Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future

by Jean M. Twenge

In the 2020s, Millennials have gotten the hang of adulting: They are no longer “the young ones.” In March and April 2020, people used to thinking of all young adults as Millennials ran afoul of the inexorable passage of time when they complained that the “Millennials” on spring break from college were spreading COVID-19. Since Millennials were ages 26 to 40 at the time, those spring breakers were the next generation younger: Gen Z. Predictably, Twitter lost it. “Millennials. Aren’t. Going. On. Spring. Break. We. Are. Too. Old.,” tweeted one. “Millennial isn’t the blanket word for young people anymore, lots of us have kids… and the rest of us now get hungover after 2.5 IPAs,” said another. “Millennials… are too busy sitting in our makeshift home offices trying to teach our older colleagues how to video conference,” tweeted a third, along with a helpful chart of each generation’s birth years.