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Comment by toxican | Hacker News Reader

Also, what on earth are the limits for a millennial? My late-20s self, a 9th grader and a man in his 30s should not all be classified the same...

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This reminds me of 'generation X'. When I was in my early twenties, that badge made absolutely no sense as I was lumped into a group with my mid-thirties cousins and people who were still in high school. As I've aged, it has started to make more sense. Maybe the term millennial will be the same??

Edit - replaced the word 'pumped' with 'lumped'.

There is a term used about older generations always hating newer generations but I forgot.

It does seems like anyone under 40 is now a millennial.

The most recent clear definition I have heard is anyone born between 1980 and 2000. So anyone ~16 and under is a new generation, currently called Gen. Z, but they may get another name soon.

It does seem like the media is absorbing Gen X into millennials now for some reason. I don't know why. Baby Boomers vs everyone else?

I'm 38. I can relate to millennials, but I'm not one. I know many people my age that can't relate at all.

It helps to keep in mind these groups are just constructs to help sociologists talk about large groups of people. While they're good for talking about differences in generations, no single person is going to fit into any generational group perfectly. On top of that, it doesn't help that news outlets like to oversimplify these things for juicy headlines.

You're right. It's just one categorization of many. I might have more in common with a person who grew up in the same socioeconomic situation as me, but is separated by 30 years, then with someone born the same year as me with a vastly different socioeconomic background.

I'm 35 and my wife is 30. I was born in 1980 which means some people would say gen-x and some would say millenial. I'm also the younger child, with my older sister being squarely in gen x.

My wife definitely has more of the typical millenial characteristics then I, and talking of our high-school experiences it almost seems like we were decades apart rather than just 5 years, though perhaps some of that is that we grew up on opposite coasts.

> So anyone ~16 and under is a new generation, currently called Gen. Z

Wait, I thought those were "digital natives", i.e. never having known life without ubiquitous computers/tablets/cellphones? I've mostly heard the progression as Gen X (born in the 70s), then Gen Y (born in the 80s). After Gen Y it's supposed to be Millennials (born in the 90s/coming of age in the 00s), then Digital Natives (aforementioned "raised by the Internet").

But really, I think they just make it all up to suit their current viewpoint. I'm 38 and I've been told I straddle the line between Gen X and Gen Y. I jammed to Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains in 9th grade while wearing flannel shirts and combat boots, so I'm Gen X...wait I also had an 80s electro revival phase wearing all black the following year, so I'm Gen Y...

You get the picture.

Gen Y and Millennials are the same thing. Digital Natives is another name for Gen Z.

Seems to me it should be people who grew up with the internet. So late 90's/early 2000's onwards. As someone who was born in 1990 and had exposure to the world pre-internet it seems like there's a clear divide between my culture/outlook and those who have only ever known a world with internet.

What you are describing (late 90s, early 2000s onwards) is the definition of generation Z: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z

Millennials are the group born in the 80s/early 90s and were introduced the internet at some point while they were growing up, rather than it having always existed as part of their life.

Nobody is really sure what generation Z is like yet, but they are definitely different than millennials.

Ah ok. I thought that was Gen Y but it seems Gen Y is synonymous with Milennial.

Yeah, you and I are millenials, we were born in the same year and grew up with the internet, not necessarily being raised by it like the generation after us.

I don't like using such a US-centric definition for this type of thing, but I generally think of Millennials as "people who were students when 9/11 happened". It really does seem to have been that sort of defining event.

When you consider that people physically age at different rates generation cutoffs make even less sense.

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