What "Generation" are you in?

[snot]

Different sources define the generations somewhat differently, so please respond based on the year spans defined below; but if you're on the cusp or identify with a different generation, please feel free to explain in a comment.

(Please excuse, I forgot to add "Greatest or Silver" to the first category, and please also excuse the typo in Millennial – it seems I can't edit those.)

321 votes, 3 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Born from 1901 to 1927; a.k.a. the
	0 (0%)
	1928 to 1945; the Silent Genereation
	24 (7%)
	1946 to 1964; Boomers
	184 (57%)
	1965 and 1980; Gen X
	91 (28%)
	1981 to 1996; Millenials
	20 (6%)
	1997 to 2012; Gen Z
	1 (0%)
	Early 2013 to mid-2025; Gen Alpha
	0 (0%)
	2025 to 2039; Gen Beta
	1 (0%)
	3 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[FirstLight]

1. Gen X baby!

[MustLoveBeagles]

10. Me too 😁

[Polybius]

13. Me three!

[Basso8vb]

27. Me four!

[synni]

38. Make it five!

One of the smallest generations...Generation X, tiny, but mighty!

[marmar]

54. How about six!

[Maru Kitteh]

69. or seven?

I’m a Gen-X village elder, lol. 1968. So wild to be here. Feels very sudden!

[Bettie]

79. I am as well

we're a distant second to Boomers, it seems!

[sakabatou]

2. Millenial here

But I do have to ask, who would be in Beta? They're toddlers now.

[Ping Tung]

3. 1944 I wasn't very "silent' though.

?resize=983%2C1000&quality=89&ssl=1

[Bohunk68]

53. 1943 here

I had always heard us called, War Babies. Not part of the Silent Generation, and I sure haven't been silent, and still am not. By the time one gets to our age ................ fill in the blank.

[Jilly_in_VA]

77. Me too, 1943

I was NEVER silent! Must have been my Scorpio ascendant;

[PatSeg]

78. Yeah, I don't see that at all

I remember the sixties and seventies and a lot of the people fighting for change were not traditionally considered Baby Boomers.

That said, I hate putting people in generational categories. Technically born in 1945, I am considered in the "silent" category (rarely silent), but I've always identified with Baby Boomers, whereas my sister born a year before fits into a different generation than me.

I don't think it is healthy to put people in limited categories. It only encourages divisiveness, pitting people against one another. This includes gender, race, class, religion, nationality as well as generations.

[Frasier Balzov]

4. Do these results reveal that DU is unsustainable?

Where are the young people going instead?

Or are they just not into politics that much?

[lovesfruit]

15. Not sure where you're at

But it’s 2PM for me. I’m at work! (On break at the moment) 😉

All kidding aside, I don’t know that most younger people are hanging out on forums in the middle of their work day, if much at all.

In general, I think younger people are more on Reddit, in discord groups (I have a very active mom group that discusses politics a lot there), and they listen to a lot of podcasts for political talk.

[snot]

34. This is along the lines of what I was wondering...

I read somewhere that the No Kings protesters were disproportionately Boomer. I'm worried about whether some of the younger generations are too addicted to their phones, or perhaps too traumatized, or whatever, to be as politically active as others.

The Boomers were extremely active in their youth, but the threat of the draft was a powerful motivator.

Anyway, I'd like to see as large a sampling of DU'er's as possible, so please rec the OP.

[synni]

40. During the recent Korean election

Gen X and younger overwhelmingly went for the liberal presidential candidate (who got elected), while Boomers went for the Trump clone.

It's all about messaging. Post-Boomer Koreans are being reached online by the liberals. Our Democratic Party needs to reach post-Boomer Americans in a similar way.

[Tree Lady]

47. It definitely was older people mostly in my town

But then we are known as the retirement town of Oregon.

[W_HAMILTON]

60. DU has been around for decades.

The younger generation prefers social media apps, most of which don't even last a few years.

TikTok is all the rage for the younger generation now, but do you think it will be around in 25 years?

[TacosUberAlles]

75. Reddit

was founded in 2005 & that's where all the young people are outside of TikTok.

[Jack Valentino]

63. Probably so.... but message boards like this are kinda 1999ish.

Younger people are all over Tiktok and Instagram...

[AZProgressive]

76. One of the reasons why I post here

Rather than another social media website is because I don't have to worry about friends or followers. If I lost any or how many I have.

Hearts in February is a lot like friends or follows but I'm happy if I get a couple of hearts.

[Demovictory9]

65. Older people are political and vote

[MuseRider]

5. Boomer and happy to be one.

We got a huge mixture of horrible and good. The music, the music, the freaking music. Even though I am a classical player the music was so good to help a learning kid. The bad was bad and we learned from that as well. It was hard and easy. Bad and good.

[maveric]

6. Boom Boom.

Born right in the middle of it.

[misanthrope]

8. I belong to the Blank Generation

I can take it or leave it each time.

[maxsolomon]

24. LOL

Richard Hell is quite a bit older than us! He's 75 now.

A HS classmate of mine is married to him.

[DBoon]

29. the younger part of the Boomers should be the Blank Generation

Someone born in 1964 has had a vastly different life than someone born in 1946

[tinrobot]

57. I also like Blank Generation, but Generation Jones seems to have caught on.

Blank Generation reminds me of Richard Hell and the whole CBGBs scene.

The Boomers had The Beatles. We had The Ramones.

[DBoon]

61. "London Calling" is the "White Album" of the punk generation

[maxsolomon]

83. Richard Hell is 75 years old.

He's a solid Boomer: 1949.

[maxsolomon]

9. Late Boomer. "Generation Jones".

Always a curiosity to me that Baby Boom Generation is 18 years - longer than any succeeding generation.

[-misanthroptimist]

22. Same here

I realized I was different from 'Boomers' during Beatlemania. I didn't know what Boomers were at the time, of course, given my age at that time. Throughout the late 60s I found those a bit older than me were very different with different tastes, sensibilities, and attitudes.

Overall, I'm closer to the Xers than the Boomers. The Generation Jones stuff seems fairly accurate to me.

[Metaphorical]

52. I'm early Gen Jones

I'm a year younger than Obama and a year older than Harris.

We always seem to get shafted, for some reason.

[SouthernIrish]

49. Me too

Generation Jones. Not quite a boomer, not quite X.

[tinrobot]

56. Yeah, I was home watching cartoons while they were at Woodstock.

They came of age during the post-war boom, civil rights marches, hippies, and the Vietnam War.

We got Watergate, an oil crisis, inflation, disco, and punk rock

[Celerity]

67. 19 years. The Boomer birthyears are from 1946 to 1964.

And yes, Gen Jones is a legit sub Gen, although the coiner of the term, Jonathan Pontell, has, IMHO (and many others' as well), too broad a birthyear range (12 years, 1954 to 1965).

[DFW]

11. Well, at least now I know

My wife and I are Boomers, our daughters are Millennials, and our grandchildren are Alpha.

Although, sometimes I think we are all from spontaneous generation........

[Polybius]

12. Why add the option for Gen Beta?

It's not like there are any infants in here. Some joker picked it.

[Xavier Breath]

17. God bless that brave baby for grabbing Mom's phone and raising their voice.

[snot]

44. Sorry;

I obviously should have spent a little more time composing the OP.

[TheProle]

46. Joker?? Whatever, you crusty Gen Xer

You'll never understand our generation.

[Polybius]

62. Lol

I'm picturing baby Stewie right now.

[Xavier Breath]

14. Gen X.

But, I've always been more in tune, culturally at least, with Boomers. I prefer '60s/'70s music and movies to '80s stuff, e.g. A lot of crap was manufactured during my teen years in the '80s, imho.

[Polybius]

19. I'm Gen X too, but I'm the opposite

I'm in tune with Millennials too.

[flvegan]

18. Gen X!

[proud patriot]

20. Gen X

[Passages]

21. Millennial.

[eShirl]

23. less than 6 months shy of 1965, I claim Generation X.

[misanthrope]

25. I am similar

I was born in 1964, technically part of the Boom but my life experiences are far more like the Gen X model. My earliest political memory is the George C. Wallace assassination attempt, then Watergate. I was a latchkey kid and was in high school during the Reagan era. I recall the reign of terrestrial radio, early MTV, as well as the nascent years of cable television and the internet.

My father's college grades were driven as much by his fear of getting drafted to go to Vietnam as anything else. My peers fought in Iraq.

[Polybius]

31. You just missed out on all the cool toys of the 80's though!

No Thundercat's for you, lol!

[sdfernando]

26. Gen Jones....not on your list so I passed /nt

[JanMichael]

28. I almost wish we just label people by the decade they were born

I was born in 1968. So I was born in the 60s. Generations are 15 or more years.

You generally have more in common with people born within five or 10 years of yourself.

So I am calling myself a 60's Xer. Someone born in 62 could say a 60's Boomer. They didn't get drafted to go to Vietnam or weren't old enough to be an acid dropping hippie.

[CoopersDad]

30. So far, nobody 28 years old or younger has responded.

Whoever picked the last option made a mistake.

So, not surprised that we have a disengaged demographic.

Locally, we are finally starting to try to engage high school and college age neighbors. It's a lot of work.

[Celerity]

32. I (born late 1996) self identify as a Zillennial. Also, the Gen Beta years, if we go by the now-standard post-Boomer '16

years to a Gen' are off.

Gen Z birth years are 1997 to 2012

Gen Alpha birth years are 2013 to 2028

Gen Beta birth years will be 2029 to 2044

Btw, my Zillennial micro Gen birth years are 1992 (some say 1993, I lean towards 1992) to 1998.

[intheflow]

33. I was born in 1964 into a Boomer family but

my entire life experience is much more aligned with the Gen X experience. So that's what I choose in this poll.

[Skittles]

36. you are technically Generation Jones

yes indeed

[Mike 03]

73. Same. When I was in college, too, I was always told I was in Gen X, and all

my artistic influences are considered Gen X too. If we're younger than the Brat Pack, how can we possibly be Baby Boomers?

Also if you were in high school or early college when "Breakfast Club" and "St Elmo's Fire" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" came out, no possible way are you a Baby Boomer. I call bullshit.

The cutoff for Gen X used to be different. Somebody must have changed it.

EDIT: I think economists are largely responsible for these categorizations. I think for their own credibility they need to fix the designations for Generation X and put it back where it was in the 90s.

[indigovalley]

80. I was born in 1957 but feel the same way

My life has been much more Gen X then Boomer. I have two older siblings born in the 1940's and they are much more typical "boomers".

If you are born at the tail end of one era you will grow up in the next so your behaviors/outlook may be different.

[Skittles]

35. you really should include GENERATION JONES

the later half of the Boomers

[PuraVidaDreamin]

37. I fall in the BoomX gen.

Don't stick me in either one.

[Crunchy Frog]

41. Generation Jones.

I don't at all identity as Boomer.

[róisín_dubh]

42. Xennial

Born in 1977. I have more in common with millennials than Gen X

[Rebl2]

43. Why are

you asking?

[snot]

45. see my reply #34 above

I think the link is https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220410564#post34

[Ex Lurker]

48. Generation Jones

Generation Jones is the generation or social cohort between the Baby Boom generation and Generation X. The term was coined in 1999 by American cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, who argues that the term refers to a full distinct generation born from 1954 to 1965.[1] Media coverage of Generation Jones typically has described it as a distinct generation, using Pontell's dates.[2][3] Others see this as a subset of the Baby Boom Generation, primarily its second half.[4][5] A third view is that Generation Jones is a cusp or micro-generation between the Boomers and Xers.[6][7]

Members of Generation Jones were children and teens during Watergate, the oil crisis, and stagflation.[8][9] Unlike "Leading-Edge Boomers," most of Generation Jones, primarily its latter segment born from 1960 forward, did not grow up with World War II veterans (although some were Korean War veterans) as parents, and, as they reached adulthood, there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War was for the older boomers. For many, their parents' generation was sandwiched between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers.[10] Also, by 1955, a majority of U.S. households had at least one television set,[11] and so unlike Leading-Edge Boomers born from 1946 to 1953, many members of Generation Jones (trailing-edge boomers) have never lived in a world without television. Generation Jones were children or teenagers during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and were young adults when HIV/AIDS became a worldwide threat in the 1980s. The majority of Joneses reached maturity from 1972 to 1979, while younger members came of age from 1980 to 1983, just as the older Baby Boomers had come of age from 1964 to 1971.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

[electric_blue68]

50. Boomer at the start of the 2nd third of the Boomer Gen without separating Gen Jones... one year shy of first yr GJ - '53

I feel like a boomer AFAIK

although I was a bit too young for a couple of events to either go to, or go to w/o parents

[WarGamer]

51. Generation Jones here...

A subgroup of the Boomers blending in to early X'ers.

[Metaphorical]

55. Strauss & Howe had it wrong

I've long felt that generations should be measured peak to trough and vice versa, rather than at the mid-points, something that become VERY much an issue from about 1971 on. The "trough" of the Boomers was actually 1936, and it's notable that most of the big rock legends, from Buddy Holly, Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc., were all born within a couple of years of 1936, while most of the tech luminaries - Gates, Jobs, Ellison, etc., were all born in or around the peak of the nominal Boomer generation in 1954-55. 1954-1972 is considerably more internally consistent, as is the next cohort (Gen Z Prime) from 73-91, and from 1992 to 2008, which would be the Millenials Prime. Technologically that also fits: Boomer Primes were born during the Radio Era, GenX Primes (Jones) were the TV Era, GenZ Prime were the PC Era, Millennials Prime were the Internet Era, and, Alphas Prime (after 2008-2025) are the mobile era. It's a little early but Beta Primes (will likely be the AI Generation), where Prime indicates a time shift of about 9 years back.

I've written extensively about this, most recently here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-get-generations-wrong-matters-kurt-cagle/

[The Third Doctor]

58. Gen X

[debm55]

59. Hi snot. As my name says. 55 .I was born in 1955 and I am a Boomer.

[sir pball]

64. "Xennial" here

Born in 79 so technically GenX, and I have a lot of X tendencies, but me and my close cohorts are also as comfortable with technology as Millenials…and we also have a streak of the "never grow up" that the kids these days have. Be responsible, be adult, but it's still okay to act like "a kid" sometimes.

[Initech]

66. I'm literally between X and millenial.

[Solly Mack]

68. I'm generation "Fuck that noise". We're known for mocking authority and giggling. Lots of giggling.

[Wingus Dingus]

70. Gen X.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

71. Boomer here. Harry Truman was POTUS in 1952.

[msfiddlestix]

72. I Rec'd this poll, because I feel like it' helps to understand the generational growth in membership.

So far, I'm in the 57% category. good to know

[area51]

74. Technically a boomer,

but I identify as Generation Jones.

[mountain grammy]

81. Boomer here along with boomer spouse

2 gen X sons, I millenial daughter and 5 Gen Z granddaughters.

[Danmel]

84. Technically a boomer

But I really don't feel like one. I spent my teens in the 70s.

[Iggo]

85. Nope. (n/t)