That’s odd, because that’s how many of us Gen Xers view the Millennials.
I consider Gen X about 1965-1980, as does the Pew Reseach Center. I know Strauss and Howe in their generational theory works considered it 1961- 1981. Some people also have cusp generations like Xennials that straddle the end of Gen X and the start of Millennials (aka Gen Y).
1970 so solid GenX. It’s very easy and convenient to be able to say your childhood was the 70s, teen years were the 80s, bachelorhood in the 90s, married/family 2000s and beyond.
I was born in '77, and I still used overhead transparencies even into grad school. Electronic options existed then, but when you’re allocated 2 minutes of setup time for a 10 minute timeslot for giving a talk, you want something that you know for 100% sure is going to work immediately, and the electronic options weren’t there yet.
Actually, I own my own overhead projector, that I picked up barely-used, because at the time I was still looking for a permanent teaching job, and some of the charter schools supply you with a room, and that’s it, and if you want any fancy extras like a board or desks, it’s up to you to provide them.
Thank you! I was desperately trying to find that phrase.
I’ve always given GJ an honorary X status because they all (most?) attended high school in part in the 80s, and really to me that’s the most Gen X thing (middle school is close enough for the last 70s babies)
I was born in 1982 and I distinctly remember my school class being referred to as Generation Y.
Yeah the term Millennials, to my recollection, didn’t come into the lexicon until the late 90s or early 00s. Gen Ywas kind of a placeholder name. I know in my sociology class in 1994, using Strauss and Howe’s book 13th Gen, Millennials were still called Gen Y. Come to think of it, Genertion X was a later appellation, too, with that Douglas Copeland book of the same name. Before that, I remember the term Baby Busters being thrown about. Also remember “the slacker generation,” but that was more a colloquial put down. There probably were some other more serious ones, but that’s all I remember and I’m not in a place I can do research right now.
The Strauss and Howe book also had Gen X divided into two waves: the Atari-wavers for the earlier part of the generation and the Nintendo-wavers for the later part, but those never caught on. Actually, come to think of it, they may have simply referred to that generation as the 13th Generation and weren’t even using the Gen X name yet. But it’s been some thirty years now since that class.
For years now, I’ve been assuming that “Gen Z” or “Zoomers” are also placeholder names in the exact same way, but nothing better has presented itself, and they seem to be sticking.
We know that NOW, sure, but the problem was, I knew that when I was a teenager, too. Teenagers should think their parents are lame.
My nephew was born in 1965 and I consider him one of the very first Gen Xers. My daughter was born in 1982 and I consider her one of the very last.
OTOH my twins were born in 1985 and have an entirely different world view than my daughter. I consider them early wave millenials and AFAICT they consider themselver that, as well.
The chain email my sister forwarded to me was while I was in college, so somewhere between 1995 and 1999.
Huh. Looks like my memory is mistaken. Strauss and Howe coined the term in 1987. I could swear I remember Gen Y being the more usual appellation until the later 90s, but memory is a weird thing.
Our freakin HR department has a series of posters with the birth years of each “generation” and the stupid stereotypes about them that are supposed to help us “meet our coworkers where they are”
1946-64 Baby Boomers
1965-81 Gen X
1982-97 Millennials
1998-2012 Gen Z
The Marketing department has a similar display but on just one poster. They add “Silent Generation 1929-1945” and “Gen Alpha 2012-“ because they need to target folks that are not “working age” as well.
I find the whole thing extremely superficial.
18 year range, 16 years, 15, 14…