Are you a geriatric millennial? It depends on how comfortable you are with TikTok, and whether you remember MySpace.

The typical geriatric millennial remembers Napster and Myspace, but is also comfortable with TikTok and Clubhouse. They straddle a digital divide.

Geriatric millennials are familiar with both old and new forms of communication. Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images

By Hillary Hoffower

Author and leadership expert Erica Dhawan never expected the term “geriatric millennial” to go viral.

A self-identified geriatric millennial (which she defines as elder millennials born in the early 1980s), Dhawan told Insider she first heard the term at brunch with friends and related to it. But when she wrote about this micro-generation’s influence in connecting older and younger generations in the workforce for Medium this past spring, it quickly went mainstream and divided the Internet.

While many, like Dhawan, related to the term, others were offended by it.

“I think that the fact that the word ‘geriatric’ carried such a negative connotation really also has the question: What’s wrong with being old?” she said. “The way that individuals reacted, I think should encourage all of us to start a reflection on how we view older members of our society.”

Dhawan said she’s spent a decade investigating, researching, and finding new ways to encourage collaboration…