumps in it. Everyone of my friends had Daisy's . Good times.

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Calyx76@reddit

Same here. I watched those heroes on live TV during class. As soon as the teacher got over her shock she unplugged that TV so fast.

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shrunkenhead041@reddit

One of my friends had a tiny portable TV with like an 8" screen the teacher was letting us watch in study period. I recall the principal making an announcement about what happened shortly after. Such a surreal time walking through the hall out of that room when the period ended, and everyone was just silent. I can't remember anything after that that day. Just freaking traumatized.

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HighSeasArchivist@reddit

There is virtually nothing the same between a 1965 kid and a 1984 kid.

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TouchingTheMirror@reddit

Yeah, consider the world when a kid from each of those generations was ten years old: 1975, and 1994. Then again at 16 – ’81 vs. 2000.

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MaximumJones@reddit

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Cool_Lingonberry_399@reddit

Fun fact: the above depicted actor, Woody Harrelson, was born in 1961, therefore making him a late Baby Boomer!

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Cool_Lingonberry_399@reddit

Nah. They( Gen X, that is) ain't that sturdy...

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MaximumJones@reddit

gif

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Cool_Lingonberry_399@reddit

gif

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Ok_Industry3016@reddit

Lol

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usedupconcept@reddit

The path of a righteous man

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TinyRandomLady@reddit

It would have made sense to extend it to ‘85. But instead we have the micro generation of Xennials from ‘76-‘85.

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Alert-Thought6589@reddit

I think your right on, there's a lot of difference especially in this timeline GenX kid 70s, teen 80s, 20s the 90s Xennials kid 80s, teen 90s, 20s the 2000s

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bruce-neon@reddit

I was 13 in ‘89 and 18 in ‘94. Most of the 90’s I was an “adult”. I think ‘76 is a very “genX” birth year personally.

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Alert-Thought6589@reddit

My wife's a 76 model, it's fine just different, there are a lot of similar things and a lot of differences. I (1967) was in primary school 73-79, started highschool at 12yo in 1980 turned 18 in 1985 same age as Marty McFly. A lot of sayings, phrases, TV shows, cars, were completely.

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Dairyman00111@reddit

Yeah I'm not a xennial. You wanna call yourself that, fine, but it ain't me and I refuse the label

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marle217@reddit

I guess everyone can self identify. No skin off my nose. I do identify as a xennial though. I'm 1981 and I have things in common with both x and millennials

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TinyRandomLady@reddit

Ok

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WildTomato51@reddit

Fucking hate that term.

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TinyRandomLady@reddit

I’m not a fan of it myself. But I totally understand the need to separate that group from Millennials, I hate that term too.

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Ok_Peanut_6919@reddit

Are you trying to populate the world with more, non-caring, could not care less, mean fucking people?

[-]

GracieThunders@reddit

We aren't all mean people

It's the difference between nice and kind

we aren't nice, but are frequently kind

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Kittles4Eva@reddit

Exactly. Nice is performative. Kind is sincere. We don’t tolerate nice

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Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

Yes. Boomers wanted to teach the world to sing and by it a Coke.

I want to piss in the Coke bottle and chuck it at their heads.

/s (somewhat)

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curious-thatguy@reddit

58 and still up and runnin. That would be built in 67 So.. 👊😎😂😝

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Brilliant_Park_2882@reddit

67 was good year. 😬

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Oxjrnine@reddit

Because North American divisions of generations is primarily based upon what type of consumer you are.

And the type of consumer that generation X became as clustered in a 15 year span.

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awkwardpotluck@reddit

You mean for retirement? We Would be lucky. Boomers are just rotting.

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OkMovie3616@reddit

I thought gen x was 64-83, that’s 20 years inclusive

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jjillf@reddit

It’s an elite club, babyyyy

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CosmicFelineFoliage@reddit

Because the Boomers and Millennials have been shaving off years from us for decades.

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Direct-Dish1779@reddit

Because the boomers were heavily populated and millennials were the next baby boom. Remember when they closed schools when we were going through school? Then they had to build modular classrooms for the millennials because the schools were not big enough. They wanted to fit us in a perfect package between two Goliath generations. Children of Vietnam vets and latchkey junkies.

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Dragonfly_Peace@reddit

Agreed. And why did the original definition get changed so that they could make boomers a bigger generation?

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S99B88@reddit

There actually were a lot of them, it was a post war thing, the economy was booming as can happen after big wars. It happened after WW1 as well, they were called The Greatest Generation.

In between Greatest and Boomers were the Silent Generation, they were actually the original latchkey kids.

My theory is that it is waves, the admitted and forgotten or belittled generations

Think about it:

GREATEST

Silent

BOOMERS

GenX

MILLENNIALS

GenZ

ALPHA

[-]

jferg@reddit

Quality, not quantity.

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LopsidedBee4839@reddit

🙌

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Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit

In the Strauss & Howe Gen X Grouping the years are 1961-1981

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Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

I've always seen us grouped as 1966-1981.

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Butterfly_Cat777@reddit

I've never seen 1966, always 1965. The Pew Research Center established 1965 as the beginning year of GenX. One reason being that the birth rate swiftly dropped in 1965 from the year prior.

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Correct-Condition-99@reddit

Hmmm... I've got a brother who was born in 81. There's no way he's Gen X. Totally different upbringing.

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Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit

Yes in the Strauss and Howe Theory those on the ends would be the LEAST Gen X, 1961 would lean the most Boomer, 1981 would lean heavily Millennial and 1971 would be the purest Gen X

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ab39z@reddit

I've only ever seen 65-80.

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Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

Okay, but still only 15 years.

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ropeynick@reddit

I see the same but, really, 21 years after the end of WWII is pushing it a bit, isn’t it?

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MasterChiefette@reddit

Which is how it should be.

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Perplexio76@reddit

I have an older brother that was born in '61 and he had a son at age 20-- in 1981. That particular nephew of mine has more in common with his father and I than he does his 2 Millenial siblings. He certainly gives off stronger Gen X vibes than Millenial vibes.

I can see it-- I also have a niece and sister-in-law that were born in '82 that definitely seem to feel a bit more Millenial than Gen-X... So the '81 cut off does feel right.

There are Reddit groups for the "Cusp Kids"-- Generation Jones (born 1958-1965) and Xennials (born '81-'85).- The ones that kind of overlap 2 different generations because they were born right on the cusp. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the older Gen-Zers start referring to themselves as "Zennials" at some point because they were born on the Millenial/Gen-Z cusp.

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elwood0341@reddit

61 seems too early. GenX’s parents should be mostly boomers

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IchBinDurstig@reddit

Boomers got 20, all the subsequent generations have been 15.

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MingusPho@reddit

Because technology. Cell phones and internet radically changed how we lived.

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BusterBus75@reddit

I'm pretty sure all the generations God reconfigured to 15 years. And then they started doing those half generation things. Generation Jones, xlenials, etc...

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Dragonfly_Peace@reddit

Nope.

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Cool_Lingonberry_399@reddit

I dunno about that. 15 yrs was 15 too much....

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NeverEverMaybe0_0@reddit

Seriously, I think the one that got noticed was the generation from the baby boom because that stood out so much on birth rates. The early and the later ones don't have much in common, and I don't even know if this was a phenomenon outside of the USA at all.

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NeverEverMaybe0_0@reddit

It took that long to notice there was a generation between the boomers and the millennials.

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Rare_Magazine_5362@reddit

The only true GenX our 1972 babies. The rest of you dudes are posers.

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PeptoBismark@reddit

Quick check, singers born in 1972. Okay the voice of your generation… Liam Gallagher.

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Rare_Magazine_5362@reddit

Ok well I guess I am comfortable admitting when I’m wrong.

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EmergencyOk9452@reddit

We packed so much into those 15 years. We are the last great generation.

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huron9000@reddit

The few, the proud

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Psycosteve10mm@reddit

gif

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RW_McRae@reddit

It's all the hose water

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TheButtDog@reddit

There isn’t a lot of grounded thought or science behind it. It’s like complaining that the Capricorn astrological sign is a day or two shorter than all the others. Doesn’t fkkn matter

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scott_withtwots@reddit

This is the most Gen X comment ever! Well stated with a classic Gen X vibe

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runningoutofwords@reddit

Dude wrote a book and got paid. There's no science behind any of it

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OperaBunny@reddit

I posted on r/generationology that I personally define generations as every 20 years, and someone replied it's defined by social paradigms. For me it's like a Matryoshka nesting dolls. Old enough to get married and have kids, usually by 20, even though you can have kids younger, but most US States have strict age laws on marriage.

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GenXPowaah@reddit

We're the best of the best imo.

We're the hybrid generation, resilient, self sufficient, and more well rounded, more down to earth. We've seen it all, from Culture to Technology. Most of us had working parents, so spent a lot of time in front of that TV but back then it was good TV, educational shit, no gimmicks/lies

we were taught to be individual thinkers instead of the hive-mind

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No_Difference8518@reddit

1961 to 1981 is twenty years.

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HHSquad@reddit

21 years, but it's a better definition than Pews 1965-1980 (16 years)

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Reader47b@reddit

1965 to 1980 is how it is most commonly defined.

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HHSquad@reddit

Should be 1961-1980 (20 years), Kennedy to Carter roughly, 1961 is the first full year with birth control pill on the market and the start of the Vietnam War conflict.

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Heathster249@reddit

whatever dude.

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Kimber80@reddit

In a cultural sense, generations really should only be about seven or eight years.

Someone born in 1966 has nothing culturally in common with someone born in 1978.

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reapersaurus@reddit

Yep! Nice to see someone understand generational characteristics. Gen X shouldn't even range up to 1979, IMO. Unless you lived and have sense memory of the way life was in the 70's, you aren't a Gen X.

Shared generational characteristics/personality/experiences don't have to be 20 years - that was an arbitrary classification thrust onto it. It made some sense long ago, when society/culture/technology didn't change much in 20 years. In the modern era, 20 years could easily be 2 generations worth of cohorts, who have different shared characteristics and references.

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kivsemaj@reddit

December 21 1979. I had ten days in the 70's! Gen X doesn't want me and millennials don't want me. I'm unwanted and forgotten that makes me gen x lol

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pennyflowerrose@reddit

At least we have our Xennial micro generation, I find it to be the generation subreddit where I feel most welcome and at home.

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Reader47b@reddit

A generation should be at least long enough that the prior generation obtained the ability to reproduce before the next generation is named.

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automator3000@reddit

Fully agree.

Shit. My older sister was born in ‘74. I was born in ‘78. She spent her formative music years with Debbie Gibson, I spent mine with Nine Inch Nails. She got her first email address after college, I had one in high school.

I definitely have very little in common with someone ten years older who was out of high school when Appetite for Destruction hadn’t even been released.

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draaz_melon@reddit

Thayer not generational. I was bone before your sister and had email before college and never listened to Debbie Gibson while always have listened to NIN.

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Housing-Beneficial@reddit

Dunno. I'm '67 my wife is '76 and we pretty much like the same music, movies and food...

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Top-Scarcity5937@reddit

There should be fewer years. There seems to be a divide here between early and late Gen X. I don't feel like I belong in a group with people who watched Saved By The Bell.

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Unfair_Way_4722@reddit

We don’t stick with anything.

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Significant_Ruin4870@reddit

Because originally this was all just an exercise in statistics. The birth rate was rising in the late 30's, then the GIs came home in 1945 and started having sex like crazed weasels, resulting in a spike in births in 1946 that, statistically, was way above the norm. A prosperous economy helped the trend continue for years before the birth rate dropped down again. It was a notable change in the birth rate defined not by generational markers but by raw numbers.

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Top-Scarcity5937@reddit

Did you get the Crazed Weasels thing from Life Is Hell by Matt Groening ?
I swear it is in there.

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Significant_Ruin4870@reddit

I think I picked that up from my ex sister in law, years ago. It is an evocative phrase, isn't it?

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FAx32@reddit

Then we decided 1981 was when actual technology started, so even though most of us grew up with computers in the 70s and 80s, you had to be born after the digital revolution to be considered "native". Birth rates started picking up in the early 80s again too, once child bearing age boomers peaked.

[-]

Woodstock815@reddit

elite club.

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Crewstage8387@reddit

Because we are that friggin good

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the_47th_painter@reddit

We don't need no stupid 20 years.

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usedupconcept@reddit

Because we got Alice with Len and that makes up for it.

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usedupconcept@reddit

Whatever

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AlfredRWallace@reddit

Do we care?

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StrictFinance2177@reddit

When I was young, the Thirteenth Generation, aka Gen X was an 18 year span, up until 1982.

The older I get, the more I realize just how much more similar a 1981 person is to Gen X than they are to Millennials. So to the hotshot academics who screwed the pooch by convincing everyone to change the years.... Well, I'll keep that sentiment to myself. But they were wrong to do so.

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Eastern-Joke-7537@reddit

Yeah. I am an ‘81 Millennial. Didn’t even know I was a Millennial until I was in high school. Before that they called in Gen Y.

Before that… nothing.

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Simple-Ingenuity740@reddit

whateva

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AdhesiveSeaMonkey@reddit

gif

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new2bay@reddit

gif

Whatever. 🤷‍♂️

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IntelligentNovel1967@reddit

Stealing this GIF.

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Ok_Industry3016@reddit

Lol this

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CaptainlockheedME262@reddit

Yeah who gives a shit.

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WhisperingSideways@reddit

Every major generation has 15ish prime years, and the crossover generations exist in the tributary.

Like Generation Jones, who peaked between ‘76-‘82. That dude with the mullet and ‘stache, listening to Judas Priest and driving a T-Bird when you were in elementary school is neither a Boomer or Gen X.

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StopCallingMeGeorge@reddit

1965 here. Gen X was thrown in our face as an insult growing up. We were slackers according to our elders. We weren't as cool as the Boomers, and we were going nowhere in life.

Fast forward to today, and now I have to listen to you young whipper-snappers telling me I'm not even Gen-X because we could legally drink at 18 and didn't have to worry about AIDS. Have some respect. /s

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FAx32@reddit

Technically we got 16 (1965 and 1980 are both included) by the most common definition.

Looks like Gen Alpha is already over, they only got 15 years (2010 to 2024, inclusive).

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L_wanderlust@reddit

They wanted to start millennials with the ones who would graduate high school in the new millennium?

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IM_The_Liquor@reddit

I never even heard the word ‘millennial’ until well into the 00s… and then thy had to retroactively reassign Gen-xers as either a millennia or the even more recently invented xennial… fuck it all. If you’re Gen X, you know it. You embrace it and you don’t care why arbitrary label society puts on you, even if you happened to be born in ‘83… If that doesn’t sound like you, you’re probably a millennial, even if you were born in ‘76…

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thebenjamins42@reddit

They were calling them Gen Y until someone figured out they could be tagged by coming of age with the turn of the millennium (which is way cooler than “generation that came after the generation we couldn’t be bothered to come up with a name for”)

[-]

dth1717@reddit

We're special

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flagrantstickfoul@reddit

15 is probably too much. I’m ‘70 and wife is ‘79 and while there is shared culture, we each have pop and core references the other has no idea about

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Early_Doughnut8295@reddit

Cause we're the greatest and didn't need extra

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SJ1392@reddit

Ummmm because Gen X always gets fucked!

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Erythite2023@reddit

Unless they’re a virgin

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Swimming_Ad_8856@reddit

None left

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phinz@reddit

Shhhhhhh... We don't need any more in the club...

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wormil@reddit

Generations became a marketing tool. You tell a gen who they are, what they think, and tailor products to them. Genx were contrarians and resisted marketing so companies invented a new gen.

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TexasTortfeasor@reddit

Generations are determined by birth rates. A period when birthrates are increasing is a generation until it's a trend of declining, until it's a trend of increasing, etc.

r/generationology post

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Positive-Froyo-1732@reddit

GenX was literally originally called the Baby Bust, when fewer kids were born. And originally we were 1963-1978. Look it up.

[-]

coolhanddave21@reddit

Teen pregnancy.

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PRC_Spy@reddit

Because they aren't particularly time periods, but intervals between epoch making differences in society and culture.

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Decent_Direction316@reddit

It was made that way to lessen the damage you were doing.

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FloppyFerrett1@reddit

Not us, try again 😒

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RezRising@reddit

Growing up, I thought a generation was at least 20 - 25 years.

I think they keep them shorter so there's more ways to divide everyone up and sell them shit.

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geeeking@reddit

Whatever.

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geeeking@reddit

Whatever.

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GeneralPITA@reddit

Do you really give a shit? or are you just passing time?

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Beautiful_Secret_834@reddit

I don’t give a shit. Isn’t that what Reddit is for? Passing time😂

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HilariousBosch@reddit

Gen X starts in 65 because there was a big drop of US births that year, thus the baby boom was over. No idea why 80 was chosen as the endpoint.

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ertyertamos@reddit

Yes, and silent gen are kids too young to have fought in WWII (legally) until those being born to returning vets.

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GaryNOVA@reddit

It’s because I was born at the beginning of 1980, and people thought we had been done to perfection. Or at least that’s what my mom told me.

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LivingGhost371@reddit

It works out because about 80 is when you started to never experience adulthood without the internet.

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One_salt_taste@reddit

Because around 1979-1980 is when the birth rate started to climb again, I believe.

[-]

swordrat720@reddit

Coke.

[-]

highknees69@reddit

New Coke

[-]

Jay_at_Section13@reddit

Reagan babies? Do we really want them anyway? Are they tough enough?

[-]

Illustrious_You_6210@reddit

Inflation

[-]

kinguzoma@reddit

Millennials are 15 yrs too. 1981-1996

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Perplexio76@reddit

It depends on who you ask/what you read. While I've read 1965-1980, I've also read 1961-1981, which adds 4 years of the boomer era and 1 year of the millenials as there does seem to be SOME overlap there on both sides.

Honestly I think cases can be made for both 61-81 and 65-80.

[-]

OptimusWang@reddit

They fucked with the years at the Millennial/Gen X border multiple times. When Millennials were still called Gen Y, they sometimes started in 80 and other times started in 82. Once the name changed to Millennial, they changed the date so the first year became the class of 2000.

[-]

Experimental_Salad@reddit (OP)

I like this answer.

[-]

DoctorFrick@reddit

Shhhhh. It's how we keep this coffeehouse exclusive.