The BIG Difference between Millennials and Generation C

This post was written by Eileen Perez. Eileen is a Social Media Analyst with Media Connect Partners.

In Social Media, as in PR, Marketing and Advertising, it’s important to know your audience.  We have terms for each demographic: Mommy Bloggers, Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Millennials, and now Generation C. You might be thinking, “I know Gens X and Y, but who and what is Gen C?” We understand that this can be a little confusing, so here’s the breakdown:

Defining Millennials

Like Baby Boomers, Millennials are tied to their demographic by age.  A true Millennial was born sometime between the late 80s and late 90s. They are constantly engaged with technology. Today, you see Millennials flood the internet with selfies, pictures of their food, and take to their online communities for validation and recommendations. Interestingly enough, Millennials are no longer engaging as frequently on the social powerhouse known as Facebook. Although the majority of them are still on Facebook, this demographic has migrated to more visual and instant platforms, such as Instagram and Vine. Popular Millennials today include sStars Beyoncé, The Kardashians, and Lady Gaga, as well as Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. Generally, nostalgia for Millennials includes watching reruns of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, reading Harry Potter and listening to Nsync, The Backstreet Boys and Blink-182.

Who is Generation C?

Generation C is a little trickier to define. One school of thought suggests that Generation C is just another term for Millennials – people between ages of 18 and 29. Another (and a more accurate one in our eyes) is that the “C” stands for “connectivity” or “content”. This makes Generation C much larger than Millennials. Generation C is mostly defined as a psychographic group, meaning that this actually encompasses people who are outside of the Millennial demographic, such as highly-interactive empty-nesters and baby boomers. Gen C-ers share the need to constantly stay connected like Millennials, and often share their own content on social networks. The most popular social network for Gen C is Facebook. Popular Generation C-ers include George Takei, Patrick Stewart and Jimmy Fallon.  While this definition of Generation C might seem broad, it needs to be thought of differently than the standard age category.

The reality is that most tech-savvy Millennials can be considered Generation C-ers, since they grew up in the age of the internet. We understand – it’s easy to confuse the two!  We hope the difference between Millennials and Generation C makes sense.

Now we ask, which demographic do you fall under?