#Xennials

[unbfacts]

[cat-cosplay]

I was there for the fall of AOHell.

When Geocities faded.

When chat rooms were the thing.

The MySpace rush.

The rise and fall of flash.

Our modems screamed the song of digital freedom to my generation.

All things fade.

[luke-and-leia-the-cats-not-jedi]

So everyone who was a kid in the 80s carried around a horrifying fever dream memory their whole life until realizing as an adult it was actually a scene from Return to Oz right?

[tithsokphanny31]

What was your first movie in the movie theater?

[kidiotequea]

Two 6oz pours and a radiohead cover. Second pour is oat milk.

Who else pours n plays? Hit me up!

[thebonesofhoudini]

If the 2000s were defined by Technology and The Internet (mainly gadgets that became outdated and websites we don't anymore).

Then the 2010s were defined by Smartphones and the Internet.

Which makes me think the 2020s will be defined by all the nasty aftereffects of the Technology and the Internet being a "thing" for over 20 years. Smartphone addiction, social media burnout, increasing rates of anxiety and depression, a general loss of social skills amongst certain generations, and other things and stuff that society hasn't touched on.

20 years ago people weren't glued to their phones at all. Then again 20 years ago, all phones could do is take and make calls, and send and receive texts and voice messages. Now, the average phone is basically a mini computer.

Some people will have the TV on in their living room, while their laptop is on their lap or desk, while they are looking at their phone. With endless visual overstimulaltion. I wonder how good this is for mental health in the long-term. If anything, it can't be good.

[princesssunderworld]

As a millennial. This would just add to the list of traumatic experiences we have all lived through as a whole.

We are still fighting and we need your help young ones! We can do this!

[alchemisoul]

Family vlogging victims are finally speaking out

I remember a moment shortly after coming home from my final deployment in 2005 when my best friend, who was a student at Clemson, explained to me what Facebook was - which at the time was exclusively offered to students attending four year Universities. And knowing that I loved to take pictures on disposable cameras growing up all of our friends and whatever we got into, he told me how much I would dig it.

And it did sound cool and interesting at first, but then he informed me that I was already on there in pictures - and this was something that truly mortified me at the time.

My image, likeness, or anything about me was floating around on the internet of which not only did I not consent to, or wqs able to remove or even access on my own at the time theough an account, but this was something I was previously entirely unaware of. And that horrified me.

I went back to school in 2007 after finishing my Marine enlistment in 2006 and as facebook expanded to those attending community college, as I was initially, I signed up and slowly became integrated with it and myspace and such. And I slowly adjusted to the idea of having an online identity or presence.

But at least I came of age at a time in the late 90's/early aughts when what you did online, and what you did in life, was clearly separated. I did have aim messenger my sophmore year of high school and got we started getting cell phones around junior/senior year of high school. But there wasn't video cameras until two thousand four, and there wasn't one's worth a damn for nearly a decade.

But I was fortunate to be among the last of what was a dying breed of humans, who were able to have a childhood where I didn't have to worry about whether or not what I did was documented forever - I was given the opportunity to consent to being online as an adult and not robbed of that privilege as a child. I remember thinking when my friends started having kids and posting all the stuff of them online and realizing how sad it was that kids don't even get that choice anymore.

[milehighmegs]

hey Gen Z, can y'all do me a quick solid and explain how you're all just, like, IMPOSSIBLY pretty? Cuz the gender envy on the Xennial side of the fence is SO REAL...

[a-rogue-tiddy-bot]

I'm not yet sure how the new Communities feature works, but... are there any xennials who'd be interested in joining one for us?

Don't know if you count as one?

[thelostgirl21]

Younger Millennial?!?!?!

Try Millennial, period.

Oldest of the "older Millennials" here (born in 1981)!

I'm definitely young enough that playing video games has been a lifelong hobby of mine (I used to play "BC's Quest for Tire" on my C64 computer when I was 4!).

And my Gen X cousin (born in 1972) has been gaming on various consoles and computers since the mid 70s (he started with the Atari)!

I've played video games on C64, Atari, NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, SNES, then pretty much abandoned consoles to move to PC gaming (never been a fan of the Nintendo 64), until the introduction of the Nintendo Wii reignited my interest in consoles for a bit, then pretty much returned to strictly PC gaming (might eventually give in to the temptation of getting myself a VR set, though...).

A lot of my friends, currently aged 35 to 55, have been lifelong gamers as well!

Right now (2024), that age group roughly forms about a quarter of the gaming population in the US!

source

The dominant age demographic for video game players is Millennials...

...followed by Gen X (not Zoomers)!

So, if you believe that moving away from that 44 years old mark (the age where Gen X is currently starting) makes you more likely, as a Millennial, to have taken up video gaming as a lifelong hobby, think again!

I'm an old enough Millennial that I remember parents letting kids watch virtually any movie on TV without being preoccupied by the ratings (ex: my father thought watching "Jaws" with a 5-year-old, while suddenly physically grabbing her and going "Rwaaaar!" every single time the shark showed up or "almost showed up" on screen - just to hear her blood curling screams of sheer terror and keep her "on the edge of her seat" - was the funniest form of entertainment EVER!), and a huge bunch of kids from school owning either a Sega Genesis or Nintendo Entertainment System at home at some point, because it was an easy way to keep younger children occupied on their own after school until the parents finally came back from work (the kids that didn't have one would just go squat at the houses of those that did).

A lot of the older Millennials and younger Gen Xers were raised on (and sometimes almost "raised by") video games, often without the parents being as concerned about the way too much time spent in front of a screen, and/or the level of violence contained in those games, might affect their children's development as one might expect them to be today.

But I agree, our beef does tend to be with The Computer, and The Computer only!

And if The Computer's unhappy, well they just had to do a better job of raising us!

They're not my Commodore 64, and they can't tell me what to do!

[dodger-sister]

So FB algorithm knows I like cruises, so it showed me a celebrity cruise, basically a comic con at sea. Then one for the 90s. And now this 80s cruise. (yes I did ask Sis about the comic con one & she said No ☹️. Even though Scott Grimes is gonna be there & I bet he will play some music & then I would die looking like this 😍😍 & they could bury me at sea). Anyways, Gen Xers, here ya go! (I think the 90s one would be more my cup of tea, given I was a tween in the 80s but a teen in the 90s…so hard for us Xennials, we don’t fit properly in a generation or even in a decade.)

[epitome-the-burnkid-viii]

[thebonesofhoudini]

The Internet now feels like a party that has lasted too long, and all the cool people have left, there's no more alcohol, there's no more drugs, you're starting to sober up and realize maybe it's time to go home cause it isn't fun anymore.

[cappuccinoandglitter]

OMG I think that makes some sense! Also, Gen Z is the first one to grow up literally on the internet. I don't know many Gen Zers personally, so I can't really speak categorically to it, but I wonder if that plays a part.

Not disparaging any generation here, just trying to understand the differences.

When I first started discussing ships (we called it slash back then, so you know I'm old) it was in the mid-90s when I got my first computer. These were the dial up days so you could only use the internet when nobody needed the phone. I was already 16 years old. I'd always been a nerd, in the 'reads tons of books and watches all the sci-fi/fantasy' way. But I never really had anyone to talk about these things because not many people in my peer group shared the same interests. My family certainly didn't understand any of it.

I had to make up my own shit, in my head, with no outside influence other than the source material?

I wonder if my whole worldview would have been different from the start if I'd had those peer groups or today's accessibility through the internet since I was like, 3 years old.

Or maybe it doesn't really mean anything.

TikTokers are such pussies when it comes to ships. “B-but they’re not canon 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😖😖” honey back in my day we shipped characters from entirely different medias uphill both ways in the snow

[letterstothefutureme]

I’m both angry and confused. I’m disgusted by this blatant display of ageism.

I demand an immediate apology from Igloo ™.