Investopedia refers to millennials as ‘digital natives’ because technology has been a core part of their daily lives since they were born. Different researchers can have different interpretations of how to define each generation.
For instance, the Pew Research Center defines millennials as Americans born between 1981 and 1996. (However, some researchers extend Gen Y to encompass the years between 1980 all the way till 2004. But this is less commonly accepted.)
Currently, in terms of pure numbers, Generation Y is the biggest generation in US history. Aside from being technologically proficient, millennials also tend to be more progressive politically and less religious than the members of previous generations.
Furthermore, members of Gen Y tend to want to follow their ambitions while they’re still young. They also have record amounts of student loan debt. Of course, there will always be exceptions between individuals, but these are the general trends for Gen Y.
The generation following Generation Y is Generation Z (aka Gen Z, aka ‘Zoomers’), referring to US kids born from 1997 to 2012. Following them is Generation Alpha (aka Gen A), which, broadly speaking, includes Americans born between 2010 and 2025.
There’s always going to be at least some overlap between the members of different generations, not just in terms of birth years but also attitudes, preferences, and the popular culture that they’ll feel nostalgic for in the future.
In our experience, some ‘older’ Zoomers identify more with millennial culture than they do with their peers. Meanwhile, some younger millennials find that they have more in common with Gen Z than they do with older members of their own generation.
Of course, this isn’t true for everyone. Anecdotally speaking, some millennials are starting to grumble and moan about the younger generations… rather similar to how adults used to complain about millennials when they were growing up, right?
Some millennials are finding that they have a lot more things in common with Generation X (people born from 1965 to 1980) and baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) now that they’re adults with all of the responsibilities that grown-up life has to offer.
However, some members of Gen Y see that their attitudes continue to be at odds with those of older adults. Who you get along with is going to depend a lot on your background, community, interests, and character.
There’s nothing new about different generations not seeing eye to eye. It’s a tale as old as human history, and it’s bound to continue into the future, too. Every generation believes it’s better than the ones that came before and after it. That’s just how things go, whether we’re talking about work attitudes or entertainment preferences.
You can’t experience growing up under different conditions, so it’s easy to dismiss other generations’ preferences outright. However, a bit of empathy and objectivity can help you move past that and realize that you still have more in common with everyone else because you’re all human beings.
