Sometimes we are called Zennials (that seems to be fading as a label), and some include 1992 as a birth years as well. I am not typical for my age, as I skipped multiple grades and started uni right before I turned 15, so many of my closest friends and classmates are 2 to 4 or so years older than me, plus I am the youngest in my nuclear family. I can deffo relate more to a 1991 or 1992 born person on average than a 2001 or 2002 born one, and the differences are pretty stark on the gens-related subreddits. I also grew up in London (and have lived in Sweden for well over 4 years now, after a few years in the US), so realise that the cultural gap between me and continuously US-dwelling, mostly or entirely US-raised people can help flavour and magnify some of those differences as well.
A pretty decent article (I disagree with some things, but overall it is a good primer):
Too Old For Gen Z, Too Young For Millennials: Life As A Confused Zillennial
https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/generation-zillennial
When 2021’s so-called 'generation battle' erupted, it’s safe to say I felt like a conflicted bystander. Born in 1996, my identity as 'millennial' or 'Gen Z' is often called into question and after reading every definition on the internet, I still don't know where to place myself. As someone who parts their hair both to the side and in the middle, I'm confused about who I should claim as my contemporaries, and the increasingly cringey dialogue surrounding the generational conflict makes the task that much harder.
You might wonder why finding a generation to belong to matters at all but with the internet constantly hammering in the importance of belonging to certain ‘tribes’, figuring out my collective identity has always felt important. Considering that I can remember watching Disney films rented from Blockbuster, I often find myself identifying with millennials – but the minute they start talking about picking their Myspace 'top eight', I feel completely lost. On the other hand, Gen Z uses technology in the same way that I do but as soon as I start reminiscing about putting song lyrics in my MSN status, they all look completely bewildered.
As it turns out, this no man’s land between the internet's two dominant generations has a name all of its own: zillennials. Growing up during the crossover from analogue to digital, zillennials are a product of a changing world, experiencing old and new in quick succession. Classified as a 'micro-generation' of people born between 1993 and 1998, Urban Dictionary defines zillennials as "too young to relate to the core of millennials but too old to relate to the core of Generation Z. They were 2000's kids and transitioned from teenagers to adults during the 2010's."
The zillennial's defining trait might be a constant state of identity crisis but according to a series of Reddit forums, the determining factor seems to come down to whether or not you remember 9/11. Whereas millennials were old enough to fully understand the events of the day, Gen Z might not even have been born; zillennials, meanwhile, likely have hazy memories of the event, with most of us just starting school at the time. It’s this type of experience that underpins the differences between the two groups and solidifies zillennials as a breed of their own.
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