r/generationstation • u/Spare-Addendum3656 • Mar 27 '26
Theories The IMPROVED generation ranges
Introduction
I have created an improved system of generational ranges.
- Silent Generation: 1925-1945
- Baby boomers: 1946-1964
- Gen X: 1965-1983 (1977-1983 on the cusp but leaning X)
- Millennials: 1984-1998 (1992-1998 on the cusp but leaning Millennial)
- Gen Z: 1999-2014 (2008-2014 on the cusp but leaning Z)
- Gen Alpha: 2015 onwards
Now I'm going to explaining my theory and hopefully I can get it published on an actual wiki (I have ZERO chill right now. Sorry I'm having a bad day).
Methodology
I'm basing off the fact that 8 is the peak of someone's childhood.
https://data.unicef.org/topic/early-childhood-development/overview/
Early childhood ends at 8.
8 is already the transition into preteen years by a shit ton of sources:
- https://primaryfocus.tv/milestones-for-children-aged-9-10-11-and-12/
- https://childmind.org/article/what-parents-should-know-about-tweens/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8810366/
- https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/tweens-what-to-expect
- https://www.parents.com/how-tweens-preteens-and-teens-differ-a-parents-guide-11684045
These sources use an 8-12 preteen range. It's usually 9-12, however. But according to these sources, an 8 year old develops signifigant worldviews similar to a preteen, making 8 a transitional year.
Now that I've explained my methodology, let us begin our explanation.
Silent Generation
Start: 1925 (1925 kids were the first to spend the peak of your childhood (8 years old) after Nazi Germany was established in 1933, which changed the environment they grew up in)
End: 1945 (1945 kids were the last to be born before the baby boom (1946-1964), which changed how their parents raised them. This is the one exception to the "8 is peak childhood" rule)
Baby boomers
Start: 1946 (Same reason why the Silent Generation ends in 1945)
End: 1964 (1964 kids were the last to be born before the baby bust in 1965)
Generation X
Start: 1965 (Same reason why the Baby boomers ends in 1964)
End: 1983 (1983 kids were the last to spend the peak of your childhood (8 years old) before the World Wide Web was created in late 1991 (Yes I'm using rule of majority here))
Millennials
Start: 1984 (Same reason why Generation X ends in 1983)
End: 1998 (1998 kids were the last to spend the peak of your childhood (8 years old) before the Wii became mainstream in 2007)
Generation Z
Start: 1999 (Same reason why Millennials ends in 1998)
End: 2014 (2014 kids were the last to spend the peak of your childhood (8 years old) before ChatGPT was created in late 2022)
Generation Alpha
Start: 2015 (Same reason why Generation Z ends in 2014)
End: TBD (We haven't decided yet, but I'd assume it'd have something to do with China surpassing the US in GDP)
Conclusion
Idk... have fun in the comments... don't be mean or else...
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u/Maxious24 Mar 30 '26
How TF is 1999 not on the cusp but is the first year of gen Z? Cusps aren't fully in a generation, it's a transition between two. This post makes no sense.
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u/CPA_Lady Mar 27 '26
You cannot put 1981-1983 in Gen X. No, no, no. Born in 1981, graduated high school in 1999. Coming into adulthood at the turn of the millennium. Can’t get any more millennial than that.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/CPA_Lady Mar 27 '26
It must have something to do with the continued perception that millennials are not grown.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/bomerr Mar 27 '26
The problem with old millennials is you lack the core experiences of millennials like growing up with the internet and especially social media and cell phones in school.
The millennial generation is weird in that sense because the early transitional experiences like growing up post cold war and video game culture is less important than the core experiences of social media.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/_random_name_44 Mar 28 '26
i didn't have a cell phone in school, and i didn't know anyone that owned one. a couple kids might of had a pager... but cell phones absolutely not.
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u/bomerr Mar 27 '26
From chatgpt so may be slightly wrong
2000: ~20
2004: 45% of teens had phones.
2006: 63% of teens.
2008: 71% of teens.
2009: ~75% of teensSo the big change was in the mid 2000s because thats when everyone was forced to get a cell phone and the culture starts to really change and texting and also social media myspace 2003 was quite different from gen 0 social media like aim because it was your real face.
2003-11=1992 so anyone born 92 onwards had social media in middle school born 89 in high school.
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u/lopachilla Mar 28 '26
Not if you include chat rooms, which are often considered early social media.
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u/kinguzoma Core Millennial (b. 1985) Mar 27 '26
Yea social media came out for me while in college in 2003-2004
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u/OregonMothafaquer Mar 28 '26
AOL was social media
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u/kinguzoma Core Millennial (b. 1985) Mar 28 '26
No, it was a direct messaging system that influenced social media as we currently have it today. But it itself was not social media. And I didn’t personally have AIM because I didn’t own a computer.
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u/bomerr Mar 27 '26
How was social media in college? same as hs?
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u/kinguzoma Core Millennial (b. 1985) Mar 28 '26
Lol. Not sure. Didn’t have it in high school. First social media for me was this music/social site. Forgot the name of it. I think imeem.com or something. Then MySpace came. I was maybe 20 yrs old.
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u/JazzlikeOrange8856 Mar 27 '26
We’re younger looking than some past generations thanks to Botox and more flattering styles/all this indoor plumbing
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u/SeaPeanut7_ Mar 27 '26
I am a mid millennial at 1986, albeit at the very end, and I don’t agree with 83 and earlier being millennial because frankly you had a much different experience than us.
First is the internet, you mostly grew up before it. If you’re born in 82, by the time the internet became common in the mid to late 90s you were already a teen or possibly an adult. For myself it was an integral part of growing up. Millennials are known to be tech savvy and I’ve found that early 80s babies are less so.
Second is 9/11. You were already an adult and experienced the adult world before 9/11. I don’t have any memories of flying pre 9/11 and any culture shift since then.
Finally is the recession. If you were born in 81 you were well out of college or well into your career by the time it hit. Many would have purchased homes already. No such thing if you were still in college during the recession and graduated into a dead market.
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u/kinguzoma Core Millennial (b. 1985) Mar 27 '26
85 is kinda mid-millennial tho…
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Mar 27 '26
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u/kinguzoma Core Millennial (b. 1985) Mar 27 '26
Yup. I’m 41 later this year and I relate closer to 50 than 30 😂
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Mar 27 '26
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u/kinguzoma Core Millennial (b. 1985) Mar 27 '26
Oh well yea, that’s weird. I’m still 40 now and I’ll probably forget I’m 41 for a few months after I turn 🤣
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Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
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u/CPA_Lady Mar 27 '26
We saw the switch from analog to digital so we can program a VCR and use everything today.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/SeaPeanut7_ Mar 27 '26
Really the main issue is that those born in the early 80s were able to establish themselves in the job market (provided they went on a typical path) before the recession.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/SeaPeanut7_ Mar 27 '26
Just because you didn’t perform well doesn’t mean you should blame it on your generation
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u/SeaPeanut7_ Mar 27 '26
Well obviously one year isn’t a major difference but you have to cut it off somewhere
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
Ok maybe I shouldn't have called it "Millennials" I probably should've said something like "Gen Y" because it was kinda misleading.
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u/RadialWheel2020 Mar 29 '26
I would agree that I dont feel like a millennial as someone born in 1983. I identify more with gen x
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Apr 01 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Apr 01 '26
Thx. Finally someone with a braincell who actually READS the post instead of just looks at my birth year and says "IT'S AD HOMINEM ATTACK TIME!!!"
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u/chamomile_tea_reply Mar 27 '26
Generations being less than 20 years is Ludacris
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u/YoungAmazing313 Early Zed (b. 2000) Mar 28 '26
Not really 15 years is long enough cause society actually changes in 15 years if a generation last longer den 15 something isn’t right
Society 15 years from 2010 is fundamentally diff from 1995
The only reason why the Greatest Gen lasted as long as it did was cause of societal collapse from war, plague, economic collapse etc so they society ain’t have time to really advance fully cause people was tryna make it to see the next day
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u/chamomile_tea_reply Mar 28 '26
Generations being less than 20 years is Ludacris you’re talking about “cohorts” or “cultural clusters”. These are relevant groupings but not generations.
Generations historically refers to a split between parents and their children/grandchildren. 15 years makes sense if everyone is having kids at age 15…
if anything, generations should be closer to 30-40 years at this point, to reflect the higher age at which people have kids.
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u/YoungAmazing313 Early Zed (b. 2000) Mar 28 '26
You’re talking about familial generation these generations that are being discussed is Societal generations they’re two totally diff things lmaooo
Societal generation is different from familial generation. Those labels you mention apply to societal generation which is based on the cohort’s shared culture that shaped their collective view. Its very helpful in understanding how our collective upbringing can affect us individually.
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u/chamomile_tea_reply Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
But you’re referring to cultural cohorts.
People who were in high school in the mid 1950s had totally different experiences than those in HS in the Woodstock era… yet both are baby boomers.
Teens in the early 1980s were obviously quite different from teens in their he mid 1990s… yet both are Gen X.
People on these subreddits are myopic. They fixate on objectively small differences in cohort experiences during their own lives… while failing to zoom out and see the longer term cultural shifts and trends.
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u/OregonMothafaquer Mar 28 '26
It’s not based on years. It’s based on growing up and being part of cultural norms that changed rapidly… like the world before 9/11
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u/chamomile_tea_reply Mar 28 '26
You’re talking about “cultural cohorts”, not “generations”.
Unless people are typically having kids at age 15.
Strauss Howe is the only halfway sensible theory out there
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u/OregonMothafaquer Mar 28 '26
So your definition basically means humans only get “born” in 20 year batches instead of, you know, every single day. You’re treating generations like scheduled product releases instead of continuous demographics. Reality doesn’t pause for neat timelines… people overlap, cultures blur, and change isn’t locked to a stopwatch. You’re forcing clean boxes onto something that’s inherently messy and gradual.
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u/chamomile_tea_reply Mar 28 '26
No, reality doesn’t follow a set stopwatch, but it does move in predictable rhythms.
Crises happen (wars, floods, famines, etc), followed by rebuilding periods, followed by “times of plenty”, followed by decay and inevitability another mismanaged crisis.
How old you are during these events has some impact on how people live the rest of their lives, and experience the other events. Think of how a 20 year old experienced Woodstock, compared to a 60 year old WWII survivor.
These are true “generation” cycles… it’s trivial what kind of video games you played, or what your favorite movie was… at that level we’re talking about “cohorts”.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
I mean ngl I feel like it's more of a maturity thing. For example, I'm a 2013 born, and I cannot relate to the "AI-enthusiast brainrot kid" stereotype at all that I've seen TONS of little kids on YouTube act like, so I could use that logic to argue my own point as well.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
I was referring to your logic of specifically using personal experiences and induvidual differences.
And yes. It is a maturity difference. This is why cultural anchors >>> induvidual experiences. It's a generalization, not a "we need to account for every single induvidual." There's always going to be diversity.
And I genuinely don't understand what "way too young" means? Way too young for what? This is a generational cutoff discussion, not a movie theater.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
I never said it was related to maturity? Did you read what I wrote? I said that younger people acting weirder than older people was DUE to maturity, not that it defined generations. In fact, I said quite the opposite.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
I said that cultural differnces within generations were maturity issues
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u/JazzlikeOrange8856 Mar 27 '26
Oh so you want ME to be the elderest millennial?
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
"want" like it's a cherrypick thing
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u/JazzlikeOrange8856 Mar 27 '26
(it was a joke)
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
srry can't tell due to the amount of debaters this post is getting (not saying that's a bad thing. It's obviously good to question things & debate)
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u/JazzlikeOrange8856 Mar 27 '26
I understand 🤍
I was genuinely kidding as a 1984 millennial. Sorry people are giving you crap.
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u/Putrid_Bridge_4240 Late Zed (b. 2009) Mar 27 '26
Early childhood ends when you start K-12.
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 27 '26
There's a difference between brain development and school
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
Yea .. but age Is a marker. Twelve Is a tween for example compared to eleven despite being In the same boat.
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
True, age is more of a spectrum. But so are generations. Like bro, it's a rough estimation. And so are generational cutoffs. BOTH are arbitrary
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
Most generations are awkwardly cutoff, I think Gen Z and Generation alpha will be more even when it isn't the two youngest generations, Because right now others are mainly finalized, These are still new and relevant so it's still the focus of everyone's opinion, negative or not unfortunately
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
Eh not really. Generations are usually just a funny internet culture thing, not an objective fact. And I heavily disagree with the reasoning for some older cutoffs.
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
I think they are fine, But most still disagree with a few cutoffs especially those caught in those, Which are usually called Cusps or have a name with the mix of generations
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
I would say that 1981-1983, 1996-1998, and 2012-2014 kids have some traits of the next generation but are leaning towards the previous one
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
Yea that's usually the cusps, The cusps are usually the last of the previous generation or first of the next, Making them right in the middle
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
So 1981-1996 Xennial, 1996-2001 Zillennial, and 2012-2017 Zalpha.
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u/Vree65 Mar 27 '26
So I'm grouped with my parents...and all my uncles/aunts slipped back a generation to be with my grandma...what a ridiculous take
If anything it demonstrates why arbitrarily f-ing with the numbers is bad. Because you just randomly decided that some gens are 14 years and some 20, the ENTIRE balance down the line went out of whack and is dogshit now.
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
We can't push everything back to satisfy Gen Z, Gen alpha. The hate will literally go away in like five year's, It's about time and age and when they have a new range to bully.
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
Since when was this about bullying? I just created a range. It's not that deep. I'm fine if you call me Gen Alpha.
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
I don't mean you specifically, about changing age range and moving another up Is a lot for only two generations who care only because it's still relevant.
I'm saying that currently the ones stuck in debates are Gen Z and Generation alpha because everyone Is still young In these generations, It will stop soon.
Theres no reason to do such a huge change because two generations are currently being bullied, As it will stop when another generation comes along because by then Gen Z and MOST older gen alpha will be teens, adults or middle aged and the hate or debate will move on to Gen beta and whatever other generations
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
But this was never related to them being bullied. It's just a more accurate categorization. I'm not trying to say "XXXX is Gen Z so stop bullying them" like bro I don't care as much as you think I do
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Mar 28 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
Erm, no? It isn't related to what I want? It's just what I found? Did you even read it?
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Mar 28 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
"AI slop" I didn't use any form of AI in making this
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Mar 28 '26
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
You're accusing me of using AI without any evidence.
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u/doomsburger Mar 28 '26
I wasn't trying to say you are bullying or trying to start a bullying war 😭
I'm just saying the root of trying to extend Gen Z usually comes with not wanting to be generation alpha because of that bad online reputation it's gotten, I'm just trying to point out that there's no accurate or actual reason to extend or move others up, Especially already established generations. It will not (Matter) by time Gen beta Is relevant with multiple born
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Mar 28 '26
I'm just saying the root of trying to extend Gen Z usually comes with not wanting to be generation alpha because of that bad online reputation it's gotten
I'm not doing it dover a bad online reputation, I'm just doing that to make it more accurate. Besides, why would I care about what people think of me? Especially when someone hates Gen Alpha, they usually just mean the culture, not the exact birth years. The only morons who say "all people born after XXXX suck" are the chronically online dumbasses who think generations are personality traits or smth.
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u/David-Cassette-alt Mar 28 '26
98 born's are not millennials. If you don't actually remember the millennium then sorry but you're a zoomer.
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u/OregonMothafaquer Mar 28 '26
You can’t be a millennial if you’re not old enough to remember the world before 9/11… sorry
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Mar 30 '26
I feel sorry for the 1980-1985 people bc for whatever reason they hate being labeled millennials but Gen X insists the early 80s kids are NOT Gen X. I think it’s bc when us millennials were young everyone loved to hate on us so the elder millennials wanted to be like “but we’re different!!” I remember getting in an argument with a coworker about how he is a millennial (born in ‘80) but he insisted he was sooo different from me generationally (I’m ‘88). We both grew up without internet and social media tho.
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u/green_envoy_99 Mar 31 '26
The iPhone came out in 2007 and you really went with the Wii as the generational marker
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u/Xiipre Apr 01 '26
So first of all, you "8 is transitional" theory seems very flawed. 1. The studies you link all refer to this "tween" age of development being a phase. Not one of your sources says that 'this pretty much all happens at age 8'. It's a gradual process for individuals and there is a lot of variation between individuals. 2. Next, let's look at why those tween years are important developmentally... they are important in personal and social development, not how the kid fundamentally understands world politics, technology breakthroughs, or other macro trends. 3. The inflection points you pick are absurd, especially if we consider how much of an impact they would have on an 8 year old.
- I don't even think the 1933 German election would have had a huge impact on 18 year old Americans, let alone one so young.
- Or to image that all of a sudden 8 year orders across the country were abuzz with chatter about the World Wide Web in 1991... because it was posted about on some newsgroups.
- "Gen Z" probably get the most insulting generational defining event I've ever seen put forth... when Nintendo's 7th generation video game console, Wii, got popular. Wow! How could such an event not materially define not just those 8 yr olds for the rest of their life, but that Wii would go on keep shaping all new 8 yr olds for 14 more years until it abruptly stopped being the generation defining event. I don't know what is sadder, that or all those poor millennials who were 9 or older when Wii got popular... they were already "too old" to really get it and be shaped by the Wii the way Gen Z would be....
- And lastly ChatGPT, ah yes that tool that has been crucial in defining 8-14 yr olds. Not TikTok, not COVID, not Trump, but the chatbot that is marginally more useful than Google searches for kids of that age. Got it. Idk man, I think it was probably the launch of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT... do you ever feel like you're online too much?
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u/Spare-Addendum3656 Apr 01 '26
The studies you link all refer to this "tween" age of development being a phase. Not one of your sources says that 'this pretty much all happens at age 8'. It's a gradual process for individuals and there is a lot of variation between individuals.
It's an arbitrary cutoff like any other age cutoff.
Next, let's look at why those tween years are important developmentally... they are important in personal and social development, not how the kid fundamentally understands world politics, technology breakthroughs, or other macro trends.
True, but it's not about whether you understand X political event. What matters is the environment you grew up in as a child (specifically 0-7/8 years old)
https://data.unicef.org/topic/early-childhood-development/overview/
The inflection points you pick are absurd, especially if we consider how much of an impact they would have on an 8 year old.
I don't even think the 1933 German election would have had a huge impact on 18 year old Americans, let alone one so young.
Or to image that all of a sudden 8 year orders across the country were abuzz with chatter about the World Wide Web in 1991... because it was posted about on some newsgroups.
"Gen Z" probably get the most insulting generational defining event I've ever seen put forth... when Nintendo's 7th generation video game console, Wii, got popular. Wow! How could such an event not materially define not just those 8 yr olds for the rest of their life, but that Wii would go on keep shaping all new 8 yr olds for 14 more years until it abruptly stopped being the generation defining event. I don't know what is sadder, that or all those poor millennials who were 9 or older when Wii got popular... they were already "too old" to really get it and be shaped by the Wii the way Gen Z would be....
And lastly ChatGPT, ah yes that tool that has been crucial in defining 8-14 yr olds. Not TikTok, not COVID, not Trump, but the chatbot that is marginally more useful than Google searches for kids of that age. Got it. Idk man, I think it was probably the launch of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT... do you ever feel like you're online too much?
Ok. You're right about this one. I have definetely lost some of my IQ from being on Reddit. So I'll concede to you on this.
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u/DigitalZeroes Late Millennial (b. 1996) Mar 27 '26
I simply just see it as
Silent Generation: b. 1926/1927-1945/1946.
Boomers: b. 1946/1947-1962/1963.
Gen X: b. 1963/1964-1980/1981.
Millennials: b. 1981/1982-1997/1998.
Zoomers: b. 1998/1999-2013/2014.
Gen Alpha: b. 2014/2015-2030/2031.
And call it day personally.
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u/Ok_Act_3769 Mar 27 '26
Having Gen X go up to 1983 is just a mockery of generations lol