Yesterday, my sister (who is ten years older than me) texted me this screenshot, to which I replied, "The struggle is real!" Because it is! It's bad enough that I'm turning 40 this year, but now I'm expected to somehow come to terms with being a 40-year-old Millennial?! My sister wrote back, "You Xennial! We were just saying the other day that you are more of a millennial," which sort of made me cringe, but then again, maybe there's no use in hiding it anymore? So I took the plunge and completed the New York Times quiz, and to her I sent back this photo that I took of my computer screen:
The description went on to say
As much as I do not like being called a Millennial (let alone a really old Millennial), I am totally fine with what the New York Times dubs an Xennial. They explain that "Like water on the rock," life has worn us Xennials down. We're not fully mired in existential angst like the Gen-Xers, but this also isn't our first rodeo. Caustic and ironic both sound good to me! As does being "a smidge more practical and a smidge less idealistic." I would say I "over-share a teensy bit less" and "have slightly better taste in music." Key word being slightly. We'll get to that;)but you also probably over-share a teensy bit less. Also you probably have slightly better taste in music. To know what you narrowly escaped on either side, embark on this sensory reproduction of the life of Gen X and read true millennial Caity Weaver's experience of living in 1994.
I know so many people born in 1978 and 1979 who are so boastful and proud of not being Millennials. But I'm over here writing my blog and doing tons of Instagram stories, and saying things like "totes" and I cannot deny that I am really, unabashedly in love with many a Justin Bieber (and Katy Perry) song. So how can I deny that I am an Xennial - or just a really old Millennial?! Oof.
Since posting the photo of my computer screen (seems like more of a Gen-X move than Millennial move to take a photo of a screen, don't you think?) on my Instagram stories (definitely a Millennial move!) I got a bunch of DMs from proud friends who scored as Gen-X adjacent, not Xennial. I felt a tinge of jealousy. I mean, come on! I had the cK one ad I had torn from a magazine hanging on my bedroom wall in the 90s. I actually still have that Sony phone that was used in the first photo of the quiz! I had The Bangles "Eternal Flame" on a cassingle, and I still love Temple of the Dog. I went to Lollapalooza for goodness sake!
Naturally, I did what any anxiety-ridden Millennial would do, and I went back and re-took the quiz, changing the one answer that I was on the fence about. Did they mean my parent's and my childhood best friend's current phone numbers? Or, did they mean do I remember my childhood best friend's number from childhood?! Because I do remember Katie and Sinead's childhood numbers. I'm pretty sure Kate's parents (she gave up Katie after college;) still have that number. If they still have a landline, which maybe they do - or don't. Hmmm, they did move a couple years ago...But! The point is that that one answer pushed me into Gen-X Adjacent territory and I was free to wave the Gen-X flag loud and proud!
Except that I wasn't. Because I do not, and never did, have the number for Poison Control memorized. Does remembering Mr. Yuck stickers count?! Can you young Millennials remember those?! Take a look - and while you're there, notice how easy that Poison Control number is. Also, apparently it's Mr. Yuk (no c) and should I be concerned that we're not using these with our own kids?! Hashtag Xennial.
Sigh. There's no denying that I really am just an old Millennial. Have you taken the quiz? Share your results in the comments below. And by all means, feel free to boast and brag. I'll console myself by double-screening, doing Instagram stories in front of Seinfeld on Hulu later. I would call them Seinfeld re-runs except I never saw the first run! It's all new to me. LOL! Like I said to my sister at the very beginning, the struggle is real.
I understood the point of the Xennial term is because those of us in that window truly had a different experience to the generations on either side when it comes to tech and the massive effect that's had on how people experience their childhood and coming of age periods. So breaking it down to which way you skew misses the whole point that Xennials can't identify firmly with either Millenials or GenXers because we had a unique window of experience with technology.
ReplyDeleteHow true! That really is the point. We can relate to both. On a few of the questions, I had no idea which either one was (some of the movie/tv ones) but had heard of both. As you say, it’s that overlap time and the differences in technology. Obviously just tongue-in-cheek fun! But also really interesting. Technology changes so rapidly it splintered a generation. Pretty impressive.
DeleteI have given in and embraced the "millenial" label, as someone born at the very end of 1982. I love when people at work complain about millenials when we are talking about summer interns, and I'm like, "Dude, you're so old you don't even get it. I'm a millenial, these kids are the next generation already." Like, stop using 'millenial' to mean "kids these days," old people! If you want to complain about kids getting iPhones in middle school then you're complaining about the wrong generation!
ReplyDeleteWhat I found funny is I scored "Gen X adjacent" on that quiz! I think it's probably because I had to guess on some of those questions - I never saw Singles at all, etc - and I tend towards cranky oldness, so I skewed a bit older rather than younger in my responses.
I really do feel like we are kind of a capsule generation. My husband is ten years older than me (so just a few years too old for the years this quiz outlines) and he wasn't on Facebook until after he was already married to his first wife, whereas it was ubiquitous by the time I was college age. Younger millenials - like, just a few years younger, it seems - have no idea what Bank Street Writer was, whereas everyone in my cultural age group knows it by sight. There was this flash moment in time where everything changed so fast that no one on either side can really understand what it was like to be in our micro-generation. It's really interesting.
A capsule generation is the perfect way to describe it. The negativity toward millennials is definitely real. Ugh. You should totally watch Singles. It’s pretty great!
DeleteI got Generation X and was born in 1983. What does that meaaaan. Also I didn't get a lot of the references in either options. I guess that means Rural Pre-Internet, Bible Belt North Carolinian.
ReplyDeleteLOL! I guess so. You’re just so cool.
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