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Am I the only one getting tired of all these articles that reify demographic cohorts created by marketing people ("Millennials", "GenX", etc.) and then treat th

Am I the only one getting tired of all these articles that reify demographic cohorts created by marketing people ("Millennials", "GenX", etc.) and then treat them as some sort of monolith? If Millennials are defined as "individuals born between 1981 and 1997" then you're talking about people between the ages of 22 (just graduating from university) and 38 (potentially with over a decade and a half of work experience). That's an incredibly wide (and arbitrary) age range. You also have diversity in education levels (high school, undergraduate, graduate) and geography (large metropolitan areas, smaller regional cities, rural). There are real issues that need to be addressed - rising income inequality, the cost of higher education, the healthcare disaster in the US, housing, etc. - but wrapping it in generational mumbo jumbo distracts from that.

notfromhere 7y ago
It's pretty straightforward. The Millenial age cohort is doing worse than all others before it and the timing of their entry into the job market is placing many into precarious financial positions.
- DebtDeflation 7y ago
  The millennial age cohort is defined arbitrarily. Why 1981-1997 and not 1980-1996 or 1982-1998 or perhaps a range that's narrower by a few years?
  - joenot443 7y ago
    "The Pew Research Center defines millennials as born from 1981 to 1996, choosing these dates for "key political, economic and social factors", including the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Great Recession, and the Internet explosion.[36]" I wouldn't say it's arbitrary. People who've spent their lives studying the sociology of generations came up with those ranges.
    - FreakLegion 7y ago
      It's arbitrary in the sense that it's not grounded in anything objective or measurable. This is an old historiographical problem you can find argued about at length under the heading 'periodization'.

notfromhere 7y ago

It's pretty straightforward. The Millenial age cohort is doing worse than all others before it and the timing of their entry into the job market is placing many into precarious financial positions.

DebtDeflation 7y ago
The millennial age cohort is defined arbitrarily. Why 1981-1997 and not 1980-1996 or 1982-1998 or perhaps a range that's narrower by a few years?
- joenot443 7y ago
  "The Pew Research Center defines millennials as born from 1981 to 1996, choosing these dates for "key political, economic and social factors", including the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Great Recession, and the Internet explosion.[36]" I wouldn't say it's arbitrary. People who've spent their lives studying the sociology of generations came up with those ranges.
  - FreakLegion 7y ago
    It's arbitrary in the sense that it's not grounded in anything objective or measurable. This is an old historiographical problem you can find argued about at length under the heading 'periodization'.