Old Millennial
Fascinating Demographic Differences Between Older And Younger Millennials
45 Signs You're An Old Millennial
I love that I finally found an article about this. Crazy enough, there are a lot articles out there on the differences of older and younger millennials. Sadly according to the Census Bureau's definition (born 1982-2000) I'm considered a millennial and I hate the sterotype that it has. The "Old millennials", meaning born around 1988 or earlier, feel like they are not part of this generation.
Point #1: Millennials are obsessed with social media. Yes, the younger ones are, but the older millennials did not grow up with Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram. I can't even imagine my social life revolving around these accounts.
Point #2: Millennials are structuring their lives differently. We are less likely to follow the traditional career and marriage track. Millennials are putting off marriage and making way for their careers, which will likely be more stable in the long run. I do agree with that, most of my close friends still aren't married, and we are perfectly content with that. We want to be able to provide for ourselves before being able to provide for someone else. A statement that I do hate however, is that we are the job-hoping generation. While I was job interviewing, they assumed I wouldn't be at their job long term because of my age. I grew up with structure and while, I may like to travel and explore, that doesn't automatically mean I'm going to switch jobs often.
Point #3: Older Millennials want a work life balance and honestly, who doesn't? Yes I am willing to work hard and put in over time hours, but I also don't want to live at work. I want to be able to do my own thing.
Point #4: This point kind of goes along with number 1. Younger Millennials grew up with cell phones and living online. Older Millennials most likely didn't get a phone until high school or even college. There is a clear difference in the people that grew up with the presence and the absence of a constant cell phone - such as, older millennials like to read....longer pieces of work (articles, or gasp, even books)...and preferably on paper.
There is of course going to be some overlap, especially to the younger millennials who have older siblings, but these two groups are vastly different and it's not fair to put us all into one category and I appreciate that someone wrote an article expressing what my friends and I are thinking. Still not sure where you fall? Take this quiz:
How Millennial Are You Quiz
