Pigeonholing Gen Y

Many try to pigeonhole generations by broadly applying labels to them, and they often wind up with something like this:

(By birth year in the United States)
The Greatest Generation: 1905-1924
The Silent Generation: 1925-1945
The Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Gen X: 1965-1984
Gen Y/Millennials: 1985-2004
Gen Z: 2005-2022

As one would expect, there’s a lot of problems with this model, and one of them is that growing up in the optimistic “heartland” 80s was much different than being a kid in the depressing “grindhouse” seventies, let alone the Beatles-obsessed and nuclear-bomb-fearing mid-sixties, being raised by parents who spent their nights doing coke at the disco versus the actual hippies at Woodstock ’69.

The problems with the 60s revolution were already starting to bubble through the cracks during the 70’s in the form of John Waters‘ “trash” movies, radical college curriculum reformation, drug addiction, homelessness, inflation, and a glut of fear tactics being pushed upon citizens through propaganda. Sadly, all their protesting did little else but leave Vietnam veterans jaded and convince U.S. manufacturers to off-shore their production to countries with less Eco-regulations and more sweatshop conditions, not only doing nothing to improve the environment, but ultimately making it globally worse on top of sucking the U.S.’s GDP dry just in time to make life especially difficult for Gen Y.

Speaking of Gen Y, lumping them in with the Millennials is a slap to the average Gen-Yer’s face. Growing up in the 80s meant being raised by pre-Elmo Sesame Street, the tail-end of nuclear bomb drills where you hide under your desk, a flood of Saturday morning cartoons and targeted marketing borne of the cartoon franchise wars, shoveling ungodly amounts of sugary cereals down your gullet, the last generation that got taught (mostly guilt-free) patriotism in schools, having exclusively landline phones, experiencing traditional dating in the early 90s, no internet, and having fond memories of the Atari 2600 and NES … while getting into their preteen years just in time for the 16-bit console wars. Gen Y remembers what it’s like to go outside and play “war” with the neighborhood kids using toy guns that actually looked real, and it was a time when they could flip on MTV and see nothing but music videos. Gen Y was raised by Boomers, and very little of what they were taught translates well to today’s sociopolitical environment. But they grew up optimistic, carefree, and naive during the last analog days while seamlessly adapting to the new digital lifestyle that swept its way across the nation. The fact that they were able to teach themselves how that technology worked was their saving grace.

Millennials were raised by Barney the Purple Dinosaur and Kevin Clash Elmo, getting iPods to get them addicted to Apple branding, living in or around a constant irrational fear of school shootings, clinging to very late 90s and early ‘aughts music, having helicopter parents, wearing kid gloves around a sudden explosion of peanut allergies, and wearing bicycle helmets. MTV was drifting away from music videos and toward cheap reality TV. They probably can’t recall a time where they didn’t have internet access at their fingertips, and their parents probably at least had car phones, and then flip phones. By the time they were coming of age, internet dating was a thing. By their late teens and early college years, they were watching Toonami and had fond memories of the Nintendo 64. Millennials were raised by Generation Jones (which isn’t even represented on the chart).

If the Boomers birthed Gen X, and Jonesers birthed Gen Y, then it should follow that Gen X birthed the Millennials, but Gen X and Y were both heavily cautioned. It was hammered into their skulls through countless TV shows, magazines, and advertising that marriage is a bad idea that you shouldn’t rush into. That you should finish college first. That you should get out of debt (after being set up with crippling debt). They were told with grossly inflated numbers how expensive it was to have a single baby, let alone two. So late Gen Xers and Gen Yers did as they were told and took their time. Now they find themselves either racing the biological clock or trying to fill the void with an endless parade of more stuff … and pets.

Another possible (and perhaps oversimplified) way to think of it is that Gen X basically “came of age” in the 80s, Gen Y came of age in the 90s, and millennials, while raised in the 90s, came of age during the millennium.

However, I believe author and theologian Brian Niemeier has got the timetables more nailed down than most in this well thought-out chart:

(By birth year in the United States)
The Greatest Generation: 1914-1934
The Silent Generation: 1935-1945
The Baby Boomers: 1946-1956
Generation Jones: 1957-1967
Generation X: 1968-1978
Generation Y: 1979-1989
The Millennials: 1990-2000
Generation Z: 2001-2011

While not perfect, Mr. Niemeier’s model is a much closer fit to the reality I’m familiar with. A generation’s ability to get along with other generations depends heavily on how similar or compatible their formative years were. For example, the Boomers seem to love Millennials, but seem to hold a grudge against Gen X and hold Y in utter contempt.

There’s a new term floating around called “Xennials”, which are supposed be the generation that spanned between 1977 and 1985. But, perhaps the biggest facepalm of all is that–depending on who you ask–many media outlets have completely replaced the term “Gen Y” with “Xennial”, once again memory-holding Gen Y entirely. Perhaps it’s just another petty way for the the Boomers in charge to snub Gen Y yet again.

The starting point of 1977 does make sense to me, because between 1977 and 2005, our culture moved incredibly fast, perhaps too fast to reliably apply generational labels to anyone. Childhood experiences were rapidly moving targets, and 1977 was of course the pivotal year Star Wars and the Atari 2600 came out. So-called Xennials were born alongside the birth of many new zeitgeists, such as affordable home computing, Showbiz Pizza, and all the blockbuster movies trying to emulate the success of Jaws and Star Wars. Home video gaming became trendy and affordable. MTV was just getting started. (The year 1985 is a bit more arbitrary, and I’m not sure why that year in particular was chosen.)

From 2006 and onward, our culture seems to have been stuck in a never-ending rut of “got talent” shows, auto-tuned music, popcorn munch CGI-fests dumbed down for the masses, and 24-hour news-fed guilt-shaming. And, I hate to say it, but we’re still dependent on the baby boomers to run our country and make our best movies.

That’s right, the same people who made our entertainment in the 80s are still doing it now. And they can’t seem to collect enough Oscars. Year after year, they’re getting more and more desperate as their worldview fades from relevance. It’s like their refusal to retire will not only somehow keep them socially relevant, but will also keep their foot out of the grave. They’ve been able to stay relevant so long partly because they so vastly outnumber X and Y, and they strongly support each other. And when they do finally retire, they seem oddly eager to pass the torch onto the Millennials in particular, snubbing Gen X and Gen Y.

Of course, not all Boomers are so vindictive, but many in a high enough office seem to know they have the numbers to stay in power long enough to leapfrog a few generations out of their chances at leadership. But some Boomers are finally starting to come around and view Gen Y with fresh eyes. I’d like to believe they’re starting to realize their children were perhaps more capable and less disposable than they’d originally thought, and can offer much more to the world than just being called on to fix their internet connection at a moment’s notice.

(1997 also seemed to be a key year, a year where many industries began to shift into works focused more on political agenda than telling a great story. I’m not sure how that factors in, but 1997 onward has created a more pessimistic world than the one prior generations grew up in.)

Now, some may cop an attitude when you dare to suggest that Gen Y and Millennials are different from one another, but that attitude’s a great example of how Gen Y continues to get memory-holed. Of all the above generations, Gen Y (and very late Gen X–which I suppose supports the existence of “Xennials”) got what I feel was the shortest end of the stick.

It’s also easy to get in a huff because this is a tale as old as time: Every generation has a sob story and blames it on another generation. I admit, Gen Y is far from the first generation to say “society screwed us”. But Gen Y has presented what I believe to be the most compelling case.