Who are you? Who who, who who?

Generations are not defined by formal process. Rather, they are categorized by demographers, the media, popular culture, market researchers, and by members of the generation themselves.

Who are you?

Academics define a generation as a “cohort-group whose length approximates the span of a phase of life and whose boundaries are fixed by peer personality.” To cut through the mumbo jumbo, a generation is basically an age group that shares behaviors and beliefs.

Young adults aged 18 to 30 (give or take) comprise what has been popularly called Generation Y. Use of this term, however, has been somewhat controversial. The wedgie is Generation Y connotes “following Generation X,” which was originally coined as a derogatory term. Other labels have been given to this your demographic group; while the range of birth dates varies somewhat, some common ones are:

(New) Millennials
Net Generation
Boomerang Generation
Generation Whatever
GenMe
Yeppies

The label “Generation Next:” was popularized by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in connection with their report of the same name. This descriptor seems to capture the zeitgeist, or cultural spirit of Generation Y, without being condescending.

Where do you fit in?

In their 2010 study Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, Pew Research Center defined the generations thus:

Millennials: Born after 1980, the first generation to come of age in the new millennium.
Generation X: Born from 1965 through 1980, this name replaced the original “Baby Bust” label.
Baby Boomers: Beginning with the great spike in fertility following World War II (1946), and ending almost as abruptly in 1964 around the time the birth control pill went on the market.
Silent Generation: Born from 1928 through 1945, they were children of the Great Depression and World War II . Their “Silent” label refers to their conformist and civic instincts.
Greatest Generation: Born before 1928, they fought and won World War II.

In the Young Person’s Guide series, we use the moniker “NeXt,” coined by former Arkansas State University guidance director Mark L. Taylor (2005). Generation NeXt refers to the dynamic window of 18 to 30 year olds. That be you.