Names of Generations

Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X calls these kids (the children of baby boomers) "Global Teens", which, of course, sucks as a name. Because "Generation X" was such a catchy name, and no good name ever caught on for the "Baby Boom Echo" kids, the meaning got smeared and diluted until now the term covers the whole thing.

I'm a children of baby boomers born in the early '70s but was married to someone born in the mid-sixties and we really were two different generations, with not much overlap in our cultural touchstones. That person was definitely Generation X, and I was not; but since then I've just accepted that people call us Gen-Xers now. It's better than being called a boomer, which has become a kind of sloppy catch-all synonym for "old".

A recent study at the very beginning of the covid circus (very late 2019) found that the baby boomers are not only the most narcissistic generation alive, but also the most hyper-sensitive a.k.a. "Snowflakes". (Which surprised many)

However... multiple studies find that the society as a whole continues to grow in favoring & rewarding narcissistic traits (very roughly: self-absorbed indulgence of the 1970s -> selfish, greedy YUPpie 1980s -> global audience via the internet 1990s -> social media 2000s -> etc).

All that said, the topic is highly debated and there is no definitive answer. Even more importantly, not all individuals of one generation fit the description of "their" generation, which should be obvious... but we love to stereotype.

The most restrictive definition is 1982-1994 (I think), whereas the longest is 1982-2004, which is also the original definition created by the people who coined the term millennials, Neil Howe and William Strauss. It's also the definition I personally agree with the most.

I was born in the very late 90s and sure social media was a thing when I was a kid and most kids had cellphones by middle school, but I'm not sure that's enough of a paradigm shift to demarcate generations. However, what does appear to be serious enough is the "kid raised by an iPad" trope that's started in the last 7 or 8 years. That's just so fundamentally different from how I was raised, and it seems to be pervasive. Toss on a fully-matured influencer culture and endless content psychologically engineered to be hyper-addictive and that seems a lot closer to an iGen than a bunch of kids whose social media exposure was posting "cheese tastes really good" to Facebook and watching a few videos on YouTube during computer time at school.

There will always be some individuals eliminated along technological advancements but there's absolutely no need to be this negative about an entire generation. New roles will be created and people will find their way out.