Missing Label

Who am I? Seriously, Who am I? What am I? We are a society fixated on labels. Everything has a name, a label, a brand; a specified identity. From soup cans to music albums, sport teams to twitter handles, everyone and Everything has multiple labels. Arguably the most hotly contested and most passionately used label in modern culture is the name of each of the currently living generations. What are you? A Baby-Boomer? A Gen Xer? Generation Z? IGen? God forbid, a Millennial?
This particular form of labeling seems to cause the most contention because it gives people a distinct and broad sense of who they can blame for the world’s many problems. For example, consider these common refrains about our economy:
“Those damn Millennials aren’t purchasing cars and homes like the former generations, they must be to blame!” or, “No, the Baby-Boomers set unrealistic expectations for future spenders, it’s their fault.” Perhaps you’ve heard “Studies show that the iGeneration, or Generation Z, is going to be the most compassionate spenders yet!”
I do appreciate the Pew Research Center explaining that “generations are a lens through which to understand societal change, rather than a label with which to oversimplify differences between groups” (Dimock), but I also would say that the article from which this quote was taken contradicts this very statement by utilizing generational “lenses” as labels. The word “label” was simply interchanged for the less contested word “label.” In essence, they are used as synonyms. However, it does not clear up much of what is confusing to a late Millennial such as myself.
The issue here, is that none of these claims are really and truly founded in reality. All of the “studies” used to support these lies are emotionally driven and really don’t hold up to scientific scrutiny. Yet- they are so supported, so beloved by the American people. They function as banners under which we can all sling mud at each other. The problem is that I don’t know what mud is mine, and who I am supposed to be flinging it at.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not particularly fond of blaming my problems on others without due cause, but I have found myself unidentified and invisible in this world of generational importance. I’m not necessarily a millennial, I’m Not necessarily a child of the iGeneration or Generation Z. I’m certainly not Gen Xer or a Baby-Boomer. But when the qualifications for each of these predetermined labels are so constantly in fluctuation, I become a lone wolf; someone ostracized by these constructs I seem to have slipped between rather than been embraced by- I have no label.
First of all, it does not really take into account how actual generations work. By most running definitions, my three younger siblings, one of which is only two years my junior at the age of twenty, are not technically in “my generation.” According to the widely accepted polling and census study group, the Pew Research Center, I am a Millennial:
“Pew Research Center will use 1996 as the last birth year for Millennials for our future work. Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 22 to 37 in 2018) will be considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward will be part of a new generation” (Dimock, 2018).
I find this interesting. I was born on February 12th, 1996- the 43rd day of that year. This is fairly early. My sister was born on April 21st, 1998. Still fairly early in the year at the 111th day of that year. We are very close in political opinion, economic behavior, social tendencies, and most other factors that are considered when placing people into generational categories. While I am considered, albeit barely, a Millennial, she is considered a person of the iGeneration, or Generation Z. This does not hold up well under scrutiny; I would wager that she is just as much a Millennial as I am. But the crux of the matter is that even I, the sibling who is technically included amongst Millennials, do not feel like I personally fit within or agree with the boxes and extra labels that are associated with millennials. Phrases like “the Snowflake Generation,” and words such as “entitled,” “selfish,” “Whiny,” or even “stupid” get tossed around constantly and I truly do not feel that I am represented by these terms. I don’t even really feel like I identify with the struggles most Millennials quote; I have a stable job as a high school teacher, I have a relatively small amount of student debt, and I don’t really think that the problems I or anyone else face are the direct consequence of another generation’s actions. Perhaps the only thing that I can remotely relate to in terms of “Millennial struggles” is the cost and difficulty of acquiring a home rather than a condo or apartment. Home ownership. That’s really it. My younger sister is much the same.
My younger brothers, who are 14 and 15, born in 2003 and 2004 respectively, do seem to adhere to the iGen or Generation Z label. However, they are atypical in their almost complete lack of interest in social media. Neither have or have even shown any interest in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, or the most popular (at least among my similarly aged high school students) Snapchat. They are still incredibly young, though, and trying to label them at such an early stage in their adult development is ridiculous and not really useful unless used for marketing purposes. Even then, the tide of their thoughts, emotions, decisions, passions, and ideals an change swiftly as the world changes and shifts both frequently and dynamically. The same article from Pew Research by Michael Dimock states this concern very astutely:
“…This year we will be launching a number of surveys of 13- to 17-year-olds to begin to look at technology use and attitudes in the next generation of American adults. Yet, we remain cautious about what can be projected onto a generation when they remain so young.”
A related problematic issue here is that this labelling has essentially caused not only young people to be prematurely labelled, but it also paves the path for the next round of stereotypes. While Millennials are stereotyped as “entitled” and “crybabies,” the Baby-Boomers are “The Ones who Ruined the Economy” and “intolerant.” The Gen Xers are relatively silent amongst all of this. My parents are both Gen Xers, and the only widely cited issue with Gen Xers, at least in prevalent and current media, is that they were “failed” by their Baby-boomer parents. The thought is that the Baby Boomers were poor parents. The lack of issues or stereotypes associated with Generation X is astonishing, given the remarkable amount of fuss and fury so tightly wound within the culture of Baby-boomers and Millennials. From my observation of my parents, my aunts and uncles, and of the adults who taught me in school that fit the parameters of Generation X, they seem to be adults who are used to keeping their noses to the grindstone to achieve whatever it is they desire. Whether it is a more stable and affluent life for themselves or their children, a lucrative career, or just more stability and safety than they had when growing up, they are all fervently focused and determined to succeed.
This is where I become confused as a younger adult in this world. Do I align with any of these stated stereotypes, and if so, are they all Millennial stereotypes?
My personality is such that I am what you may lovingly refer to as a “geek.” I love Star Wars, Comic Books, Magic the Gathering, Science-Fiction, Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Naruto…I have a plethora of nerdy interests. I am also a martial artist, a hiker, an amateur writer and artist, and I enjoy reading and stargazing. I collect rocks and patches. I eat too much, I over explain and I’m awkward. I like guys with beards. I am a tomboy, a Mormon, and an enthusiastic camper. I am a teacher at heart and by trade. These are all things that make me who I am, but they are not in any way related to the stereotypes that I am supposed to conform to.
This Begs the question; what does matter in the eye of those who try to see me through a label or associate me with the appropriate generation? I am mostly active Mormon woman, but I drink coffee, have smoked weed, and curse a fair fucking amount. I am registered as a Republican, but I truly feel no semblance of loyalty to either the Republican or Democratic Party. In fact, hate the bipartisan system with a fervent passion. Why Do I have to choose between two equally unappealing options for my vote to actually do anything? I actually went to college for a job that does exist in the job market, and I have a stable career at the age of twenty-two. I am not a particularly passionate environmentalist, although I do advocate the security of our undeveloped rural land. I’m not vegan. I agree with feminism up until the point that it becomes toxic radicalism…too much of anything is problematic. These are not necessarily the things that I find represent me fully as a human being. However, this is the data that sells- the data that places me firmly in my place within the system.

Except, it doesn’t. Not really.

As it stands, I am technically a Millennial. Which means I am supposed to be any of the following things:

An easily-offended “snowflake”
Selfish
Overemotional
Economically illiterate
A passionate environmentalist
Pro-choice
Possibly Vegan
A Democrat or some form of Liberal enthusiast
A spendthrift
Anti-war
Anti-gun
Anti-Capitalism
A socialist
In love with universal healthcare and welfare
Snobby or self-righteous
The list goes on for miles….

But These things aren’t completely accurate in defining me, nor are they completely wrong. The issue is that I, being on the very cusp of the Millennial Generation, have fallen into some sort of hybrid between Millennials and the iGeneration (Generation Z). In this specifically labeled society, I have found myself to be an outlier in the data, a sort of mutant, perhaps even a cog that starts the entropy of what I like to call “The Generational Labeling Fad.” I don’t fit where I am supposed to because there isn’t a particular place I am supposed to fit. I am a rogue dot on the scatterplot pages of data collected on each generation. I don’t ever grace the trend line with my presence, and I know it; I feel it. There is a distinct sense of being lost, left behind, or forgotten that most people born between 1994 and 1998 feel.
We are the children of the grey areas, the young adults wedged into a semi-convenient corner, and a generation with no real label or box to belong to. In many ways, it is somewhat melancholy. However, there is a sense of pride and freedom amongst all of the nebulous and unspecified people I share this lack of labelling with. We are outliers, and sometimes, that’s a good thing; a positive rather than a negative. This impreciseness is a way that I and those like me can can escape the obsessive labelling of our identities. Without an acute label, we can create a space, a personality, a persona, a true identity that is not imbibed with preinstalled and embedded opinions and stereotypes. We can make our own label, or continue to live without one if we so choose. This is a freedom that no one else has, and it can empower those labeless children that are now young adults lurking in the grey areas and hovering in the blank spots of scatter plots to forge a new and undefined path. We are free to do and be whatever we aspire to be without judgement- a luxury Baby-boomers, Gen Xers, and iGeneration adults and children do not have, and likely never will.