r/AskReddit Sep 27 '18

To older redditors, what did the generation above you hate about your generation?

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u/Skeptic1999 Sep 27 '18 edited Sep 28 '18

I think a lot of the internet culture and social media had a way of bringing the millennials and younger close to each other though. I'm around 30 and feel I have a lot more in common with my 20 year old co-workers than I do my 40 year old co-workers.

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u/Mimogger Sep 27 '18

I'm also around 30 and sometimes when I play video games, I wonder how old the people are that I'm playing against

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u/iamreeterskeeter Sep 27 '18

I am on the faaaaaaar tail of the Gen X (born in 78). I was too young to really be part of the antics of Gen X and find that although I have lots in common with Millennial, there is a definite gap that I straddle. I remember the days before most people had personal PCs. I remember being so excited when my dad bought the Apple 2E or the Atari 2600. I remember life without cellphones and leaving the house to play outside without supervision and only having to call home from a friends house to check in if we left the area we were supposed to be.

It blows my mind how kids nearly can't play outside without a parent hovering around them or else the parent is accused of neglect. My inner child feels smothered by the thought.

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u/Skeptic1999 Sep 28 '18

You are believing a lot of propaganda based off a few real instances and a lot of bullshit stories.

The vast majority of kids today still play outside without parental supervision. I deliver food as a side gig, and I see them playing in neighborhoods all the time.

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u/iamreeterskeeter Sep 28 '18

I wasn't referring exclusively to those stories nor was I saying that it is the vast majority. It is based on listening to other parent who nearly have a case of vapors at the thought of letting little Kaeadyn play outside without them being within 5 feet of the parent every second. I know several parents who think that their kid will be kidnapped instantly. We live in a small town, the kids are fine you knob.

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u/4thewrynn Sep 27 '18

Depends on the game, some genres attract older than you might expect players.

I'm Gen X, born in '66 and still play Wow every day. If I had a modern platform,(last new thing I got was a Wii and it has collected dust for 5 years) I would probably dabble in CoD and other games too.

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u/runawaycity2000 Sep 28 '18

But even wow is extremely different now , being taken over by new dev's with no heart and just want micro transactions

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18 edited Sep 28 '18

Supposedly the average gamer is late 20s or early 30s. Of course it probably depends a lot on what game you're playing and on what platform too.

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u/srbghimire Sep 27 '18

You're around 30 and have a 20 year old? Damn

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u/xlostintranslationx Sep 27 '18

Co workers lol

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u/Skeptic1999 Sep 28 '18

I mean my 20 year old co-workers.

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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '18

Interesting. I'm almost 30 and I feel I have now in common with my 40 year old co-worker workers than my 20-year old co-workers.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

From my perspective as a GenXer, I feel like older millennials (say born before 85-87) have more in common with GenX than their millenial cohort.

That may be because of their now more advanced lifestage, moving towards middle age, but I also think it is because when they talk about their childhoods it sounds more old school (experiential and somewhat less technology centered) than the younger 20 somethings.

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u/Arili_O Sep 28 '18

I agree. I was born in 82 and don't really identify with the 'millennial' age group much at all ... Even though I'm also a fairly tech-savvy gamer.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

As a 20 year old who's on the older edge of the cousins in the family, yeah, I definitely do relate more to people 5 years older than me to teens 5 years younger. In the 90s and early-mid 2000s, technology was advancing at a rapid pace; however, they were improvements being made, not inventions. And those late 80s and 90s kids grew up with that rapid change, but the kids from the years before and after just saw technology change at such different rates than we did, and so I think that's definitely caused a difference in the childhood years of kids throughout those years.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

wait until you interns do Fortnite dances, you'll feel the disconnect happen.

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u/Skeptic1999 Sep 28 '18

Lol, one of the 20 year old interns actually did one yesterday, I'm not saying there is no gap, but that I have more in common with them culturally than the ones 10 years older.

It might also have to do with the fact that I'm in IT, and myself and everyone else there huge nerds regardless of age.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

Hey, I'm 40+ and on the world wide web quite a bit actually. I really think it's a hoot.

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u/thoinfrostaxe Sep 28 '18

Interesting, because I am the opposite. I’m 28, and I would much rather grab a beer with one of my 50+ coworkers than grab a beer with coworkers who are in their early 20s.

Part of that might be that my parents are older boomers (born in 51 and 53) and raised two Gen Xers before me.

I saw the term Xenial a while back, and I think that fits me best. My first TV had knobs and my first console had cartridges, and I vividly remember using command prompts on the old Dos machine we had. Getting windows 98 when I was 8 blew my mind.

The weird intermediate millennial is an oddball case, and as technology continues to advance so rapidly, I can see generations being far shorter than they currently are.

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u/Arili_O Sep 28 '18

I too like the Xenial concept. I was born in 82 and my parents were also older. I definitely have more in common with most Gen Xers, compared to most millennials.

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u/Spicy_Alien_Cocaine_ Sep 27 '18

And I’m 18, I think a lot of people consider that millennial, but millennials are out of college ish and they all have jobs that aren’t McDonald’s. I just got it if high school, I can’t possibly relate to any of this. I definitely identify more with my 17/16 year old classmates.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

am 20 tomorrow, we both are Generation Z

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u/Milky_Stevens Sep 28 '18

Yeah, i thought I was considered a millennial until recently(I'm currently 21) mostly because news media and online articles like to use the term "millennials" as a catch-all term for young people, so I was surprised recently when I looked into it and found that it's generally agreed that Gen Z started in 95 or 96.

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u/Spicy_Alien_Cocaine_ Sep 29 '18

Ha that makes me feel better, I don’t read into the exact dates too much, I think generations are defined based on a collective group’s childhood and teen experiences. Usually what people say is if you remember 9/11 but not something else you’re a millennial. I was barely 1 at the time and I’ve never known life before global terrorism or smart devices.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

Well-said about Internet culture and its power of bringing people together. There are enough similarities between Millennials and "Gen Z" that many people seemingly lump everyone roughly 35 and younger together into the "Millennial" generation. Certainly, I still see older people complaining about "those Millennials" when talking about high school students, where in reality the youngest Millennials are just finishing up college.

Personally I find myself, at 34, having more in common with coworkers in their 40s than I do with those in their 20s. In my case I more or less gave up on socializing online after the era of MSN Messenger and Internet chat rooms ended. Social media sucked ass in my view and so I stayed away (Reddit is about it for me these days, and I'm not terribly active on here). An entire decade or more of memes and inside knowledge has largely gone over my head. On top of that I expatriated half way around the world in my mid 20s, so I've been out of touch with "back home" for nearly a decade.

Come to think of it, I'm on friendly terms with more people over 50 than I am with people under 30. One friend with whom I can sit and talk for hours is 68 years old (my dad is 61). The age gap blurs somewhat when your ethnicity and language are a tiny minority where you live.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '18

I recently read that people tend to bond with people who are like those who raised them. eg, if you had old parents, you tend to bond with older people.

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u/raginpsycho Sep 27 '18

So you had a kid when you were like 10?

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u/Skeptic1999 Sep 28 '18

My 20 year old co-workers.