When a person is born has a huge effect on their character traits. Right? I don’t think we need to argue about this. I was born in 1984, a wondrous time of roller skates and Care Bears and My Little Ponies. As a kid, I tried to play with my mom’s non-plastic, treasured childhood doll, and I broke it in 2 seconds because a rubber band was holding its head to its body. My Barbies had not prepared me for caring for such a doll. Sorry, Mom, as always. 

But when we’re born isn’t everything. I started writing this post, but it was coming across really angry. I’ll start at the end and work backward. Basically, I think separating people solely by the generation they belong to is not useful. (I was going to say “dumb,” but that seems rude.) I don’t know if the separation and supposed conflict between generations has been the subject of more articles these days, or if it’s just been on my mind more lately, but if you believe the narrative, Millennials hate Boomers, Boomers hate Millennials, and Zoomers scoff at everyone while making TikToks. Gen Xers are just cool, listening to 90s grunge off to the side. 

I get why doing studies of large groups of people can be useful to see how different historical and cultural events affect society at large. The World Wars, Vietnam, and 9/11 all had different effects on people of different ages. Cell phones and computers are used differently by people born in different years. The 2008 economic downturn had dramatic effects on people of some ages but less dramatic effects on others. And so on. But to classify a whole generation as a “type” seems like utter madness. It also seems like a lazy and passive aggressive way to pass judgment and feel superior to as many people as possible.

As a person on the old end of the Millennial generation, I feel like I’ve been either trying to distance myself or defend myself from the stereotypes assigned to my generation since the name was assigned. We got cast as whiny and lacking work ethic, an assessment with which I originally agreed and didn’t want to have anything to do with. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced my Millennial-ness, mainly because I think a lot of the things ascribed to “us” are unfair. Overall though, I resent being lumped in with a large group. I like being multifaceted and indefinable. I think most people can identify with that. I just want to be here in my midwestern existence, feeling my feelings and writing my earnest little blog posts without having the judgment of half the population coming down on me. 

I guess the point of this is, these articles are going to be out there because people like to read them. Click-baity articles, supposedly supplying definitions of qualities common to a group are always going to be read and liked and shared. Comparison between groups is natural. It all makes sense. I just don’t want any part of it. People are complicated, and trying to say, “Millennials are x,” and “Boomers are y,” just belittles everyone.