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The extremely amorphous millennial generation, which has been described as 18- to 34-year-olds since around the time I was 18 a decade ago, is finally getting some boundaries. On March 1 the Pew Research Center announced that in its future examinations of generational cohorts, it will section off millennials as people born between 1981 and 1996. Pewâand other cultural anthropologists that try to give generational demarcations heftâlike to group cohorts based on changes in birth rates, important national events, and economic trends. But they also view technology as a key method to understanding how different eras of society are shaped. âBaby boomers grew up as television expanded dramatically, changing their lifestyles and connection to the world in fundamental ways,â Pew President Michael Dimock wrote. âGeneration X grew up as the computer revolution was taking hold, and millennials came of age during the internet explosion.â
âComputersâ and âthe internetâ are pretty general terms for defining generations, though. That got us wondering: What specific technological gadgets, trends, or moments help us understand the difference between Olds, Cool Teens, and the people straddling the line between the two? But first, a quick gut check. Does pigeonholing millennials as 22- to 37-year-olds sound right to you? âVictor Luckerson
Molly McHugh: That seems like a generous scale to me ...
Justin Charity: Itâs interesting that we keep shrinking the span of each successive generation. The baby boomers are a 30-year span. Gen X is a 20-year span. The millennials are a 15 year span. Which suggests that generational branding is a hyperactive pastime, and maybe exists to stimulate cultural divisions more than it does to actually explain anything about anyone.
Alyssa Bereznak: True, but I think technology has accelerated so quickly that age difference can feel a lot more acute.
Charity: I think the baby boomers lived through a lot of technological acceleration, too!
McHugh: But yeah, I think itâs actually fitting that generational categories become smaller with the rate of change accelerating. The iPhone changed everything to such a degree, more than the television. I think television had a huge cultural impact, but not as huge of a technological impact.
Charity: The tech advancements of the 20th century are legit massive though.
Kate Knibbs: It seems to me like people use âmillennialâ to refer to very young people, still.
Iâm not sure âGen Zâ has caught on.
Shaker Samman: Going to be completely honest: I hadnât heard of Gen Z before a week or two ago. I just assumed everyone born after 1985 was in some strata of millennial.
Bereznak: Thatâs because millennial has become synonymous with punk-ass kid.
Samman: I think that sort of arbitrary binning is kind of dangerous though. Like is my life experience different than it would have been if I was born a few months later than I was?
I wouldnât think thereâd be much difference between someone born in â93 and â97.
Danny Heifetz: I donât think drawing massive horizontal lines in history and putting that group in a box is very informative. Iâd be way more interested in a vertical approachâcertain archetypes of people who engage with culture and technology. Iâm sure the first person in a friend group to buy a Kodak in the â50s/â60s has something in common with the friend who had the video camera in the â80s has something in common with the friend who first put everything on Instagram.
Charity: It all seems forced. An attempt to make us all slaves to dumb marketing terms. Itâs not like smartphones are revolutionary but only for this one specific age range.
Bereznak: Thatâs a pretty good segue into me bragging about how I had a dope 80-gig iPod.
McHugh: THE CLICK WHEEL!
Samman: Oh, like one of those giant bricks?! My dad had one and I accidentally deleted all his music off of it because I tried to add âVertigoâ by U2 on it. I am very cultured.
Bereznak: It was a total brick. I still have it, and it still works. It sits atop an Altec Lansing charging speaker my grandma bought me. Sometimes I press shuffle while Iâm vacuuming.
Luckerson: âOne of those giant bricksâ feels very âpost-millennialâ to me.
Samman: This is bullying. Iâm being bullied.
McHugh: Yeah if you ever had a piece of tech you referred to as a brick, you might not be a millennial. See: Nokias.
Knibbs: I miss my Nokia every day. I was so good at Snake!
Bereznak: Same, I really miss Snake.
What tech separates millennials from âpost-millennials?â
Luckerson: Danny brought up an interesting point about categorizing people based on how they engage with technology. Iâm wondering if there is tech out there right now that sort of eludes the grasp of most people beyond a certain age. I still donât know whether Snapchat is poorly designed or I just donât get the points, badges, etc.
Samman: I think it can be both, Victor. Snapchat is poorly designed, but the points and badges donât make any sense.
Knibbs: I have never felt older than during my attempt to understand Musical.ly
Charity: Selfies, maybe.
Bereznak: There is no barrier to entry for selfies. My mom and her friends take selfies.
McHugh: Finstagram.
Bereznak: Yes, and the âStoryâ posting concept in general, whether on Snapchat or Instagram.
McHugh: It might just be how we use those technologies, though. My godson will just stream himself constantly, like heâs a YouTube star, documenting his every moment in Snapchat or just recording on his camera to upload later, all via selfie cam. Also, isnât there some sort of rule about how fast things are posted that alludes to age? Like I take pictures while Iâm out doing something and later that day or next day I might post a couple to Instagram; ~the youth~ post immediately.
Samman: Thatâs definitely a thing. If I donât post it immediately, I wonât post it at all. Itâll just sit in my camera roll for eternity.
Heifetz: I think the nostalgia for the music from your teenage years is very similar to nostalgia for that technology. Bill was talking on his podcast about his kids being on Houseparty every day after school. But I donât see how thatâs fundamentally different than all of my friends going home from school and talking to each other on iChat, and before that, AIM. Iâm sure you â80s babies sent carrier pigeons or something. The roots seem to stay the same.
Knibbs: I have a question for the Youngs. Iâm an â80s baby, and during the â90s and early â00s, my friends and I constantly catfished adults in internet chatrooms. Do young people still love the art of catfishing strangers?
Charity: Kate is a real scammer.
Heifetz: I think entire CNN-driven news cycles exist because people in their 30s forget people on the internet are 14. To answer your question Kate, itâs never been flourishing more.
Samman: What is the statute of limitations on this stuff? Because uh ... it wasnât not a thing.
Bereznak: What did you do Shaker!
Samman: Oh, you know. Just the usual. Nigerian princes, fake lovers, spurned former neighbors. Nothing too crazy.
How are young people shaping internet culture?
Heifetz: Meme culture is the future. I swear the post-millennials are the meme generation.
Samman: My generation invented memes. Or, at the very least, we took them from the Gamergaters and made them good. Meme culture is the greatest gift the Youths have ever given
Knibbs: Wow. Hard disagree. You guys did Pepe.
McHugh: Meme culture has been thriving for AWHILE.
Bereznak: Itâs beautiful. But, it also maybe encouraged a bunch of people to eat Tide pods.
Charity: I was big into a particular video game forum in the early 2000s, it was very meme-driven, my generation definitely invented contemporary memes.
Luckerson: Modern society is weirdly and chillingly shaped by video game message board culture of the early 2000s tbh.
Knibbs: Shaker, I was forwarding meme-like emails when you were just a twinkle in our eyes.
Heifetz: Whatâs an email?
Samman: Typical Olds. Taking credit for the ingenuity of the young.
Heifetz: Memes have replaced media as monoculture or the closest thing to it.
Samman: I think more of my friends know the Liquid Swords tweet than saw Lady Bird. And thatâs sort of upsetting.
Charity: Hereâs my concern about millennials vs post-millennialsâthe distinction just feels too seamless to be meaningful or accurate. If the distinction is just between a handful of apps, or a single advancement in meme language, how real is it, really? Itâs like litigating the difference between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 6. Instead of the difference between the rotary phone and the iPhone.
Luckerson: There is an odd dichotomy where tech changes really fast but adults are also putting off significant life events (marriage, kids, home ownership) so maybe you have people who are older still eager to be plugged into whatâs cool/new.
Heifetz: The thing that makes the most sense is high school class ranges. You have certain things in common with the group four years ahead of you and four years behind you. Thatâs the extent of an age range I think you can draw nowadays, because so much of what youâre doing is social in nature.
Charity: Sure, but arenât these generational distinctions about big picture history? Not just pop fads in common.
Bereznak: The whole reason we have these distinctions, in my opinion, is so marketers can sell shit, and The New York Times can write trend pieces.
Heifetz: Youâre right Charity. I think I have more issues with the way the terms are overused to explain things they canât actually explain.
Samman: Totally. I think it originally made sense. They needed a name for the rising birth rate after the war, and baby boomers stuck. Everything after that is just for show.
Charity: So thenâwhy do we, the media, sincerely buy into it? However (supposedly) critically.
Luckerson: Because people also naturally love having their personalities defined, even if only to argue with the result. Itâs why Myers-Briggs tests are popular.
Bereznak: As a millennial, I am contractually obligated to disagree that I enjoy having my personality defined.
Charity: [Extremely Bad and Boujee voice] BuzzFeed quiz. Myers-Briggs. I think thatâs right thoughâthese generational distinctions have dropped the pretense of historical significance, and we now seem to openly regard them as tools for personality craft, pop rebellion, and manufactured conflict. Theyâre not really about advancement at all.
McHugh: I think if the potential of VR is ever realized, that will be a defining generational leap.
Samman: Would VR be the next iPhone? Like the next generationâs defining technological advancement? I love my iPhone more than I love my family. Iâm just curious if that sort of attachment will pass on to the next thing.
McHugh: I just think it would be the thing that could change the way we live the most dramatically. But I have serious doubts we are anywhere near that realization.
Heifetz: I think cryptocurrency will be the first huge thing younger people intrinsically understood before the olds that holds up over the long haul.
Samman: Blockchain is a myth, like the Loch Ness monster or a brunch restaurant that doesnât need reservations. I donât buy it.
Heifetz: Maybe if you do, you can afford a career in journalism!