Generation WHY???

I just finished reading an article about how to market products to Generation Y. According to the figures, I am part of this newly-defined generation. I barely fall into the category, as it's mostly populated by those born between the years of 1980 and 2000. However, some researchers extend the criteria to those born in 1977—the magical year which would include me.

So I read the article with the idea in mind that I could be a Gen Yer, or Echo Boomer, or Millenial, as the article claims they're called. And I'm thinking the whole time, "What the fuck?" Why do these people think they can define a huge group of people based solely on when they were born? (Yeah, yeah, they've been doing it forever, and I didn't agree with it then, but now it affects me personally.) What is this, modern astrology? And secondly, who gives them the authority to do so? Because these consultants distributed some surveys, conducted some focus groups and asked a couple of questions, they know what defines a generation? I resent the fact that some consultant out there thinks that he knows how I think, what makes me tick, and what I'm going to buy, simply based on in which year I was born.

Regarding my first point, the article illustrates it for me. "Understand the teen/Gen Y group. Do homework and don't make assumptions that they're all one homogeneous group. Acknowledge the differences." Well, duh. Of course we're not a homogenous group. But by the very act of putting us into the group, you're assuming that we are, in fact, homogenous. Believe me, we're not. For example, the article repeatedly references the group as "teens" or "teenagers," but those born between the years of 1977 - 1981 are over the age of 21. We're of legal drinking age and most of us are graduating—or have graduated—from college. I guarantee that no 21-year-old wants to be referred to as a teenager. And no 21-year-old-or 24-year-old, in my case—has much in common with a teenager.

The article says that Teen People and MTV are reaching this audience. I don't read Teen People. I stopped reading Seventeen when I turned seventeen. I still remember when MTV played music videos. I doubt any 16-year-old—who supposedly has the same behavioral patterns as I do—remembers that. I watch MTV and think, "Wow, I'm getting old. I just don't get this anymore."

The article cites the fact that GenY is "remarkably [ethnically] diverse." Here the article again points out the ways that each person in GenY is different, but the entire article insists on applying generalizations. I realize this is all for the purpose of marketing, and statistics and these guys need some sort of guide for our buying patterns, but stereotypes are wrong. So why encourage them?

Since I don't really see myself as the type the article describes, is there some sort of transitional generation that I can be a part of? According to the research, I might be Generation Y, but I'm too young to be a Gen-Xer. Which is probably a good thing, based on the assumptions about that group of people. Those people—again, a broad and mostly erroneous generalization here—are lazy, unmotivated, and don't care what their parents think.

So where do I fit in? I am constantly berated by 30+ friends of mine for being young and innocent. It's as if they have to teach me things. But I don't look to someone six years older than me for older and wiser advice. Six years is nothing. Yet they repeatedly tell me what's going to happen to me in my life, based on their own experiences. But they're Gen Xers, right? So won't I behave differently based on the fact that I am a Gen Yer? No! And it's not because I'm a Millenial, it's because I'm me. I refuse to be defined by my age, by my skin color, by my job or by any other general statistic.

It is impossible to create a list of characteristics that defines a generation. I can barely define myself. I can, however, define what I am not. And I am not a 17-year-old girl who lives at home with her parents, has a curfew, wears Mavi jeans, types messages to her friends at the mall with a bubble-gum pink text pager, and is waiting in line for Britney's next album.

-Shakira 08.26.02