Coining a New Generation: Gen7684

Feeling a little lonely today, those of you born in 1976 or 1984? If I were you, I sure would be. You weren’t among the lucky ones that were just looped into a new micro generation called the Xennials – those born between 1977 and 1983. You’re also not really a Millennial, or Gen Xer, are you?

Ugh, this must be there worst!I’m sorry you weren’t included. It isn’t fair. You know what life was like before the iPhone, I know you do. You grew up without high speed internet, Kurt Cobain and the boys were BIG in high school and college, and Seinfeld (while timeless, don’t get me wrong) was the best show on TV.

So what do we do about it?

I know! Let’s create a new generation. No, not the Oregon Trail Generation. Not Xennials. Not the standard Gen X or Y generation. Let’s give you a whole new title all together. Let’s call you something that will allow others to understand you; you know, really get you.

You are Gen7684 (creativity in naming the generation intentionally absent), the generation that isn’t a Gen Xer, was left out of Xennial generation label, and certainly can’t relate to those pesky Millennials.

Great! Now that we’ve named you, lets tell the world who you really are. You’re all born in either ’76 or ’84 which means you must be identical to those everyone else that was born in either one of those years. You share a lot of similar traits as the Xers, but sometimes, if the description is positive, you may share some Millennial qualities too.

I did it. I got you figured out, right?

No. That would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?

But this is what we do with every generation! We label, we generalize, we assume, and we stereotype. We take tens of millions of people and tell others that we understand them based on their age.

We don’t.

*And now it is time to get serious.

See, when we try and label people based on the year that they were born, all we really know is the shows, songs, and technology they grew up with. We don’t consider class, values, education, interests, wants, or needs. These are incredibly important.

When we try and create new generations or labels for people based solely on age, we immediately assume that they carry a certain set of skills and values.

This isn’t true.

Wherever you are now, however old you are, think of the generalizations of generations (either yours or others) and think of how many of the points you can really relate to, and how many you can’t.

You, like anyone else, are going to relate to and agree with many of the both positive and negative generalizations of other generations weather you like it or not. Why? Because who you are isn’t dependant on how old you are.

You’re also going to be able to be great friends with people either much older than you, or younger. Why? Because you’re aligned with who these people are, not how old they are. The conversation is bigger than age.

So when we consider generations (and age in general) to assume that we think and know people, please, please think again.

As for Gen7684s, I have good news and bad news. Bad news is that this isn’t going to stick. Good news is that it doesn’t matter; it never did.