THE NUANCE
Why Midlife Is Going to Be Especially Hard On Millennials
The generation’s mix of adolescent optimism and aggressive individualism may tee them up for a rough midlife ride.
A few years ago, the New York Times ran a piece about “Xennials,” defined as people born during the late 1970s or early 1980s — a generational gray area when the Gen X-ers (those born between 1965 and 1980, roughly) gave way to Millennials (1981 to 1996).
“Xennials are straddlers . . . neither here nor there,” the article’s two authors wrote.
They pointed out that the oldest Millennials made it to college before the widespread adoption of cellphones and social media. As a result, this group might identify more with the previous generation than with later-born Millennials who had never lived in a world without text messages and Likes.
The article even included a short quiz (just for fun, nothing scientific) designed to tell you “which generation you really are, spiritually.”
I was born in 1982 — solidly Xennial — and was eager to take the quiz. My responses leaned so heavily Gen X that I was deemed “not even really a Millennial.”
