# What generation do you belong to? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 8, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822 "2018-05-08T18:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/61 "2018-05-09T03:53:06Z")
I’m a millennial. I remember a period pre-internet but I also grew up with it. Dial-up? You mean the song of my childhood? _booooo doot doot doot doo doo doo doot doot mee mii douhuhuh wheeehuh_ ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/62 "2018-05-09T04:11:51Z")
Squarely in the Baby Boomer camp. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/63 "2018-05-09T07:19:14Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > _I belong to the blank generation._ It’s such a gamble when you get a face, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/64 "2018-05-09T08:23:59Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Sure, but that’s every generation ever. They didn’t all need little special subgroups. > > One thing that made a little sense in the “Who are the Xennials?” articles was that they didn’t grow up with Cold War fear. Regardless of whether or not that’s accurate, it makes me think that maybe the cut-offs are more things you didn’t experience rather than assuming someone four years older than you had vastly different cultural or technological experiences. Did you see the finale of MASH? Did you see The Day After? Do you remember when MTV went on the air? How many hours did you log in Bank Street Writer on the original TRS-80? Ever use a Vic-20? How disappointed were you with Atari’s ET? If you’re technically GenX but missed 80% or more of those, you may be a Xennial! > > Of course, no one likes being judged or classified based on the things they didn’t do or missed out on no matter how mundane. The commoner definition of ‘millennials’ is that they’re largely defined by the technology of the time, but one problem with that is it came in at different times in different places. I’m at the start of the millennial cohort, but I didn’t encounter the internet at all until I was about 13, and we didn’t get it at home until I was 16. My friends started getting mobile phones when I was around 15, I didn’t have one until I was 22. My school barely used computers and didn’t even offer any computer qualifications. We’re supposed to be the first generation that grew up with computers and global communication, that’s supposedly the big change that defined the era. That’s true for friends a bit younger than me, certainly true for those smack in the middle of the generation and maybe true people in other areas my age. It’s not true for me. I grew up with a landline phone, no TV, cassette tapes, never had a games console and didn’t own a computer until I was 25. When we moved house, I wrote letters to my old best friend and we lost touch after a bit because that was too much effort. It feels a little like being classed as a boomer and being able to remember the end of WW2; I can see the point of the definition, and I can see the big change, but from my perspective the cut off just ain’t in the right place. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/65 "2018-05-09T09:57:20Z")
There are Gen-Xers _in their 50s?_ Someone tell me it’s all a dream. mmm ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/66 "2018-05-09T10:05:27Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Technically a Boomer (born in 1963) I’ve always been more in sync with Gen-X. Exactly the contrary for me. I’m technically Gen X, being born in 1965, but rather identify with boomers. For instance : > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I wore Doc Martens, flannel shirts, and ripped jeans. Listened to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and gangsta rap. I liked girls in combat boots and cutoff shorts and chokers. The things he lists screams “what kids like/are into nowadays” to me. Because I was about 30 when youngsters were crazy about Nirvana, began to wear nose piercings and such…I’d identify more readily with Led Zeppelin or a beatnik look, even though they properly belong to the generation before mine. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/67 "2018-05-09T10:09:57Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > There are Gen-Xers _in their 50s?_ > > Someone tell me it’s all a dream. Yes, don’t worry, keep sleeping. We’re all young and beautiful still. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/68 "2018-05-09T10:21:59Z")
Spanish baby boomers, we peaked in 1968. One thing I dislike about Spanish newspaper El País under current ownership is that they often translate articles from American newspapers (mainly Huffpost, part of the same editorial group) without giving credit or translating cultural references. Right now they keep doing this with articles about the retirement of “baby boomers”; the corresponding Spanish generations are the children of the war (1935-1940) and of the hunger years (1940-early 1960s). ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/69 "2018-05-09T10:32:17Z")
Baby boomer here, towards the end. Born 1961. Some early memories as a kid … [ul] [li]my mom crying in the kitchen when Bobby was killed (Jun 1968, shortly after Martin Luther King jr was killed in Apr 1968 — what was the world coming to?)[/li][li]Armstrong on the moon (1969) and Apollo 13 (1970)[/li][li]Vietnam and body counts on the nightly news[/li][li]Walter[/li][li]Huntley-Brinkley[/li][li]the TV repairman and TV adjustments for vertical and horizontal[/li][li]Super Bowl VI (Dallas 24 - Miami 3 in Jan 1972), my first Super Bowl in memory; no recollection of Jim O’Brien and the Colts[/li][li]the Perfect Miami Dolphins in 1972 and their 1973 Super Bowl VII (14-7 over Washington [and Garo’s pass!])[/li][li]Secretariat’s Triple Crown (1973) — he was a tremendous machine! What a fantastic introduction to horse racing’s Triple Crown![/li][li]Jimmy and Chris win Wimbledon (1974; and, Jimmy and Chrissie)[/li][li]the headline **Nixon Resigns** (09 Aug 1974; I delivered [that newspaper, The Hartford Courant](http://store.courant.com/commemorative-front-page-nixon-resigns.html), that morning)[/li][li]Evel Knievel, and then the Snake River Canyon[/li][li]Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon in 1975[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/70 "2018-05-09T10:33:33Z")
Another Gen Xer (1966) who doesn’t think of himself that way. Maybe it was being the youngest, but I identify more with the boomers culturally. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/71 "2018-05-09T12:24:34Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I’m not sure about 1970, since you’re old enough to have the rise of video game arcades be a cultural touchstone of your youth. > > However, I call the microgeneration just a couple years earlier the “punk generation” because it sounds good ( **its real name “generation Jones” doesn’t resonate with me**.) They are too young to have lived the Woodstock lifestyle the first time around, but old enough to have experienced the first wave of punk firsthand (or, if you’d like, disco.) > > I guess there might be other ways in which someone born in 1970 didn’t feel the same as someone growing up a few years later but I can’t think of one. Only the very young Gen-Xers are young enough to have a lot of exposure to the Web growing up, for instance. I too never liked the name “Generation Jones”. It implied that we late baby boomers were the ones who started the conspicuous consumption of that era (“keeping up with the Joneses”). It always felt to me like Boomers a few years older than us were the ones who started that crap. The explanation sometimes given was that their consumption habits were formed during the inflationary 1970’s, when it made less sense to save your money and more sense to buy stuff. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/72 "2018-05-09T19:29:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We Boomers grew up in a fascinating time, for sure, but none of us saw the end of WWII. It was over before any of us was even born. A few of us might remember the Korean War, but the Vietnam War was the defining war of our generation. We do like talking about \*Our Generation!, \*btw. Maybe you hadn’t noticed. 🙂 I mean, I can tell you lots of stories about how people tried to keep us down! Yeah, WWII was over, and only the youngest Boomers remember the Korean War, but we saw it all replayed in movies and television. That waned rapidly in the 60s (with the exception of MASH, but that was really about Vietnam). Our parents had owned the post-war culture but our generation created the future. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go tell some Post-Millennials to get off my lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/73 "2018-05-09T19:52:58Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But I think GenXers are the new Boomers. Well, that’s just mean! Gen-X (1968). ---
**Author:** ![jayrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jayrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayrey)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/74 "2018-05-10T02:47:24Z")
Smack dab in the middle of the Boomer generation for me. I remember exactly where I was when JKF was shot, when RFK was shot, and when MLK was shot. My youth is apparently defined by assassinations. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/75 "2018-05-10T03:03:11Z")
I am 29 – I have been 29 for longer than I spent getting to 29. But I feel like 12. I span the generations. I guess that makes me a BooZer. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/76 "2018-05-10T16:54:47Z")
I’m a late Baby Boomer, born in 1962. I’ve said before that I don’t feel like a Boomer because I haven’t had the stereotypical Boomer life experiences. That’s usually people about ten years older than me. For example, I was 1 year old when JFK was shot, so obviously I don’t remember it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/77 "2018-05-10T18:08:13Z")
I’m a Boomer by that spread, but wasn’t when I was born. In fact, up until high school or so, then they redefined things, more than once I believe, and I was later included. Interesting times. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/78 "2018-05-10T18:38:19Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But I think we gave up on the hope we die before we get old bit. True, but I still don’t trust anyone over 90! ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/79 "2018-05-10T19:43:34Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > Sorry, but I’m not going to answer the poll- okay I will. But I wanted to chime in that I am a member of the “[Oregon Trail Generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials)” and the reason for that is quite simply, I had internet throughout high school and I had an email address as I started college. I think these hugely differentiate young GenXers. Quite simply we behave far more like Millenials in our interest in social reforms and I believe it is due to our understanding and interest in a broader world. Also, people over the age of 44 really can’t email (I’m looking at you people who reply all and can’t Bcc) and text properly as opposed to those of us younger than that. Bite Me. Gen X’er-1967. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lago\_Azul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a4c791/32.png) [@Lago\_Azul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lago_Azul)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822/80 "2018-05-10T19:58:35Z")
Old Gen-Xer here. '65 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-generation-do-you-belong-to/813822.md?page=5)