I started this blog when I was 32 years old. The term "millennial" hadn't even been in the zeitgeist at the time. Most of us hadn't even heard the term until the mid 2010s when our generation was suddenly blamed for killing every industry from chain restaurants to napkins. The baby boomers that were writing the articles for easy clickbait didn't seem to know or care that the reason why millennials weren't spending money on those things was because The Great Recession had left us flat ass broke.
And it was in those 2010s that the new generation gaps were born. Angry baby boomers would rant against us in the comment sections of whatever news page on Facebook they decided to like. We would tell people that we're flat ass broke and need a break only to be told by said boomers that we're entitled because of participation trophies. Being so stunned by our parents' generation telling us that we don't deserve a job that doesn't pay starvation wages was pretty daunting. It wasn't until a few years later that someone pointed out that we only had the participation trophies because boomer parents couldn't handle the idea that their kid didn't win something. For fucks' sake, if anyone was entitled, it was them for demanding that we had trophies that we never wanted in the first place just so they wouldn't feel like they had raised a loser.
All those arguments were the beginning of the online generation gap. Boomers vs. Millennials. With Gen X wondering why the fuck they had been forgotten about.
We millennials were infantilized for long past the time that the youngest of us had reached adulthood. In fact, it wasn't until an anonymous Twitter user pointed out that many millennials were already in their mid-30s that the infantilization had ended. By that time, the oldest of Gen Z had begun reaching adulthood.
Why do I bring this up? I don't know. Nostalgia, maybe? I decided I was going to use this blog to write about my random thoughts after I deleted my social media, and I have a lot of thoughts to give on aging, I guess.
I'm about to turn 43. I'm the eldest of millennials. If I had been born just two months prior, I'd be the last of Gen X. I'm getting old and it's hard to deal with.
I think that being infantilized for so long kind of makes getting old that much harder to accept. And we were infantilized for economic reasons that were well beyond our control.
The Great Recession prevented nearly all of us from owning a home. Even today only half of us have one. Nearly seven in ten of Gen X and eight in ten of Baby Boomers own one.
Did you know that owning a home is the easiest way to generational wealth in America? I didn't until I was one of the lucky ones that now owns his own home. Fucking hell, the tax breaks ALONE for owning a home are insane. Credit scores are through the roof! My wife and I have money in savings for the first time ever!
And half of my generation doesn't get to have that. It's fucking bullshit.
So because of our economic circumstances, at least half of my generation are still forced to scrape by like we all did just a decade prior. Because we didn't all graduate high school with a job that guaranteed a home like the boomers did we've been treated like kids most of our lives.
And now it's 2024 and we're far from children. I have to continuously wrap my head around the fact that there are now people born after 9/11 that are old enough to drink. Gen Z is starting to get old now, too. The oldest of them will be turning 30 in a few years. This year is to them what 2008 was to millennials, and if you think 2008 doesn't feel like it was sixteen years ago, welcome to the fucking club, buddy! Where did the fucking time go?!
Gen Z loves to remind us that we're now the old people. Goddamn it.
You ever see Gen Z talk about us on TikTok? Kids are fucking cruel, man! You'd think we were their parents or something.
So now along with our parents' generation treating us like we're fucking infants, we got the generation below us acting like we're senior citizens at the old folks' home. Jesus fucking Christ.
And we don't even know why they're so hostile, either. It's not like we aren't in the same economic boat as them. They were born after this country turned into a dumpster fire, but we were kids when the match that set that dumpster on fire was lit! Hey Gen Z, if you wonder why we harp on the 90's so fucking much, it's because we kind of MISS THE TIME WHEN THE DUMPSTER WASN'T ON FIRE!
Sometimes I wonder if I was blinded by youthful bias as to whether or not the 90s were that great, but then I remember that both of my divorced parents moved into larger houses at that time and the worst thing going on in politics is that the president had his dick sucked. Yeah, things were pretty fucking good back then.
But we watched helplessly as the years that you were born into turned into that dumpster fire, Gen Z, and goddamn it, we did our best to put it out. We fucking tried. So now we're old and tired and we need you to take up the mantle for change because the youth are always fearless and our backs hurt and it's hard to get us to a protest unless we can get a babysitter in advance. But don't forget that we walked so you fuckers can run. We took all the jokes about participation trophies so you can scream, "OK BOOMER!" at the top of your lungs.
I'll close this out with the queen of Elder Millennials (Iliza Shlesinger) giving her take on Gen Z:
