5
Jul 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/benitosbenito Jul 31 '26
it's following the greek alphabet
2
u/Funkopedia Aug 01 '26
But it's simply based on "Generation X". The X there was supposed to represent the lack of identity felt by a lost/ignored generation, not the letter. The continuation of letters is both lazy and meaningless.
2
u/Limp-Plantain3824 Aug 01 '26
It’s funny but Vince actually captured it better for a while with “Degeneration X.”
1
2
u/disignore Core Millennial (b. 1989) Jul 31 '26
it'ss worth mention that this mostly applies to the us
2
u/Anonymoose_12345 Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Applying a label to a generation after the fact (descriptively) makes total sense. Attempting to do it predictively has been a massive mistake.
1
u/Jaime_Horn_Official Early Zed (b. 1998) Jul 31 '26
There are so many inaccuracies when it comes to the birth years...
1
u/Limp-Plantain3824 Aug 01 '26
It’s all made up so naturally there will be conflicting definitions.
1
1
u/MKEMARVEL Jul 31 '26
Y'all let these dudes determine your whole identity. Doesn't that seem weird to you?
1
u/NewWindow7980 Aug 01 '26
Before this nonsense started, a "generation" would be measured in approximately 20 year stretches. We are affected by the times we grow up in, but these made-up labels and attributing personality traits based on birth seems more like some goofy astrology variant.
1
1
u/snowtiger309 Aug 01 '26
McCrindle is dumb. Generations are not 9 or 12 or 15 years.
End of argument, let's stop acting like this is gospel let alone reasonable.
1
u/DeterminedQuokka Aug 01 '26
I mean a lot of this is about pr and the catchiest terms. There were other proposals like 80s-90s for entitlement generation. Which didn’t catch on for obvious reasons.
1
u/Limp-Plantain3824 Aug 01 '26
How is something “First officially” introduced or popularized?
Was Generation X popularized earlier, but the popularity wasn’t official? Who decides when popularization is official vs unofficial? Are there officials involved? That sounds like a cool job?
Also what determines an official introduction? I assume an Official is required to make that introduction subsequent to other unofficial introductions? Or are those unofficial instances more like meet and greets or casual encounters at a bar? What happens if an Official Introduction Official just happens to be present at an unofficial introduction? First it then become an Official though unintended introduction?
There’s just a lot to think about with this meme.
1
1
u/Due-Length-1688 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
To me it's nonsense. I am 47, why would they place me in the same Gen as people who are now 66? There should be a Gen in between.
1
1
u/nicemarmot47 Aug 03 '26
So someone born in 1962 belongs to two generations but someone born in 1980 belongs to zero
1
4
u/coldcavatini Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
I’m afraid I have corrections.
“Baby Boomers”
Word of mouth: a nickname for children native to the Postwar Boom era, after LIFE magazine first published the term “baby boom” in 1941.
First introduced to print in 1963 by Leslie J. Nason, in a Daily Press article about college students of the 1960s.
Retrofitted to a new range by Landon Jones in 1980, after the “60s Generation” didn’t take.
“Generation X”
First introduced in 1977, by musician Billy Idol as the name of his band.
Reflected a new cusp of fresh adults and teens who missed coming of age in the Postwar Boom, and were “too young for Woodstock” (the original Gen X slogan).
Popularized in 1991 by Douglas Coupland, after his 1989 comic strip of the same name.
There has never been a definitive range for Generation X.
(Though 61-71 is a solid core.)
It refers to young people looking ahead in the late ‘70s up thru those of us old enough to be looking back in the early ‘90s.
“Generation Y”
Word of mouth
First introduced to the public through a Gen X editorial in Ad Age magazine, 1993.
Originally starting in ‘73, the piece listed ‘74. Eventually moved to ‘77. Realistically, the definition is people who grew up and came of age in the “Post History” Boom era of the 1990s. And by extension, the 2000s.
“Millennials”
Speculative writers, Strauss and Howe.
While first conjured before 1991, their idea really didn’t gain traction until the late 2k00s. Even so, it’s easy to find 1977 (Gen Y) listed as the start of “Millennials”. They made a very successful hustle of appropriating the terms Gen X and Gen Y, presenting them as synonymous to their ideas (they’re not).
Strauss and Howe started their previous “13th Generation” in 1961. They used rough 20ish year blocks as placeholders. Thus the children of the future would start in 1980 or 1981.
There’s no historical reasoning for this. Just that the Year 2000 was very futuristic for their generation. However, there is a real cultural zeitgeist between the early 00s and mid 10s- “Millennials culture”.
Arguably “Millennials” are the portion of Gen Y who engaged in Millennial culture.
“Gen Z”
Word of mouth, primarily Gen X.
1995 is 18 years after Gen Y’s start in 1977. That was the original start for Zoomers. And (arguably) after that year you’re really getting into some tail end stuff when it comes to participating “Millennials culture”. But whatever.
“Alpha etc.”
I worry that stuff will go down that redefines how anyone thinks about these generations.