Definition of a millennial

I dated a gal born in 1980 and there was loads of differences. On paper we had very similar upbringings and backgrounds, but there were many things that she couldn’t relate to. Specifically it came down to where we were in 1995. By many accounts from sociologists there was a distinct change in youth culture that came to a head in 1995. I was already out of high school and got to fully experience and embrace the culture of the early 90’s as a teenager. Her being in sixth grade in 1991, where I was entering high school was a completely different impact. Being the prime age for the alternative culture explosion that happened then (Nirvana, Lollapalooza, visibility and viability of alternative lifestyles etc) is different than being 10/11 and having that go on. To my ex, a lot of that was stuff her older sister was into, not her. By the mid 90’s marketers had finally formulated how to market that early 90’s chaos and rebellion. The shift to consumerism being the rebellion was starting. Not to mention habits in parenting (the birth of helicopter parenting epidemic), surveillance, zero tolerance school policies, and eventually the telecommunications act of 1996 and all the fallout from that, all hit differently to people just a few years apart. Being a teenager from the beginning of the 90’s was a whole different shaping experience. On the other end too, the more millennial side of things had another reason for the energy shift. It comes down to financial instability. Exploding college debts, stable jobs declining, healthcare, and housing issues all started to become a bigger issue by the late 90’s. The effect of when young people feel economically stifled is they tend to get more cautious in life. Basically it becomes harder to risk being in an unstable lifestyle (like an artist) when the economic outlook gets poor. And on a bit of an anecdote that does have some researched backing, the change from when my class graduating at my school, the classes behind us was a world of difference. My high school French teacher was also my high school best friends mom. So after we graduated towards the end of 1996, we asked her how school was now that we were gone. She admitted that things were more quiet, there were less people on the detention bench, less disruptions etc. She said that the classes of 92-95 were some of the toughest years she had to teach. But I will say that, this all probably isn’t a written in stone theory as there’s always exceptions, and variables. But I also can’t deny that there is definite differences.