Poll of the Day > What's after Boomers, but before Gen X?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Don't say they're consecutive, 'cuz there's a clear something in there
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And don't say Gen W... that's stupid
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Gen U.
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Gen W?

Generations are pretty poorly defined to be honest. For instance, millennials born in 1981 have pretty much zero in common with millennials born in 1997.

OhhhJa posted...

Generations are pretty poorly defined to be honest. For instance, millennials born in 1981 have pretty much zero in common with millennials born in 1997.

Came in to say this. It's borderline pseudoscience, and people can't even agree on dates for when different generations start and stop because there's no official definition for anything.

Even the names aren't universal - most just sort of started out as something that one or two people used, then other people picked up on it, and eventually it just sort of became the trendy term to use. And which is the trendiest name to use can change over time - it's part of why some people will still fight over the difference between Gen Y and Millennials these days.

It's like how people online refer to "90s kids" as if it means something. It's convenient verbal shorthand for a specific grouping, and implies a number of shared characteristics, but plenty of people feel no real connection to their peers and disagree with whatever labels tend to get slapped on them. Or just get confused because which group they supposedly belong to changes depending on which given article or Wiki page they're reading.

Personally, I think the entire concept of generations in the traditional sense is somewhat obsolete these days entirely, because pop culture and shared social history changes so fast now, no group spanning 20-30 years is going to share any meaningful traits as a whole.

At the moment we're almost better off just sticking to decades (80s kids, 90s kids, etc), but even that is slowly starting to pull apart.


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