“I wish people love disabled people as much as they love disabled animals”

damn can we just enjoy a unique looking raccoon for a second. I truly don’t think many people have the mindset to just enjoy something

Jimothy is a raccoon with a spine disorder. He is going viral and becoming a Seattle mascot

it is very millennial humor but I think its in good fun

and I keep seeing people finding reasons to slow this moment down. or criticize it. I truly do not think this love for a unique looking raccoon means people dont like disabled people

the thing is we didn’t think this way in the early 2010s.

when gangnam style happened we just enjoyed it. no think pieces. It eventually got annoying after 2-3 weeks but that’s any trend.

when “hide yo kid hid yo wife” happened. we just enjoyed it for the novelty

why can’t we enjoy novelty anymore

think about it nothing good has happened in these years just shitty Internet culture AI slop and People feeling like trash overall and people becoming negative.....

I am curious to learn more from people that experienced it.

I have watched the earlier seasons myself and they rock

I’m a recent graduate myself, currently working in an administrative role because my own degree’s field has seen drastic headcount cuts. Just a few years ago, almost every graduate from my program at my school landed jobs in the field - now it feels like a different reality.

Gen Zs graduating into today’s economy are often compared with Millennials who finished school during the 2008 financial crisis. For those of you who graduated right into that turmoil:

• What was it like trying to find a job back then?
• How did you cope with the scarcity of opportunities?
• Did you end up working outside your degree field, and if so, did you ever make it back?
• Looking at your career now, how did those early years shape where you are today?

I’d love to hear your stories. Sharing how you navigated that moment might give today’s grads some perspective on what’s possible even in tough times!

One stat most people who are into true crime are aware of is how much it boomed in the late 60s, 70s, 80s, and early 90s before it began plummeting from the mid-90s onward.

While many experts have provided rationales and hypothesis for why this occurred, one reason I've also heard is that the Baby Boomers essentially aged into and out of the crime boom.

Since young people under the age of 35 are the most disproportionally impacted by crime, the % of the US population that was under 35 was massive in the late 20th century because of the baby boom that occurred in the decade and a half following WWII. Over half of the US population were classified as children, teens or young adults in the 1970s, where today, less than 40% of the population are classified as such.

While many other valid theories exist such as Roe v Wade, lead in gasoline, suburbanization, etc., could the Baby Boomers reaching middle age starting in the 90s/early 00s be one of the more straight-forward reasons why crime rates began dropping as the general pop began skewing older and older.

This is from my urban American POV.

Right now, corporal punishment towards your children is frowned upon. Not *illegal*, but taboo.

Amongst adults, though, it's still talked about as dark humour and funny anecdotes. Chancla jokes, joking about your parents spanking you, etc.

When I was growing up in the 2000s, the rule of thumb was that corporal punishment was widely used but not discussed. It was seen as "fine" as long as it left no physical marks. No bruises, no bumps, no cuts. If the kid was visibly harmed, then it became abusive.

A lot of millennial and especially gen x adults scoff at corporal punishment being abusive on default with stuff like "I got spanked and I turned out fine". I see this less often with gen z adults. I'm curious how gen alpha will turn out.

Edit:

I thought it was obvious, but maybe it's not. So I'll specify that I don't support corporal punishment under any circumstances. This isn't a thread on whether you believe in corporal punishment, but instead the wider acceptability of it.

Beyblade (Classic Series) - A nostalgia to Millennials, remembered by Millennials.

(i can't believe i'm missed out watching that when I'm was young, I'm Gen Z if you guys don't get the picture, but at least i got that chance to watch recently, it was amazing)

Beyblade Metal Saga/Burst Saga - Both are Nostalgia to Gen Z and remembered by Gen Z (Metal Saga is the saga i started with)

Beyblade X - Enjoyable right now to mostly the Zalphas & Gen Alphas (although I might check out, to how good the show is)

I know the manbuns and the snobbery got a lot of flack, but the core ethos of that era meant something to me. It was about taking niche, forgotten things and turning them into actual craft. People mixed vintage style with total nerd culture and made it cool to care about things standard society brushed off, whether that was coding, physics, astronomy, or poetry. All the stuff I used to get bullied for growing up suddenly had room to breathe.

That DIY scene was a gateway to everything for me. It gave me space to explore counterculture, leftist theory, and obscure passions without needing permission. One week you’re getting ironically into the history of typewriters, baking, or open mic standup, and six months later you realize you actually unironically love it.

I even spent a decade running a personal experiment inspired by the anime Golden Boy. I treated low-wage gig work like an art form, moving from graveyard gas station shifts to video rental desks and porn shops, mastering the routine, and quitting the second they offered me a management track. It taught me a weirdly healthy work ethic and gave me incredible perspective, even if I kept the real reason to myself.

i’d never have lived like that if it weren't for the people that scene brought into my life. The train-hopping crust punks, the trust fund kids pretending to be broke, the rich stoners funding weird local business ideas, the VtM and DnD nerds, the goth trans kids, and the ex I probably shouldn't have let go for someone more "normal."

That said, I see where the torch is being passed. There are things I absolutely love about Gen Z and what they’ve brought to the table so far. The obsession with PS1-style indie horror games, the Backrooms, liminal space aesthetics, crazy surreal memes, and that wonderfully misguided, sarcastic attitude. Shoutout to the older Gen Z crowd for Filthy Frank and Pink Guy, too. Alt culture is clearly making a comeback, but it needs a real push beyond just the visual aesthetic.

The heart of what I’m looking for isn't dead. It's lying in wait right now like a sleeping Godzilla beneath the ocean floor, and it just needs a good nudge to fully reawaken.

Look at AI as it exists today, it's fucking amazing for both terrible and incredible reasons. I really hope people start realizing what kind of beast we're dealing with here. Tamed well, it could trigger a genuinely good revolution, or a disastrous one if we mess it up. As a culture, AI is ultimately just a mirror reflecting the humans who made it. So where do we actually want it to go?

To be honest, I kind of hate all of you and what you’ve become ;). Kids, please stop listening to Joe Rogan and whatever grindset podcast host is preaching to you today. Live long and prosper Jon Stewart, and Andrew Callahan needs to be this generation's Jon Stewart (I cannot stress this enough, All Gas No Brakes and Channel 5 are brilliant). He deserves way more attention and love than he receives today! <3

Love, peace, and chicken grease!

*mic drop*

...*picks up mic and puts it back on its pedestal for the opinions of others to be open*

As a millenial, i waa thinking about growing up having to play cds in a friends bedroom while hangin out ie: so fresh or some other compilation cd.

I still get wowed at youtube and other streaming services .... its sooo easy now like wow tech is amazing! i just click and the song i want just plays! Does anyone else get just randomly wowed at tech? Like what makes yall just wow?

I've seen discourse about Zillennials and Millennials and where the years are, and I want to just reiterate, that Late Millennials are Late Millennials.

Late Millennials are 1991/2 - 1996 out of the Pew Range of 1981-1996 (though I think 1980 - 1996 is a very defensible range as 1980 was a kid when the transition to America's hyperpower era began in the early 90s). They're the people who remember 9/11 but it's quite hazy and at the time of it happening, significance of the event wasn't immediately understood in the way it was for middle/high schoolers. They're digital natives (arguably all Millennials are, but it's not really disputed at all for Late Millennials, the evidence/experience is too apparent) and had typing and computer classes in elementary school and got graded on reaching their words per minute and made websites and edited videos for school assignments, and they surfed the web on the home computer in their spare time and played flash games.

During their high school years they either saw the youth culture shift from McBling (2003-2007) to Electropop (2008 - 2012, a very unique time in the culture in how the late 2000s faded into the early 2010s youth pop culture) or only experienced Electropop, got tsunami-ed by social media once Facebook hit high schools in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and saw smartphones steadily rise in use and app culture become normalized (I had a lightsaber app fight with another guy at school for a video back in Fall 2010). They saw Early and Core Millennials get savaged by the Great Recession while Late Millennials were still in high school or middle school, helping to spur the whole "hustle culture" of the 2010s as a reaction. Some got to vote in the 2012 election, the younger ones first got to vote in 2016.

Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Bling Ring, Teen Wolf (though that's getting more into Zillennial territory), Secret Life of the American Teenager, Gossip Girl (Jenny Humphrey especially), and Project X are pop culture representations of this cohort.

There's overlap with either adjacent cohorts, Core Millennials and Older Gen Z, of course, but I want to delineate this group.

Gen Z/ZAlpha teen similarity score

**Teen Years Similarity Index (Reference: 1997 birth year = 100%)**
**Method:** Teen years are divided into:

**Early teens:** ages 13–15 (3 years)
**Late teens:** ages 16–19 (4 years)

Only overlap within the same teen stage is counted.

**1997 teen period:**
Early teens: **2010–2012**

Late teens: **2013–2016**

**Similarity to 1997:**
**1997:** 100% similarity

**1998:** 71.4% similarity

**1999:** 42.9% similarity

**2000:** 14.3% similarity

**2001:** 0% similarity

**2002:** 0% similarity

**2003:** 0% similarity

**2004:** 0% similarity

**2005:** 0% similarity

**2006:** 0% similarity

**2007:** 0% similarity

**2008:** 0% similarity

**2009:** 0% similarity

**2010:** 0% similarity

**2011:** 0% similarity

**2012:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**
A 1997-born person’s teen years span **2010–2016**:
Early teens: **2010–2012**

Late teens: **2013–2016**

Each overlapping year within the same teen stage contributes:
Early teens: **1/7 = 14.3% per year**

Late teens: **1/7 = 14.3% per year**

This shows that later Gen Z cohorts may share the **same cultural era** as earlier cohorts, but not necessarily the same **life stage** when experiencing it.
**Teen Years Similarity Index (Reference: 2001 birth year = 100%)**
**Method:** Teen years are divided into:

**Early teens:** ages 13–15 (3 years)
**Late teens:** ages 16–19 (4 years)

Only overlap within the same teen stage is counted.

**2001 teen period:**
Early teens: **2014–2016**

Late teens: **2017–2020**

**Similarity to 2001:**
**2001:** 100% similarity

**2002:** 71.4% similarity

**2003:** 42.9% similarity

**2004:** 14.3% similarity

**2005:** 0% similarity

**2006:** 0% similarity

**2007:** 0% similarity

**2008:** 0% similarity

**2009:** 0% similarity

**2010:** 0% similarity

**2011:** 0% similarity

**2012:** 0% similarity

**2013:** 0% similarity

**2014:** 0% similarity

**2015:** 0% similarity

**2016:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**
A 2001-born person’s teen years span **2014–2020**:

Early teens: **2014–2016**
Late teens: **2017–2020**

Each shared teen-stage year contributes **14.3%** of the total teen similarity score.
**Teen Years Similarity Index (Reference: 2005 birth year = 100%)**
**Method:** Teen years are divided into:

**Early teens:** ages 13–15 (3 years)
**Late teens:** ages 16–19 (4 years)

Only overlap within the same teen stage is counted.

**2005 teen period:**
Early teens: **2018–2020**

Late teens: **2021–2024**

**Similarity to 2005:**
**2005:** 100% similarity

**2006:** 71.4% similarity

**2007:** 42.9% similarity

**2008:** 14.3% similarity

**2009:** 0% similarity

**2010:** 0% similarity

**2011:** 0% similarity

**2012:** 0% similarity

**2013:** 0% similarity

**2014:** 0% similarity

**2015:** 0% similarity

**2016:** 0% similarity

**2017:** 0% similarity

**2018:** 0% similarity

**2019:** 0% similarity

**2020:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**
A 2005-born person’s teen years span **2018–2024**:

Early teens: **2018–2020**
Late teens: **2021–2024**

Each overlapping teen-stage year contributes **14.3%** of the total teen similarity score.
**Teen Years Similarity Index (Reference: 2009 birth year = 100%)**
**Method:** Teen years are divided into:

**Early teens:** ages 13–15 (3 years)
**Late teens:** ages 16–19 (4 years)

Only overlap within the same teen stage is counted.

**2009 teen period:**
Early teens: **2022–2024**

Late teens: **2025–2028**

**Similarity to 2009:**
**2009:** 100% similarity

**2010:** 71.4% similarity

**2011:** 42.9% similarity

**2012:** 14.3% similarity

**2013:** 0% similarity

**2014:** 0% similarity

**2015:** 0% similarity

**2016:** 0% similarity

**2017:** 0% similarity

**2018:** 0% similarity

**2019:** 0% similarity

**2020:** 0% similarity

**2021:** 0% similarity

**2022:** 0% similarity

**2023:** 0% similarity

**2024:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**
A 2009-born person’s teen years span **2022–2028**:

Early teens: **2022–2024**
Late teens: **2025–2028**

Each shared teen-stage year contributes **14.3%** of the total teen similarity score.
**Teen Years Similarity Index (Reference: 2013 birth year = 100%)**
**Method:** Teen years are divided into:

**Early teens:** ages 13–15 (3 years)
**Late teens:** ages 16–19 (4 years)

Only overlap within the same teen stage is counted.

**2013 teen period:**
Early teens: **2026–2028**

Late teens: **2029–2032**

**Similarity to 2013:**
**2013:** 100% similarity

**2014:** 71.4% similarity

**2015:** 42.9% similarity

**2016:** 14.3% similarity

**2017:** 0% similarity

**2018:** 0% similarity

**2019:** 0% similarity

**2020:** 0% similarity

**2021:** 0% similarity

**2022:** 0% similarity

**2023:** 0% similarity

**2024:** 0% similarity

**2025:** 0% similarity

**2026:** 0% similarity

**2027:** 0% similarity

**2028:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**
A 2013-born person’s teen years span **2026–2032**:
Early teens: **2026–2028**

Late teens: **2029–2032**

Each shared teen-stage year contributes **14.3%** of the total teen similarity score.

If you've ever mused that the politics is different now vs the 90s vs pre-90s, but haven't been able to put your finger exactly *how* (or even if you think you've got the answer to that), then this analysis might interest you.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/23/anton-jager-groundbreaking-book-being-devoured-by-left

Se que es pesado publicar este tipo de cosas pero es que no tenía otro lugar donde desahogarme, como cuando publicaba cosas raras cuando en realidad eso raro era parte de mi depresión que llevo desde principios de año, y realmente me arrepiento de mi mismo de haber desperdiciado estos meses, aunque se que es por la maldita depresión. De verdad no quería dañar a nadie ni mucho menos llamar la atención, solo quería desahogarme de la manera que podía y al parecer terminé cansado a los de este sub, bueno eso supongo porque publique este tipo de publicaciones 22 veces durante 3 meses, y la verdad siento asco, repulsión y rechazo a mi mismo y hasta dudo su es que pueda salir bien después de pensar en ese tipo de cosas al no tener autoestima y estar hecho mierda.

Eso quería decir, nada más, solo no quiero causar nada malo, perdón si fui una molestia por mis posts que los publicaba cada 3 o 4 días, es que había veces en las que sentía que tenía tantas ganas de llorar y de acabar con todo que publicar posts era mi única salida, claramente pude parar, pero no sé si estaré bien en hacer este post o tan siquiera se tomarán en serio lo que estoy diciendo, pero quien lea esto, por favor, lo siento, lo siento muchísimo por haber estado publicando posts tan tristes y tan deprimentes por sentir me había perdido de muchas cosas buenas solo por sentir que lo único bueno era cuando era más peque, osea pensar en el pasado.

Así que con todo esto, puedo decir, por un tiempo, adiós.

:'(

I feel like a majority of Simpsons fans are almost 40 now, it’s aging fanbase is a majority, while millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha love South Park and see it as their edgy cartoon sitcom than the Simpsons

They were born in the year 1900th and die in 2000th. For the majority of the book, they hate each other. There names are Ace and Foy, it's within America

I don't want to give too much away because I'm still doing notes and research but we follow every single year in the century. They were both abandoned at birth in the hospital, a nurse took care for them.

We do follow this nurse for a bit, since we our main character are babies, the nurse dies in the late 1900s and we follow Ace and Foy as they become child miners.

They start a group with the other kids to get out of there and start working on the side doing jobs for different people. This starts to become a gang and they become mobsters. They make enough money to leave the mining job and get a hide out above a dress store.

Some of the guys in the gang, do go to ww1 and die, I'm still not sure if I want Ace or Foy in ww1 or not.

1920s, they become a pretty well known group but in the late 1920s, Ace betrays the group and leaves. Most of them gets arrested, Foy stays in jail for a little amount of time before hes released. He's already rich because of the amount of jobs they've done.

This also takes place on the west coast and during the 1950s, it goes into the east Coast.

There are a lot of characters, as time goes on we follow other people that revolve around Ace and Foy, multiple storylines and changes.

I've made a huge list of media to watch to really immerse myself in every decade. The list is long to cover 100 years, I have to watch multiple films/tv to cover a year.

The list for the 1970s is just ridiculous, I have to watch the wonder years, since the later seasons are 1970-1973)

Mary Tyler moore show (1970-1977)

The deuce season 1 (1971-1972)

There's johnny (1972)

Sanford and son (1972-1977)

The kids are alright (1972-1977)

Quarry (1972)

Licious pizza (1973)

I'm dying up here (1973-1974)

The runaways (1975-1977)

SNL (1975-till 2000)

Swing town (1976)

That 70s show only season 1 to 5 (1976-1978)

Dazed and confused (1976)

Charlie's angles (1976-1981)

There's company (1977-1984)

The deuce season 2 (1977-1978)

Junior high (1978)

Dallas show (only for 1978-1980)

Mind hunter (1978-1981)

As you can see a lot of this stuff overlaps, so I got watch the shows between the movies. The other decades are way easier, it's the 70s that has the most media and the most that overlaps.

You might think this is unnecessary to watch media that takes place through the entire 20th century but I wanna feel like I'm in the decade to immerse the characters and be accurate.

There's also a real focus on media, on entertainment and fashion. Ace and Foy don't really get into media untill the 1930s, but even before that there base was above a dreas shop. I'm the 1930s, Foy gets more into Hollywood and making films, while Ace opens a news paper stand

Also Foy has multiple partners thoughout the years and Ace sticks with just one

The decade that I have the hardest to find media is actually the 1900s, there's a big gap with media. Not a lot of things take place with in 1900s.

I also wanna focus on someone young within every decade, so we get a feeling of what it's like growing up in that decade. There's a focus on nostalgia too, multiple people get nostalgia for the past. Especially Foy in the late 60s, crying to a hippie because some woman looked like a flapper from the 1920s.

Eventually when this is finished, your gonna feel like you've lived 100 years

Because the 1950s did have really high suicide rates, clearly it wasn't all that good for everyone when you look at how many people died

I feel like Gen X is still mostly considered in their 40s and 50s since the oldest is only 61, only the very oldest are barely past 60 and there are more Gen X in their late 40s

But when do you think people will begin to see Gen X as in their 50s and 60s instead of associating them in their 40s and 50s

Asking people born in the late 70s, 80s, 90s, and very early 2000s basically meaning from 1977 to 2002 as this range goes from the oldest of Xennials to youngest of Zillennials according to a recent post by CBS News. Since you grew up in a bridge between an analog and digital world and are all 25-49 currently tell something on your childhood's which is too outdated today or too modern for people older than 50 today.

Older Gen Z childhood similarity chart

**Childhood Similarity Index (Reference: 1997 birth year = 100%)**

*Method: Childhood is split into early childhood (ages 3–7) and early adolescence (ages 8–12). Only overlap within the same developmental stage is counted.*

**1997:** 100% similarity  

**1998:** 80% similarity  

**1999:** 60% similarity  

**2000:** 40% similarity  

**2001:** 20% similarity  

**2002:** 0% similarity  

**2003:** 0% similarity  

**2004:** 0% similarity  

**2005:** 0% similarity  

**2006:** 0% similarity  

**2007:** 0% similarity  

**2008:** 0% similarity  

**2009:** 0% similarity  

**2010:** 0% similarity  

**2011:** 0% similarity  

**2012:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**

1997 childhood stages:  

Early childhood: **2000–2004**  

Early adolescence: **2005–2009**  

Each overlapping year within the same stage counts as **10%** of the total childhood similarity (10 childhood years total).

Middle Gen Z Childhood similarity chart

**Middle Gen Z Childhood Similarity Index (Reference: 2002 birth year = 100%)**  

**Method:** Childhood is divided into:

**Early childhood:** ages 3–7 (5 years)  

**Early adolescence:** ages 8–12 (5 years)

Only overlap within the same developmental stage is counted.

**2002 childhood period:**  

Early childhood: **2005–2009**  

Early adolescence: **2010–2014**

**Similarity to 2002:**  

**2002:** 100% similarity  

**2003:** 80% similarity  

**2004:** 60% similarity  

**2005:** 40% similarity  

**2006:** 20% similarity  

**2007:** 0% similarity  

**2008:** 0% similarity  

**2009:** 0% similarity  

**2010:** 0% similarity  

**2011:** 0% similarity  

**2012:** 0% similarity  

**2013:** 0% similarity  

**2014:** 0% similarity  

**2015:** 0% similarity  

**2016:** 0% similarity  

**2017:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**  

A 2002-born person’s childhood spans **2005–2014**. Each shared year within the same developmental stage equals **10%** of the total similarity score.

Younger Gen Z childhood similarity chart

**Younger Gen Z Childhood Similarity Index (Reference: 2007 birth year = 100%)**

**Method:** Childhood is divided into:  

**Early childhood:** ages 3–7 (5 years)  

**Early adolescence:** ages 8–12 (5 years)

Only overlap within the same developmental stage is counted.

**2007 childhood period:**  

Early childhood: **2010–2014**  

Early adolescence: **2015–2019**

**Similarity to 2007:**  

**2007:** 100% similarity  

**2008:** 80% similarity  

**2009:** 60% similarity  

**2010:** 40% similarity  

**2011:** 20% similarity  

**2012:** 0% similarity  

**2013:** 0% similarity  

**2014:** 0% similarity  

**2015:** 0% similarity  

**2016:** 0% similarity  

**2017:** 0% similarity  

**2018:** 0% similarity  

**2019:** 0% similarity  

**2020:** 0% similarity  

**2021:** 0% similarity  

**2022:** 0% similarity

**Calculation basis:**  

A 2007-born person’s childhood spans **2010–2019**:  

Early childhood: **2010–2014**  

Early adolescence: **2015–2019**

Each shared year within the same developmental stage equals **10%** of the total similarity score.

**Similarity to 2012:**

**2012:** 100% similarity  

**2013:** 80% similarity  

**2014:** 60% similarity  

**2015:** 40% similarity  

**2016:** 20% similarity  

**2017:** 0% similarity

The younger generations think homeownership is GOD

I keep hearing this where is this coming from?

My daughter asked me this samething last night considering she is now thinking about home ownership. She's only 20.

Like I told her

1. You're pretty young and I mean you don't want to own a house just to own it. You wanna own a house in an area where you honestly wanna live for say the next thirty years.

YES 30 YEARS AT LEAST

You want to own a house that you can afford, but also at the same time that you're willing to put in the workforce, because I'm going to tell you homeownership is not easy.

People are putting it on a pedestal.

Infact i have owned this house for now twelve years and I just spent nine hundred dollars on a new hot water heater.

I have one bathroom needs a new toilet , and that's gonna cost another three hundred dollars. The other is fine.

Plus property taxes , which they are due every may and november

It is not easy at all.It will never get easier.And I guess these younger people think that homeownership means everything gets easier.It doesn't.

I told them about FHA loans now.In case you don't know about those type of loans , they are based more around your income. Now it's not completely without credit.Yes, they do check your credit to a point.But it's not as heavily based on your credit alone.

It is also based upon job security.Now I've had my job for god , I think forever now. But whereas the younger generation loves to job hop to get ahead , this is false!

In fact on loan qpplications one of the big things that does damage you isn't your credit, isn't your income although all are important It's your stability , and if you're constantly job hopping , you're not going to show that.

Talk about pay raises..how you'll never get one...FALSE...YOU JUST DON'T WANNA WAIT...I just got a pay raise after another few YEARS!

1. The down-payment now FHA has a few ways to knock that down.

AND NO I DIDN'T GET CRAP when my mom died. I was actually thankful! I have done all this on my own less than 20 per hour.

I just wanna know....why do the young kids think homeownership is like god?

At least with renting ya don't have to fork out 900 for a water heater

Or 200 bucks a pop property taxes and that's LOW some people pay 3-4 grand every 6 months.

If it's about how people can't take it away lol ASK SOMEONE WHO DIDN'T PAY THEIR PROPERTY TAXES...oh yes the state takes it away.

I found this on tiktok and I disagree with this take to me the dominant childhood in the 2010’s is 2004-2011.

You came of age in a world that often seemed to be changing faster than anyone could understand. You lived through war, protest, economic upheaval, cultural revolution, technological transformation, and the slow disappearance of many institutions that once seemed permanent. Again and again, the world asked you to adapt, and again and again, you did.

You learned how to build lives without many of the conveniences that later generations would take for granted. You worked long careers, raised families, cared for aging parents, endured recessions, layoffs, illness, grief, and uncertainty. Many of you carried burdens quietly because that was what you were taught to do. You kept going, even when recognition was scarce and the future felt unstable.

Your generation witnessed extraordinary change, from rotary phones to smartphones, from paper maps to satellites, from local news to a world connected instantly. You did not merely observe these transformations. You adjusted to them, often while maintaining homes, relationships, responsibilities, and communities. That flexibility deserves more respect than it is often given.

You also preserved many forms of knowledge that cannot be downloaded or learned quickly: how to repair what is broken, how to remain steady during hard times, how to make do, how to save, how to wait, how to show up, and how to carry on when there is no easy solution.

No generation is without mistakes, but a generation should not be reduced to its mistakes. Yours contains millions of complicated lives, private sacrifices, hard-earned lessons, and acts of courage that were never recorded. Behind every broad judgment are individuals who survived things they rarely spoke about and built lives with whatever materials history handed them.

Thank you for the roads you traveled before us. Thank you for the work you completed without applause. Thank you for the families, neighborhoods, businesses, institutions, and traditions you sustained. Thank you for the resilience you demonstrated, often imperfectly, but persistently.

Your experiences matter. Your stories matter. The strength it took to live through your particular stretch of history matters.

With admiration and affection,

A grateful successor

Millennials are getting endlessly mocked and made fun of these days. They seem to have developed a reputation for being annoying and cringe.

Things like "adulting," quirky bacon humor, smol doggo chungus type speech have all become associated with millennials. Even people who are millennials often joke about how embarrassing parts of their own generation can be.

Why did millennials end up with this reputation more than other generations? Is it because they were the first generation to actually like, document their lives on social media, so all of their quirky trends are preserved?