What's your definition of a "millennial"?

[MrMattBig]

Curious as to what shapes other's definitions of this term. Of course I could look up and know the parameters from the internet and other sources regarding categorization of generations. I am more interested in an in your own words description. I see members refer to millennials on here periodically, so what does the term mean to each of you?

[RealAvalon]

Curious as to what shapes other's definitions of this term. Of course I could look up and know the parameters from the internet and other sources regarding categorization of generations. I am more interested in an in your own words description. I see members refer to millennials on here periodically, so what does the term mean to each of you?

About 25 - 40 (ish)

[+ ArVaGuy]

Curious as to what shapes other's definitions of this term. Of course I could look up and know the parameters from the internet and other sources regarding categorization of generations. I am more interested in an in your own words description. I see members refer to millennials on here periodically, so what does the term mean to each of you?

 

The demographic charts don’t make it easy pinpoint the start for Generation Y aka Millennials. IMHO I’d define its anyone between 20 to 35, maybe 37 at the furthest leading edge of the generation.

[jjkrkwood]

Its usually a self absorbed asshole.

[MscleLovr]

My definition of a millennial is a man as young as 18 upto and including a man aged 30.

 

As a very approximate indicator, I’d say it’s any man who grew up as the Harry Potter books were published.

[+ quoththeraven]

Curious as to what shapes other's definitions of this term. Of course I could look up and know the parameters from the internet and other sources regarding categorization of generations. I am more interested in an in your own words description. I see members refer to millennials on here periodically, so what does the term mean to each of you?

It's only helpful to use a term if there's some agreement as to what it means. Pew suggests 1981-1995 for millennials, with everyone born later falling into the post-millennial/Generation Z category. (Millennials started out as Generation Y.)

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/533632/new-guidelines-redefine-birth-years-millennials-gen-x-and-post-millennials

 

That makes the oldest millennials older than most of those who have already responded think.

[Mo Mason]

I'm 38, so I'm right on the cusp of Gen-X and Gen-Y. I think technically I am a Millennial, but I definitely have a lot more in common with Gen-X'ers. I didn't grow up with a lot of technology (Atari and Nintendo was as advanced as we got in my household) and even cell-phones weren't very common until I was in college. My high school didn't get internet until my senior year, and it was one computer in the library that you had to sign up for a 15 minute time slot for.

 

Personally, I would like to say that Millennials are currently about 20-35 years old. And apparently, to me, it seems that technology defines the generation. A Millennial is anyone who made it through at least most of their teen years and up with modern technology (high speed internet, texting, social media, etc.).

[+ Hoover42]

Thought I heard on a podcast (Grumpy Old Geeks) this morning that Millennials are now turning 40.

[+ friendofsheila]

Anybody who looks at my cd collection and rolls their eyes.

[RealAvalon]

Thought I heard on a podcast (Grumpy Old Geeks) this morning that Millennials are now turning 40.

Yes. Mid-20s to 40 is considered Millennial. Is the moniker 'snowflake' used for Millennials other places?

[+ Topseed]

Entitled. Self-absorbed. Lousy grammar. Writing skills poorer than their grammar.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Definitions say from 1982 onward.

 

I tend to observe many having short attention spans, subpar conversational skills and a lack of knowledge of what came before them, verging on not actually caring. That said, I have also met many who are nothing like this. Hard workers, worldly, wise.

 

Hopefully with some maturity they will age into a decent, memorable generation.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Benjamin_Nicholas

[Guest LeonTrotsky]

Anyone who instagrams, snapchats, and texts because email is so outdated...

 

OOPS, I guess that's me, haha!!

[+ azdr0710]

 

[Guest]

Baby boomer: 1946-1965

Generation X: 1966-1985

Millennial: 1986-2005

Generation Z: 2006 on

(Silent generation: 1926-1945, Greatest generation: 1905-1925)

[+ ArVaGuy]

 

 

OMG!! I have experienced similar situations in the second video irl. This is not satire it’s real.

[Chad Constantine]

 

 

 

Though I can not stop laughing about both videos and hate that I have actually done some of this millennial retartedness. I would be remiss to point out the sexual harassment in the second video.

 

*warning you may want to bludgeon yourself after watching/hearing these millennial's speak*

cant stop laughing:

[longtime lurker]

As usual, many opinions merely represent personal experiences of Grumpy Old Men dealing with The Generation Gap. One of my grandfathers gave birth to a Baby Boomer in 1946 who died as a teenager and, therefore, he had few of that generation to relate to. Because he was very conservative minded, he pretty much disliked everybody in that age group due to all of the drugs and rock & roll influence. When Woodstock celebrated its 20th anniversary on a nightly news piece, he had an awful lot of anger to express.

 

The only way of defining generations is by birth rate, but that is never consistent and countries differ as well. Although the Baby Boom is defined specifically to the years 1946 through 1964, there were earlier booms like the curious one in 1942 (Pearl Harbor encouraging many women to give a bit more "support" to their departing GIs) and in the 1920s, much of that generation shaping the Golden Age of Television of the 1950s-80s since they were the children raised on the Golden Age of Radio of the 1920-50s.

 

According to https://www.infoplease.com/us/births/live-births-and-birth-rates-year , the rate of increase for 1965 was roughly the same as it was in 1940 at 19.4%, so I understand why many list that as the first official year of Generation X. The Pill certainly was helping that happen. Surprisingly, there has been more consistency since then, making the Baby Boom itself a rather special case study unlike other generations.

 

1989 saw a slightly stronger spike than usual, up to 16.2%, and that probably is the first official year we can attach to the Millennial generation, which likely gets split with another downturn in the birth rate by 2001-2002 even if those born at that time are more deserving of the term "millennial". 1989 is a very interesting year in many ways, marking the end of the Reagan presidency (which one of our current political parties glorifies like the Eisenhower Era) and the Cold War (Berlin Wall coming down). I think people were just having kids more often than usual due to a certain renewed optimism. There was an economic crash preceding it but the 1990s panned out quite the opposite of the 1930s and, again, I think attitude and confidence in new technologies helped because, at the bottom line, depressions and recessions are less about money itself but the emotional well being of a society at large regardless of how much money there is available. As many of us now recall, the 1990s was a decade full of parents buckling their tiny tots in mini-vans and shoving them off to day care centers becomes... alas... both parents had to work.

 

Another interesting chart that makes my input more confusing: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/06/chart-of-the-week-big-drop-in-birth-rate-may-be-levelling-off/ Yes, as the OP states, we can all look up and know the parameters from the internet and other sources regarding categorization of generations. Sorry if I got too far off topic.

Edited August 12, 2019 by longtime lurker

[Guest]

We now have six millennials out on extended family leave in the family practice department alone in my office. By extended, I mean out for months at a time. Obviously, the place is in somewhat of a bedlam and the patients are often not able to access the care they need. Until a few years ago, no one would ever take off more than 2 months after their baby was born. Nothing close to this has ever happened in the over 25 years I've worked at my workplace. One of those absent took off within months of being hired, was off for the better part of a year, then came back for 9 to 10 months before taking off for several months again. I had mentioned some months ago when one of the male millennial members of our staff took 3 months off following a stillbirth at 20 weeks' gestation.

The baby boomers have had it with this bedlam and are retiring earlier than they'd planned. The idea that one's work is important hasn't caught on for many millennials. It's becoming quite a crisis where I work.

[RealAvalon]

We now have six millennials out on extended family leave in the family practice department alone in my office. By extended, I mean out for months at a time. Obviously, the place is in somewhat of a bedlam and the patients are often not able to access the care they need. Until a few years ago, no one would ever take off more than 2 months after their baby was born. Nothing close to this has ever happened in the over 25 years I've worked at my workplace. One of those absent took off within months of being hired, was off for the better part of a year, then came back for 9 to 10 months before taking off for several months again. I had mentioned some months ago when one of the male millennial members of our staff took 3 months off following a stillbirth at 20 weeks' gestation.

The baby boomers have had it with this bedlam and are retiring earlier than they'd planned. The idea that one's work is important hasn't caught on for many millennials. It's becoming quite a crisis where I work.

In most countries, it would be assumed that the mother would have a paid year off after the birth or adoption of a child. Of course in some countries, Sweden/Norway, its two years. Miscarriages are another thing of course. When we had one, I was at work the next day.

 

I do find there is a need for regular positive acknowledgements with under 40's, I don't know if that is just good interpersonal behavior or just a great big time suck. I can go both ways on that.

[+ quoththeraven]

I've had it up to here with the recriminations between baby boomers and millennials. There's always overgeneralizations and the Boomers sound like old folks yelling at people to get off their lawn. Blaming Boomers for everything that's wrong is equally annoying.

 

Why doesn't anyone drag Generation X into this? Are they now too old to get dumped on? I seem to remember a time when they were blamed for everything, back when they were the young whippersnappers. Seeing as they are reputedly more apathetic and apolitical than Boomers or Millennials/Generation Y, it seems to me they make better targets of disdain if one absolutely must engage in intergenerational disdain.

 

I helped get myself into the medical condition I'm in now by putting work ahead of my health, so complaints about supposed laziness and lack of work ethic don't ring a bell with me.

 

Full disclosure: I'm a Boomer and my daughter is a late millennial.

[+ ArVaGuy]

I've had it up to here with the recriminations between baby boomers and millennials. There's always overgeneralizations and the Boomers sound like old folks yelling at people to get off their lawn. Blaming Boomers for everything that's wrong is equally annoying.

 

Why doesn't anyone drag Generation X into this? Are they now too old to get dumped on? I seem to remember a time when they were blamed for everything, back when they were the young whippersnappers. Seeing as they are reputedly more apathetic and apolitical than Boomers or Millennials/Generation Y, it seems to me they make better targets of disdain if one absolutely must engage in intergenerational disdain.

 

I helped get myself into the medical condition I'm in now by putting work ahead of my health, so complaints about supposed laziness and lack of work ethic don't ring a bell with me.

 

Full disclosure: I'm a Boomer and my daughter is a late millennial.

 

As the video clip above demonstrates so effectively, Gen X-ers are pretty much overshadowed by two larger more self absorbed generations. They are the middle child of generational demographics.

Edited August 14, 2019 by ArVaGuy

[+ quoththeraven]

For a slightly different perspective:

 

[MEDIA=twitter]853079042844745730[/MEDIA]

 

@ArVaGuy, you might appreciate this.

[+ tassojunior]

Millennials are the well-taken-care -of offspring of Boomers, ie, the Boomer Echo. They're the largest demographic now and growing as Boomers die. They got into technology and the internet early on but Gen Z'ers were born in it and it's taken for granted by them. Efficiency isn't as big a value for Gen Z as it is for Millennials and in many ways the younger kids seem more like Boomers. (they're also much more conservative unfortunately).

[+ pitman]

As the video clip above demonstrates so effectively, Gen X-ers are pretty much overshadowed by two larger more self absorbed generations. They are the middle child of generational demographics.

In the same way the "Silent" generation was overshadowed by the "Greatest" generation before them and the Boomers afterwards. The same thing may happen to Gen Z as these things tend to alternate by generation.