XENNIALS: IS IT A REAL THING?
Too young for Gen X but too old to be a Millennial? Xennial isn’t the solution.
I was born in 1977 which makes me technically a Gen X but also a part of the so called Xennial microgeneration cohort, the eldest one at that. I usually don’t care about those stuff but lately I hear generational labels everyday. The American’s obssession with labels is unstoppable and it keeps spreading worldwide.
My response when I first heard of the word Xennial was a “meh”. I remember when I first hear it back when I was still with my previous job working as a Marketing Director when one of my staff mentioned the Xennial label in one of our meetings. At first I ignored it and proceeded with our meeting but then she insisted that we need to discuss about this label since its a good opportunity to tap into this market. My staff who brought up this Xennial topic, was born in 1981. She mentioned how she and other early 80s babies shouldn’t really be called Millennials because their experiences don’t match with the stereotype and find the Xennial label very fitting. That we need to create a campaign for Xennials in order to reach them. Meanwhile, I was saying to myself “What the hell is she talking about? How can someone born in 1977 (aka me) relate to people born in 1983 who were just in 1st grade at the time that I was about to enter high school more than with my own classmates born in 1976?”. Confused, I googled Xennial and saw various articles. It turned out the term was invented by a writer named Sarah Stankorb (born 1980) in her September 2014 article on GOOD Magazine.
Inventing a generation for the sole purpose of having a label to match with you or your friends’ experiences isn’t an effective solution. It only adds more confusion and reinforces an idea that our identity is tied to labels.
As I read her article, its clear to me that it all points out to one thing: This label was created out of the writer’s confusion on what generation shes in and want to have something to identify with to make sense of her own life experience. Her descriptions of Xennials are very subjective. The defining events of Xennials that the author described aren’t unique to this micro-cohort. Most Millennials also had an analog childhood and even the oldest Gen Xers had a digital adolescence and adulthood. Xennial doesn’t have a unifying collective experience which makes generation a generation. Inventing a generation for the sole purpose of having a label to match with you or your friends’ experiences isn’t an effective solution. It only adds more confusion and reinforces an idea that our identity is tied to labels. Moreover, generations don’t work that way.
“There is no Xennial microgeneration. Those born on the cusp where Gen X ends and Millennials begin are still a part of their respective generations — sorry Oregon Trail fans!”— Jason Dorsey, Center for Generational Kinetics
To make my already long point short, Xennial doesn’t exist. It was created out of the author’s own whim. Generational labeling itself isn’t exact science, it was created for the purpose of studying trends and the birth years only serve as guides for demographers when conducting their studies.
While there is nothing wrong with trying to make sense of our own life experiences and finding common ground out of it but we need to approach it with a clear understanding about what generations are. In Ms. Stankorb’s case, its pretty obvious that she doesn’t have any idea on how generations work and how those labels came out in the first place. She mainly based everything from her own life experiences thinking its reflective of the experiences of anyone born from 1977 to 1983. Generations are by their very nature, does not focus on individual’s or a small group’s life experiences. Its focus is mainly on the collective trends of a given cohort so you don’t have to relate with your peers in order to be included as one. Moreover, the Baby Boomer generation is the only officially recognized cohort by the Census Bureau while the rest are just made up labels with randomly selected approximate birth year ranges subject to different interpretations without any significant markers which are present in the Boomers. In other words, ITS ALL A MYTH. If only she took the time to do her research on generations and learn from the demographers then maybe she wouldn’t feel the need to create labels.
As to the outcome in that meeting with my staff, we eventually concluded that it will serve both our company and customers better if we widen our market and focus our attention on consumers’ preferences and purchasing power based on culture, life stage and socioeconomic situation rather than the generation they belong.
