Baby Boomer. Generation X. Millennial. Generation Z. Generation Alpha.

We sure love to put people in neat'n'tidy little boxes, huh?

As Adam Conover has so rightly pointed out, previous generations often measured cultural trends—the zeitgeist—in terms of decades, not generations.

The 60s. The 70s. The 80s.

But at some point, seemingly with the rise of the Internet and the turn of the millennium, decades went out and generations came in.

And with generational distinctions come brand-new culture wars. Baby boomers vs. Gen X. Millennials vs. Gen Z. Baby boomers vs. well, like, everyone else. 😜

But don't worry. Though I'm an (elder) Millennial who was born in the early 80s, I won't be spending much time today trashing the olds (after all, you know what you did…heh). Instead, I'll be trashing my own generation. LOL! That's right fellow Millennials: BRACE YOURSELVES!

(I kid, I kid. Mostly…)

(Also, a lot of what I'll be discussing here may be U.S.-centric because that's what I know as an American. But some of these same trends do hold up elsewhere.)

Before we continue. . .

Some other creative efforts o' mine around the interwebs:

• Like How Am I So Prolific? (Fresh Fusion Podcast)
• Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author Has Returned (Creator Class Newsletter)
• Slop-Free Software is So Hot Right Now (Vibe Coded Podcast)
• Sharing the Love of the Love of Art (Personal Essay)
• Any Sane Person in Computers Right Now: “Are We the Baddies?” (The Internet Review)

Are you revisiting the role computer technology should (and should not!) play in our lives? Stay in the loop with my newsletter Cycles Hyped No More:

Yes We Can

As Millennials burst onto the scene in a big way a decade and a half or so ago, it felt like there was so much promise. It was a wide open field. And such a vibe shift played out in a big way politically with the successful election of the first black president in American history. As Pew Research wrote in 2010:

Politically, Millennials were among Barack Obama’s strongest supporters in 2008, backing him for president by more than a two-to-one ratio (66% to 32%) while older adults were giving just 50% of their votes to the Democratic nominee. This was the largest disparity between younger and older voters recorded in four decades of modern election day exit polling. Moreover, after decades of low voter participation by the young, the turnout gap in 2008 between voters under and over the age of 30 was the smallest it had been since 18- to 20-year-olds were given the right to vote in 1972.

It truly was an historic moment. Even I, as a homeschooled Christian young man at the time deep in the throes of my parents' slide into conservative Republicanism, was legitimately impressed by Barack Obama's campaign.

Yet we Millennials took all that hopenchange and did, well, what with it exactly?

Are we living in a glorious new age of progressive liberal values, with a healthy green planet, affordable healthcare for all, peace in our time, civil rights for every class of person young & old, rich & poor, queer or straight, white or brown, etc. and so on and so forth?

Yeahhhhh… Turns out, life doesn't work like that. Every generation, every age has to deal with a multiplex of competing forces, unexpected setbacks, disruptive technological breakthroughs, and all sorts of messy bits which guarantee any sort of sudden utopia is an impossibility.

It was always destined that Millennials would "fail"; ludicrous to imagine we'd somehow show up on stage in our black t-shirts and skinny jeans and hipster haircuts and somehow, through sheer bravado and TED talk-like delivery, convince the world that human foibles are no longer an issue, politics have forever changed, and shiny new technology will save the world.

But to be honest, I don't blame Millennials for our failure, not really. I only blame us for believing the hype in the first place. Real lasting change, if possible (as an an eternal optimist, I always believe it's possible), happens through circumspect difficult work behind the scenes over many years in the intersections between diverse communities–not thanks to a groovy pitch deck or a values-aligned org chart.

Some people have claimed that it's not fair to point the finger at Millennials for dropping the ball with hopenchange because the real problem is that old people won't give up power! If only we could get rid of all the old people, everything would be great. 💪

I must confess I used to believe this too—to a certain degree. Screw those old people for messing up the planet! It's up to us fresh-faced radicals to take control and clean everything up.

There's only one problem with that idea.

Guess who's in power right now?

People like Mark Zuckerberg. Sam Altman. Stephen Miller. Karoline "Machine Gun Lips" Leavitt. (Heck, she's arguably Gen Z!)

Hate to break it to you, but we can't keep blaming the olds for our problems. It's time to uncover the real culprit.

And the Cycle Repeats Itself

Just as I was getting comfortable with the idea that us Millennials with a progressive bent need to get a lot more serious about taking and wielding cultural and political power in such a way that it's actually meaningful (which as I mentioned requires a lot of humility and broad coalition building, not showing up with a smartphone and a perky attitude), it seems like we're being bombarded with a whole lot of media messaging concerning the next generation.

Gen Z this. Gen Z that. Gen Z entering politics. Gen Z entering the workforce. Gen Z cheating with AI. Gen Z affecting what gets talked about online, what goes viral.

And, perhaps most disturbingly, I'm seeing a lot of chatter about Millennials vs. Gen Z. 💥🥊

Gen Z talks funny. Gen Z dresses weird. Gen Z has "the stare". Gen Z doesn't know what to do outside and away from a touchscreen. And ZOMG, what is wrong with Gen Z men?! Looksmaxxing??

Gee, it appears right when we Millennials were finally on the verge of getting our shit together, these young(er) people show up to discombobulate everything all over again.

🙋🏻‍♂️ Question:

How much of this is any actual phenomenon rooted in an objective reality versus an absurdist media narrative, a fantasy engineered to distract us from the real truth?

Truth: Millennials (particularly the younger cohort) and Gen Z (particularly the older cohort), when combined, ARE THE LARGEST POLITICAL AND CULTURAL FORCE IN EXISTENCE TODAY!! 🤯

And lo and behold, both Millennials & Gen Z lean overwhelmingly progressive!

Now before you start shouting at your screen that the Democratic Party is not all that popular (hence the results of the 2024 presidential election), let me be very clear. Progressive politics don't always translate to a particular party affiliation. Lest we forget: Trump ran a populist message in 2024 which resonated with a whole lot of people who were mad at the elites! He claimed he'd bring manufacturing back to local areas hurt by C-suite driven globalization, lower the costs of everyday goods, stop overseas wars (boo neocons!), and root out all the corruption in Washington, D.C.

We as progressives weren't saying those are bad ideas. (Certainly we shouldn't have been!) We were saying Trump is a congenital liar who will never make good on those promises! And we were right. Trump failed to bring manufacturing back in any meaningful way, instead levying awful tariffs which hurt local economies. He failed to lower the costs of goods and fight inflation. He is the very definition of corruption. And he has started numerous overseas wars! As I write this very newsletter, Trump's threatening to bomb Iran back to the stone age!

But I'm not here to relitigate the 2024 presidential election. What I'm trying to say is that media claims that Gen Z men lurched wildly into conservative territory—simply because they were more likely to vote for Trump in 2024—is nonsense. And now we're seeing plenty of polls indicating that the supposed hold Republicans have over Gen Z is rapidly evaporating. In fact, a significant percentage of both Millennials and Gen Z consider themselves independents without any particular affiliation with either U.S. political party. That is not good news for MAGA. At all.

Here's what's really going on.

Millennials + Gen Z is a MASSIVE Combo

Just look at this population distribution chart by Statista:

Millennials are the largest cohort in America. And guess who's right behind them?? Yep, it's Gen Z.

So if it's true that Millennials have historically leaned progressive and the "right-wing bump" of Gen Z circa 2024 is turning out to be a very temporary phenomenon, could it be that maybe—just maybe!—the billionaire Epstein class is scared shitless that everyone between the ages of 18 to 45 stands ready to seize power and transform our culture in a big, big way? A Zohran Mamdani sort of way?

So, how do you fight that if you have more money than god and you want to keep the masses in their place?

Simple. It's an age old trick: divide and conquer.

Perhaps, I dunno, you roll out insipid trash such as this ridiculous Buzzfeed article:

"It Kills Me": Millennials Are Sharing The "Awful" Gen Z Trends That Are Genuinely Concerning

So recently, we asked the millennials and Gen X'ers of the BuzzFeed Community to share the Gen Z trends they just "can't stand" — ones they think we'll regret in a few years. And the responses are pretty wild! Here's what people said:

OK, so what did they say?

WHO THE FUCK CARES??!!

But in the interests of…journalism, or something, I will try to take this commentary seriousl—

“I swear, Gen Z does not own any regular pants. Almost every younger person I work with shows up in pajama pants on a regular basis…”

WELL FUCK ME !! 🤪

Sorry, I can't take any of this seriously. Not one bit. It is a total and utter waste of time to talk about "Gen Z trolls people online" or "Gen Z doesn't care about family heirlooms" or "Gen Z aren't able to make or maintain eye contact" (wait what? I thought we were supposed to be worried about the Gen Z stare?!)

Hey asshats in media, how about writing a different sort of headline? Like, oh I dunno, something like this:

“Millennials & Gen Z Team Up to Take Down the Billionaire Epstein Class, and Also Make Public Transit Free and Provide Housing to the Unhoused in a Shocking Rebuke of Unfettered Capitalism (and Also Buy More Vinyl at Local Record Stores)”

Is that really so hard to ask? 😂

I Just Wanna Be Z

I have a confession to make.

I think young people slay (desperately hoping I used that right!), and I want to be one of them.

I am fiercely protective of young people. If I catch anyone on social media talking shit about Gen Z or whatever, my claws come out. Because I firmly believe it's a cynically made-up culture war (as are most culture wars, let's be honest).

Millennials & Gen Z have far more in common than we have differences. And I think that's genuinely frightening to rich bastards and bad actors who rightly recognize the power our generations have at our fingertips…if only we could wake up and emerge from the fog of cynical propaganda.

I was recently talking to a young man who goes to the same school as my teen. He was very bright, extremely motivated, and asked me some fun questions about my career as a computer programmer (because he's currently working on an indie game). If I'm being truthful, he really reminded me of myself at that age. 😂 (Which is exactly what my teen told me: "Oh you'll like him Dad, he's a lot like you!")

And y'know what? Not once did I think I should spend one iota of effort worrying about his haircut, or how he dressed, or if he has a funny stare or pronounces some word oddly or any of that other dumb stuff. None of that matters! And if any of my fellow Millennials are seriously getting hung up on trivialities like that, I challenge you to put down the spit-take and spend a bit of time in thoughtful contemplation on what YOU might be doing instead to mentor this next generation.

For as long as I can remember, I have always felt like a fish out of water. Because when I was young I vibed well with much older people, and now that I'm older myself I find I vibe well with younger people. Maybe that's because I have always been intensely curious what makes people tick who seem different from myself—especially if they're passionate about a topic I know little about. Their passion rubs off on me and suddenly I get very excited about it as well.

And that's the case with how I feel about Gen Z. I'm not here to sneer and take potshots. I'm here to learn. And, ultimately, I'm here to team up. Perhaps this is partially due to the fact I'm a father of a teen and pre-teen, and I want to be there for them in the way I wished some older people I once knew had been there for me: not to demand I conform to their expectations of me, but to encourage me and gently challenge me to grow into the best version of myself.

Ultimately, I want Gen Z to let their freak flag fly, surprising and delighting the world with their weird and wonderful (and queer 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️) ways…as every generation has done since the dawn of humanity. I reject all intergenerational culture wars! That's a stupid and pointless fight. As the saying goes, we're all stronger and more successful if we work together.

And despite what any chucklehead on social media or in the news might say, I'll defend the kids ’till my dying day.

Because the kids? They're alright. 😁

💬 Discuss this essay on the Human Web Collective ➡️

Thank you for reading Cycles Hyped No More. Join Intuitive+ and support my independent publishing, and please share with a friend! See you here next week.

Jared ✌️

🤔🌩️ Things that make you think:

Young leaders have watched previous generations get stuck in gridlock, and they’re tired of the lack of action. Many Americans have become disillusioned with politics, but when we elevate young leaders who are curious, open-minded, and not convinced there’s only one “right” answer, we inspire more young people to participate in democratic life.

Young people have also been burned by party politics. They aren’t loyal to party brands in the way earlier generations were, which you can see in the larger numbers who register without a party affiliation.

American institutions aren’t set up for young people. They’re designed for those who are retired or independently wealthy, and legislative schedules are rarely conducive to family or work obligations. We can fix that by providing training for lawmakers.

–Gen Z and Millennials Turn to Collaboration as the Path to Better Governance