Like many others my age, the identity crisis between being a Millennial and a Gen Z struck in my early adult years. Last year, my peers and I were quite surprised to find out through a class project that we were not actually Millennials, but fall into the category of being a member of Generation Z.
Generation Z is the latest generation to be named. It describes those born after 1996 — although some sources claim other years between 1995 and 1999. Along with being the most ethnically diverse generation, it is also the most tech savvy, being associated with trends like Tiktok, Netflix and growing up with smartphones. Although I do relate to these trends, things like playing with action figures/barbie dolls, playing with gameboys and watching cassettes of my favorite shows via a VCR hit very close to home. This is where my identity crisis starts, and I'm sure many can relate.
As a child growing up listening to Britney Spears' album 'In The Zone' through my CD player, I wouldn't have imagined that I would grow up to be grouped together with kids who popped out of the womb with iPads in their hands. It's not that I feel disrespected, it's more so that I feel like I've gone through my right-of-passage to be considered a Millennial, but didn't get the title. This identity crisis took somewhat of a tole on me for a while, until I ran into the term 'millennial/genz cusp' on Twitter. Searching tweets related to this term, I realized that I resonated with each and every tweet. It made me realize that there is a community of people just like me out there that are too Millennial to be Gen Z, and too Gen Z to be a Millennial.
Gen Z-Millennial cuspers are also regarded to as 'Zillenials'. If you resonate with what I've described so far and you've struggled with finding your place in a generation, you may be a Zillenial as well. Here are some things that should help you confirm whether or not you fall into this category:
- You lived through Y2k but have no memory of it.
- You got your first smart phone in middle school.
- You lived through 9/11 but don't remember it.
- Most of your childhood was spent before 2006 (when Gen Z culture started kicking in).
- You were heavily active on Facebook in your early teens and heavily active on Instagram and Snapchat in your late teens.
- You were in the high school graduating class of 2015 - 2019.
There are many other identifiers of whether or not you are a Gen Z-Millennial cusper. However, I hope I have helped you with solving where exactly you fit into the generations, and have provided you with a community of people just like you.
