Millenial Musings

I am a millennial. I think.

I've been in denial for a few years, possibly because our generation gets such a bad reputation. We're the "trophy kids." We were pampered during our formative years, repeatedly told that "everyone is a winner," and our parents were known to call the teacher to determine the source of that big F on yesterday's geometry quiz. And don't even get me started on how our generation is perceived in the workplace. Apparently, we're self-destructive rebels who can't conduct ourselves civilly, much less professionally. My mind immediately wanders to Animal  (doesn't he eat glass?) from The Muppet Show. Are we really that bad?

But I'd also been in denial because my birth year (1982) teeters between Gen X and Gen Y (Millenial) in multiple sources. In some sources I'm at the tail end of Generation X; in others I'm an early Millenial and therefore not a true member of Generation Y. According to those dates, my brothers and I are all Millenials. They are 16, 18, and 25. There's an eleven year gap between me and my youngest brother, and I'm pretty sure we don't fall neatly into the Millenial package together. At 15, he had a Blackberry Storm®. At 15, I had a plastic pager. And even at 16, my "cell" phone was attached to the center console in my Ford Bronco. I think it was called a "car phone."

Mainly, though, my denial stems from a lack of feeling like a Millenial. The top characteristics of a Millenial revolve around technology since our generation was/is shaped by technological advances. But I don't consider myself to be a techy. My VCR --yes, that's right-- and DVD player were disconnected for most of my senior year of college because I couldn't figure out how to hook them up to my obsolete TV.

I do, however, try to embrace technology if it means I can accomplish a task more efficiently. For example, I hate fax machines. Hate them. Emailing an attachment is much more seamless, and I don't have to leave my cubicle. With email, I also don't have to wait for the incessant, mocking beep indicating that my memo was successfully sent. And what if it doesn't beep? Then what? Kicking it a few times is great for Office Space, but probably frowned upon in reality - and wouldn't help the Millenial reputuation.

According to definition, we (Millenials) grew up having information readily available at our fingertips via the internet and we are externally connected 24/7, thanks to social networks, texting, and e-mail.

All right, I'll bite.

I started using a computer for socializing in eighth grade. Remember America Online (AOL)? I'd come home from school, grab my snack from the "snack drawer" that Mom kept stocked with an assortment of Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers, Yodels, or the like, and log onto AOL. This could take anywhere from three to fifteen minutes. That haunting, albeit familiar, dial-up noise is probably some younger Millenial's downloaded ring-tone ($4.99! Seriously?), and they don't even know its origin. I would spend an hour or two chatting on Instant Messenger with one or two of my friends, but as soon as Mom got home I'd have to log off because I was tying up the phone line.

I also grew up playing Nintendo games, though usually at a friend's house because we didn't own the console. No video game will ever be as great as Super Mario Brothers or Duck Hunt.

As for social networks, I joined Facebook my senior year of college, but didn't really start using it until three years ago. I created a MySpace page shortly after graduating college, but the amount of users who abused HTML code (glitter was meant for arts and crafts, not the internet) was overwhelming, so I deleted my account shortly thereafter.

My husband (a true-blood Millenial by definition) gets annoyed with me because I don't take advantage of the technology that's, quite literally, right at my fingertips. I'll often sit on the couch with my laptop while he's at his desktop computer across the living room, and I'll ask him to look something up for me.

"Why can't you do it?" he asks, both amused and irritated. "You have a computer right in front of you."

He's right. But I know he'll find the information much faster than I would.

So, am I a Millenial? I still don't know. What do you think? Do you suffer from similar conflictions?