I’ve been looking at generation lists with their starting points and end points for a long time. Lately Millennials and Baby Boomers have been getting in dust ups so it seems more important now than ever.
Firstly Millennials were named so because their date of birth and their milestone dates would have the millennium in them. Having a kid in 1982? They will be the class of 2000 if everything goes right or just normally. But then it seemed like it was handed down from on high that Gen Z should start in 1996 and thus have the easy to remember birth year marker.
I think this made Millennials angry. They still had the numbers to request a bump from Gen X and got it. Soon 1980 and not 1982 became the beginning of this generation.
Then the wars between Boomers and Millennials began. No one wanted to see Boomers win again. They seem to have the power in numbers to scare off almost anything. But sociologists knew this so they decided to expand Millennials to begin at 1977. So the war got more intense.
Under this new regime, Gen Xers are comprised of just 11 years. In most cases an 11 year old cannot have a baby so how can this possibly be a generation?
But I believe it is going to continue. The Boomers have seen how to magnify their strength and are undoubtedly going to claim some of Gen X for themselves. I have seen it before that some sociologists believe Gen X started in 1967, not 1965.
Since Gen X isn’t large enough to protest, we will be taken over from both ends by the Millennials and the Boomers. No one will hear our voices as usual.
I am a Gen Xer. Given a choice I would move over to the Millennials. After a whole life of hearing what the Boomers were doing whether I wanted to hear it or not, the Millennials are a nice change. Of course my preference would be to stay a Gen Xer but that seems unattainable. And what sociologist listens to the voices of Gen X? Obviously no one. It’s not enough that we were also called the baby bust – now there are even fewer of us due to Millennial erosion.
So obviously Gen X is done for. We don’t have the numbers to protest loudly. The only question is who is going to be the last Gen Xer? If it’s me, I will use my very brief time in the spotlight to say “A pox on all the other generations!” Then they will make me one of the other generations and the pox will be upon me, too.
