Born at Generational Cusp: The Tragedy of History’s Most Obscure Generation

In the annals of history, there exists a generation that has remained tragically overlooked — the Cuspians — born between 1991 and 1998.

They find themselves adrift in a sea of uncertainty, caught between the simplicity of the millennial era and the tech-savvy digital space of Gen Z.

Confused. Disillusioned. With a deep-seated, unquenchable longing for a simpler time that can never be reclaimed.

As millennials, the Cuspians were raised in a world before the all-encompassing digital age. They recall a time when life wasn’t defined by screens and social media, when connections were forged through face-to-face interactions and the joy of simpler pleasures.

Yet, their transition into the digital realm was swift, witnessing the rise of smartphones and the relentless march of technology.

Armed with smartphones and an understanding of life before the digital revolution, the Cuspians possess a unique perspective. They navigate the virtual landscape with ease, effortlessly mastering hashtags and viral trends.

However, this digital fluency comes at a price — a constant bombardment of comparison and the illusion of perfection.

The Cuspians find themselves grappling with the pressure to present a curated online persona, perpetually chasing the unattainable standards set by their peers.

Behind the filters and carefully crafted posts, they yearn for genuine human connection, aware of the superficiality that often lies beneath the digital facade — something that Gen Z is possibly unaware of, sometimes painfully so.

Caught between two worlds, the Cuspians often feel like outsiders.

They long for the authenticity and simplicity of the pre-digital era, where connections were fostered through genuine interactions.

However, they are acutely aware that the past can never be fully resurrected.

The nostalgia they carry is tinged with the realization that the world they long for has transformed irreversibly.

This struggle leaves the Cuspians in a state of perpetual unrest.

They navigate the digital landscape with a cautious eye, questioning the allure of virtual validation while seeking solace in the fleeting moments of offline bliss.

But it didn’t stop there, did it? Because then came AI.

The advent of the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has pushed their struggle to a harsher limit of, for lack of a better word, tolerance.

The Cuspians are acutely aware of AI’s profound impact on society — partly because they’ve already seen what transformative technology can do.

They see AI as a double-edged sword — a tool that can enhance our lives and revolutionize industries, but also one that has the potential to erode the essence of what it means to be human.

This generation has always yearned for fulfillment beyond the relentless pursuit of success and the need for constant affirmation.

The advent of AI has quite possibly exacerbated their longing for a simpler time — similar to the older millennials but much more pungent, owing to the fact that they’re “reluctantly wired-in” unlike their predecessors.

And that further complicates their already complex journey.

Amidst their longing lies a cautionary tale — a reminder of the importance of balancing the advantages of technology with the preservation of genuine human experiences.

They witness its pervasiveness in our lives, from personalized advertisements to algorithmic content curation.

They also grapple with the loss of agency and the erosion of privacy, as AI algorithms dissect their behaviors, preferences, and desires, transforming them into mere data points.

The Cuspians recognize the danger of becoming lost in an AI-driven world, where genuine human connections are supplanted by simulated interactions and where our individuality is reduced to predictive patterns.

They yearn for the authenticity and meaningful connections that AI can never truly replicate.

One can say that, in their most vulnerable times, they even plead with the universe to preserve the very essence of being a human.

The Cuspians are a generation caught in the crosshairs of time.

And yet, they might be the last ones to know what it means to laugh unfiltered — not conscious of a watchful lens. To stand in the sun for ours, waiting with a mix of anticipation and anxiety, because someone you love has missed their bus and you don’t know.

They might be the last ones to have looked at the stars and attempt to count them because there’s nothing else to do. To be gentle and never rush, to have nowhere to go because there’s nothing urgent or important that needs your attention RIGHT NOW.

They might just be the last thread connecting a promising yet scary future to a distant yet happy past.

And if they don’t become writers to preserve the history of what life once was and could have been, who will?

If you’ve come this far, maybe you’re a Cuspian and relate to all of this. Or maybe you’re from a different generation who have a similar experience because of different reasons.

In either case, I invite you to write for The Indian Millennial — a place where we intend to save what it means to be human in a world fast-filling with AI. You’ll find that The Indian Millennial hasn’t published in the last few years, or ever, technically, the rise of AI-generated content demands these stories — so we’re resuscitating an idea we thought was dead.