Generation cohorts: the official list

Lost Generation: 1883 - 1900

Greatest Generation: 1901 - 1927

Silent Generation: 1928 - 1945

Baby Boomers: 1946 - 1964

Generation X: 1965 - 1982

Millennials: 1983 - 1996

Generation Z: 1997 onwards

 

 

 

I'm a Xenial too.  Totally different to someone born in 1965 as a 1979 person.  

For a start I don't have my phone set to make sounds when I type a text FFS.

I have more in common with someone 15 years older than someone 15 years younger. I grew up before the internet, making politically incorrect jokes in the playground, with four channels (three when I was very young) on the telly, and was deferential to my elders.

Lost Generation: 1883 - 1900

Greatest Generation: 1901 - 1927

Silent Generation: 1928 - 1945

Baby Boomers: 1946 - 1964

Generation X: 1965 - 1977

Xennial: 1978 - 1985

Millennials: 1986 - 1996

Generation Z: 1997 onwards

These generational definitions are both too wide and the divisions between them too hard. How the hell is somebody born in 1982 the same generation as someone born in 1965 FGS. Also, the definitions.m cited here are very American.

17 years isn't very much in some cases. 1965 and 1982 for example: in real terms, very little changed culturally, technologically etc between the times they grew up.

As someone of 40ish, when I speak to folk in their mid-50s, our points of cultural reference are the same. When I speak to someone in their mid-20s they could be from a different planet.

So, I agree that not *that* much changed culturally between 1865 and 1982, and possibly not that much technologically. However in terms of shared generational experience, it’s more about what happened during the years you were growing up. So consider the ages the two ends of that cohort turned 18: 1983 and 2000.

Thats an era of very significant change. Taking the UK as our frame of reference, those born 1965 came off age in the fairly early years of the thatcher government. Those born in 1982 have lived their entire lives in thatcherite/post thatcherite times and can’t remember the alleged strife of the 70s, nor the long hot summer of ‘76 and general air of culturally homogenous happiness, at all. Even for me, probably just about a Xenial (1977) the miners’ strike is something I remember vaguely hearing about on Newsround.

if you were born in 1965, the internet happened when you were 30. If you were born in 1982 you’re a digital native.

If you were born in 1965 you hate all politicians. If you were born in 1982 you hate Tony Blair. If you were born in 1977 he’s your mother fooking hero.