Growing older is a journey that often requires adapting to life’s changes. With each passing year priorities and perspective slowly change. One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain, who said: “Do not complain about growing old, it is a privilege denied to many.” While growing old is a privilege, it can also be an enormously humbling experience. Each generation slowly transitions from cool and hip to unfashionable and outdated.
Millennials were once the youthful and hi-tech generation; now they are the generation coming to terms with growing older. The phrase “not as young as they used to be” can be accurately used to describe millennials today. Millennials are the generation born between 1981 and 1996. That means the oldest millennials are turning 43 years old this year. That statistic is shocking to many people because they still associate millennials as being high school kids or college students, but millennials grew up. Millennials are full blown adults today. They are the largest generation alive today - nearly 73 million people nationwide. Most millennials are the children of baby boomers.
Nearly seventeen years ago Toby Barker made local headlines for being the first millennial elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives. Today millennials can be found in state legislatures, governor mansions, the U.S. Congress, and corporation boardrooms across America. Millennials are a generation that includes Eli Manning, Prince William, Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift, Meghan Markle, J.D. Vance, and Carrie Underwood. It has been quite a journey for millennials.
The term “millennials” was chosen as the generational moniker because they were the generation growing up at turn of the millennium. For many millennials, Y2K and the 9/11 terrorist attacks are core memories. I think a more accurate name for millennials would have been the “sandwich generation.” They are the generation sandwiched between a pre-technology world and a post-technology world.
Millennials were children before the rise of smart phones and social media. Their oldest school and medicals records were not computerized. They lived in a world where riding in the back of a pick-up truck was perfectly acceptable. They watched cable television and rented movies on VHS/DVD. As children, millennials lived in the world of magazines, daily newspapers, and trips to the mall. It was a world largely devoid of today’s modern technology.
But while millennials were growing up, a technological explosion occurred. Millennials were young enough to make the transition without too much fuse, but Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) was born into the world of technology. Millennials learned technology, albeit at a relatively young age. Gen Z are native speakers who are fluent in the world of technology.
Today millennials get accused of “millennial cringe” by Gen Z. If you have not heard of millennial cringe, it is a term used to describe parts of millennial culture that have grown outdated, embarrassing, or socially awkward. For example, women’s millennial fashion (skinny jeans, side parts, oversized scarfs, no-show socks, ankle boots) get labeled as millennial cringe today. The millennial nostalgia for the 1990s and early 2000s (Harry Potter, Friends, Beanie Babies, Titanic) also gets labeled as millennial cringe. Millennials were still young during the early days of the internet – when it was a place where the rules and social norms were ill-defined. Millennials had to make it up as they went. The selfies, overly edited photos, emojis, long hashtags, and memes that defined the era are now considered millennial cringe as well.
It can be shocking to wake up and realize you are no longer part of the cool generation. It is a reminder to not get too work up about the latest generational trend. We are all products of the time and place where we were born and raised. Cultural perceptions shift over time. What is deemed cool or acceptable is always subject to change with the passage of time. The status symbols of one generation can become meaningless in the next generation. Growing older can mean acquiring greater wisdom and a more nuanced understanding of the world.
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Keith Ball is a local attorney and a lifelong resident of the Friendly City.
