How are Millennials resetting the cultural agenda?

[RobAnybody]

Tattoos. Piercings. Pod casts. Streaming services. Online spending and banking.

To me, those are the big standouts (I have two Millennial daughters).

Bolding mine - I don't think they get credit for those. Using/adopting them? Yes. I think they stepped into a world where those existed & absolutely took to them like water, leading the way, however creating them? Nah.

But... I think this thread has strayed waaaaay off point (such a millennial thing to do, omg!) - the thread title is limited to "the cultural agenda". My prior post, which granted said they didn't accomplish a whole lot culturally, was in respect to that. We're now talking about them being future political & corporate leaders & what they might do...

And that's all fair, but totally a different topic - they might accomplish a whole lot in those arenas. That was not the thread topic. Culturally, I think they are done. Thinking about it more, I'll give them credit for Gay Marriage - that was a Huge Win.

But overall, they missed their window to really influence the culture. They are now in their mid-30's, or even early 40's. When has anyone in that age range affected the "cultural agenda"? We can certainly expand the conversation to the political or corporate world, but culture? They are done. They haven't even passed into "retro-cool" yet, which is fun to watch happen. Seriously: when was the last time a Millennial did something that changed, much les influenced, The Culture?

 

[Gorbles]

When did anybody do anything, ever, that influenced anything, ever?

It's kind of an open-ended question you're asking. A better question would be: how do you define change or influence in this context? Otherwise it's just an endless parade of examples and you or others going "nah". Would help focus things if we knew the hoop to jump through.

 

[Hygro]

Bolding mine - I don't think they get credit for those. Using/adopting them? Yes. I think they stepped into a world where those existed & absolutely took to them like water, leading the way, however creating them? Nah.

But... I think this thread has strayed waaaaay off point (such a millennial thing to do, omg!) - the thread title is limited to "the cultural agenda". My prior post, which granted said they didn't accomplish a whole lot culturally, was in respect to that. We're now talking about them being future political & corporate leaders & what they might do...

And that's all fair, but totally a different topic - they might accomplish a whole lot in those arenas. That was not the thread topic. Culturally, I think they are done. Thinking about it more, I'll give them credit for Gay Marriage - that was a Huge Win.

But overall, they missed their window to really influence the culture. They are now in their mid-30's, or even early 40's. When has anyone in that age range affected the "cultural agenda"? We can certainly expand the conversation to the political or corporate world, but culture? They are done. They haven't even passed into "retro-cool" yet, which is fun to watch happen. Seriously: when was the last time a Millennial did something that changed, much les influenced, The Culture?

many millennials are also in their 20s.

 

[RobAnybody]

No, that's Gen Z, or whatever name they come up with (although, "Gen Z" displays so much laziness it's totally "Gen X" approved ). Millenials are in their 30's, or even early 40's now. They are basically "old" now.

EDIT: like, even if you back-date Millenials to "born in mid-1980's", which is borderline, but let's go with it. Born in 1985, at a minimum. It's 2022. They are 37 now. the *earliest of them*.
DOUBLE EDIT: If we want to make it "born in 1990" they are 32 now - still, 30's.

So, 30's, some are 40 now, seems appropriate: They are old.

 

[Broken_Erika]

No, that's Gen Z, or whatever name they come up with (although, "Gen Z" displays so much laziness it's totally "Gen X" approved ). Millenials are in their 30's, or even early 40's now. They are basically "old" now.

Waaaaaaaaah!

 

[schlaufuchs]

The end point for the generation is generally held to be mid-90s - ‘95 or ‘96, which would make them 27 and 26 this year

 

[RobAnybody]

That's fair. I accept that the youngest are in their upper 20's. There are absolutely some that think posting "Waaaaaaaaah!" & a meme constitutes an actual discussion, like Gen Z.

 

[Broken_Erika]

There are absolutely some that think posting "Waaaaaaaaah!" & a meme constitutes an actual discussion, like Gen Z.

.No RD marker, and yes Alcohol was involved.

 

[schlaufuchs]

gifs are a millennial thing. Gen Z finds reaction gifs to be cringe, ime

 

[RobAnybody]

So, the above exchange was cringe? Therefore...we agree?

 

[Rg339]

I have yet to see an internet phenomenon that doesn't have an analog parallel or precedent. For example, judging from how covered with graffiti most surviving ancient buildings seem to be, posting memes is a millennia-old activity.

Well, yeah, you can find graffiti of Caesar doing...stuff with Servilia, Brutus’ mom.

This doesn’t change the fact that younger generations are basing their social groups on what I would speculate to be less firm foundations: very online social media. Less group security=different concepts of self-worth, self-esteem, so on. Most often for the worse. It creates enough behavioral contrast with past generations that I’m cool with saying “yep, they’re different”. Comm tech is moving that fast these days.

The movement away from physical, religious based social groups to online cliques has changed behaviors pretty markedly; it has created new markets, and capitalists and marketing do exploit that, but they are exploiting it after the tech change has already altered how younger generations relate to their peers. They don’t create it, they just take advantage, IMO

 

[Angst]

i had the sense that erika was sad about being old, and the meme was not an argument against rob

but maybe it's just because i am sad about being old

 

[RobAnybody]

i had the sense that erika was sad about being old, and the meme was not an argument against rob

If so, my bad, totally.

but maybe it's just because i am sad about being old

But this: don't be. Think of the alternative to getting old - getting old is much better.

 

[Hygro]

No, that's Gen Z, or whatever name they come up with (although, "Gen Z" displays so much laziness it's totally "Gen X" approved ). Millenials are in their 30's, or even early 40's now. They are basically "old" now.

EDIT: like, even if you back-date Millenials to "born in mid-1980's", which is borderline, but let's go with it. Born in 1985, at a minimum. It's 2022. They are 37 now. the *earliest of them*.
DOUBLE EDIT: If we want to make it "born in 1990" they are 32 now - still, 30's.

So, 30's, some are 40 now, seems appropriate: They are old.

Originally Millennials were those born 1982 through 1999, although in recent years they have moved the end dates back to 1996.

Generations are made up, and have a history of being altered over time, but until the great rebranding of younger Millennials to Gen Z, there were a number of years where it was a square 18 year gap, so:
Baby Boom 1946 until 1964
Gen X 1964 until 1982
Millennial 1982 until 2000 HENCE THE NAME JFC

So originally half of Millennials would still be in their 20s, now that it's been f altered with, about a third are still in their 20s.

 

[schlaufuchs]

So, the above exchange was cringe? Therefore...we agree?

I mean only if you give a horsehocky about what zoomers think

 

[RobAnybody]

That seems new...

Originally Millennials were those born 1982 through 1999, although in recent years they have moved the end dates back to 1996.

Generations are made up, and have a history of being altered over time, but until the great rebranding of younger Millennials to Gen Z, there were a number of years where it was a square 18 year gap, so:
Baby Boom 1946 until 1964
Gen X 1964 until 1982
Millennial 1982 until 2000 HENCE THE NAME JFC

So originally half of Millennials would still be in their 20s, now that it's been f altered with, about a third are still in their 20s.

Yeah, they keep back-dating Millenials & moving us (Gen X) backwards. We are disposable. It's fine. We don't care. But really! 1964? Seriously? At some point we might start caring.

 

[Hygro]

Generations are much longer than your high school cohort! The eldest are in college when the youngest are in diapers. It's one reason why trying to ascribe cultural trends to a generation that are specific to even a single decade is too narrow for a whole generation.

 

[RobAnybody]

I mean, that's kinda my point that I was getting at with them back-dating & "fitting" Generations into a time period (well, the trying to shoehorn generations to a time frame part) - if you want to ascribe "generational perspectives" to a "born in this range of years", that's kinda... dumb... maybe pay more attention to cultural/technological trends. "Generations" should be pegged to those, not to "bleh, 18 years have passed, so new Gen!", which was what your above ranges seemed to be based on.

EDIT: no offense meant, that came off harsh when I read it back

 

[Arwon]

Main thing to remember is that Gen X will be worse than the boomers

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't think that online you'll find much use of anything before gen-x in such memes/comparisons. The older generations just weren't using the internet while still being teens or younger and in a way are aliens in the medium.