bighasbeen: Youth culture expert Melanie Shreffler said that today's high school students are part of the "millennial generation" - those born between 1982 and 2004 who grew up with technology and social media and find it perfectly natural to post their experiences and opinions online for mass consumption.

Whoa, time the fark out. I was born in 1982. Most of my "growing up" was done in a time without widespread cable TV much less widespread internet, cell phones and before 9/11. I work at a library where we have undergraduate student employees and very few, if any, can remember a time without cell phones and the internet. I don't think you can put people born over a 22 year span into the same "generation". Would you say that people born in 1958 are in the same generation as those born in 1980?

You want to know how to break apart that time span? Ask this simple question:

Did you (or a majority of your friends) ever own a pager?

If yes, go to group 1 (1978-1988)
If no, go to group 2 (1989-2004)

We had this discussion earlier this week about this very thing- a 30 year old doesn't exactly have the same mindset as today's 7 year old. Bit of a gap there, I'd put the cutoff at about 1995-1996 on the low end.

After getting regular sex, this romance crap gets old real fast.

Make me a sammich!

Parking the van at the curb and offering free candy still works, though, right?

And woe to those who text their question.

Camille, the Van Nuys student, said that gutless way ranks right down there with getting someone else to ask for you.

"I want it to be heartfelt," she said of an invitation. "I want to know they have the courage to face me and all of my friends."

Man, that chick is really aggressive about passively waiting for someone else to take the initiative in starting a relationship.

I bet this "aggressive passiveness" serves her well in achieving many deep, meaningful, happy relationships in the future, and never becomes a distinct pop-psychology phrase describing people that drive off every desirable partner via borderline sociopathy.

Ah yes. The Tae Kwon Do style of dating.

I get the sense that the "snowflake generation", or whatever the current generation is called, will want their death to be choreographed and videotaped. And whenever they're hired, and when they're fired for not knowing how to show up on time for work, and not knowing the difference between their, there, and they're.

Heck, they'll want to post their first copulation on youtube.

Because it's all about them, amiright?

Other than senior prom, my school never had dates for school dances. Though, they weren't considered "formals", they were just dances. Over the time I was there, the dress code when from dress shirt and pants to anything without holes. I recall my older sister buying dresses for dances, I don't think that happened during my time.

bighasbeen:

Did you (or a majority of your friends) ever own a pager?


Had a pager with a broken screen that distorted the last two digits of an incoming number, had to use guess work hehe.

Anyways, I was caught up on the overly large age grouping for 'millennials' as well. Another 1982'er here and I'd even say I identify more with Gen X than Y.

As for the rest of the article, it made me feel all punchy.
"I want to know they have the courage to face me and all of my friends."

If the girls expect this for a simple school dance, what are they going to expect on each (progressive) valentine's day... let alone for an engagement proposal o_O

bighasbeen: Youth culture expert Melanie Shreffler said that today's high school students are part of the "millennial generation" - those born between 1982 and 2004 who grew up with technology and social media and find it perfectly natural to post their experiences and opinions online for mass consumption.

Whoa, time the fark out. I was born in 1982. Most of my "growing up" was done in a time without widespread cable TV much less widespread internet, cell phones and before 9/11. I work at a library where we have undergraduate student employees and very few, if any, can remember a time without cell phones and the internet. I don't think you can put people born over a 22 year span into the same "generation". Would you say that people born in 1958 are in the same generation as those born in 1980?

You want to know how to break apart that time span? Ask this simple question:

Did you (or a majority of your friends) ever own a pager?

If yes, go to group 1 (1978-1988)
If no, go to group 2 (1989-2004)

The pager is an interesting delineater(and, yes, I had one). Works in a way, but I don't know. I was born in early 83, and I identify with late x'ers more than early y'ers(and I'm not a goddamned millenial). End of x goes anywhere from 80 to 82, with a few references saying 83(I've heard it said that if you remember the USSR, as well, which I do). I prefer to call myself an x'er based on traits, definitely if they're now lumping me in with those idiots entering the workforce today.

Skr: As for the rest of the article, it made me feel all punchy.
"I want to know they have the courage to face me and all of my friends."

[www.stuffwelike.com image 518x376]

Make it last forever. Friendship never ends.

And THIS is why prostitution will NEVER go away.

Phno: If the girls expect this for a simple school dance, what are they going to expect on each (progressive) valentine's day... let alone for an engagement proposal o_O

To be fair, you (should) grow up a lot between being a jackass teenager and being ready for marriage, one would hope. So the girl that's all "only seven bouquets of roses? no, i'll never go to prom with you" at 14 may be all "eh, I don't need a dress and a priest, I hear they sell announcement cards in a shop by the justice of the peace" at 28.

Wow. I feel bad for teens today. As bad as it was before, the need to raise the production level to absurd was minimal. All that just to go to a dance. No guarantees of any schtupping afterwards, too. (I'd imagine nowadays, with all the freely available porn, getting some booty is easier than asking someone out to a dance.)

/No sex please, it might lead to a date to the formal dance

And so the ways of the Metrosexuals continues....

/Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

//Women still love getting banged up against the headboard.

///No Metrosexual is gonna do that.

////And it is because of that I will always get laid.

/\\\\Always.

\\////Cheers!

Bazinga In My Pants: And so the ways of the Metrosexuals continues....

/Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

//Women still love getting banged up against the headboard.

///No Metrosexual is gonna do that.

////And it is because of that I will always get laid.

/\\\\Always.

\\////Cheers!

Bwahaha. Are you juxtaposing a Big Bang Theory based profile with metrosexuality?

Lligeret: Is it weird that I never asked any of my girlfriends out and they never asked me out?

Maybe it is just me, you are friends with someone if you two get along you start spending more and more time together, and then a couple months down the road you both just kind of realize you are actually dating, usually because someone you have not seen in a long time says something like "how long have you two been going out?" and then you both realize shiat when the fark did this happen.

and there you have my wife and I

born way before hipity-hop.

Did the article mention how doing something like this for someone who doesn't reciprocate those feels gets the performer at least labelled as a 'stalker' with possible counselling and restraining orders.

Remember:

1. Be handsome
2. Be attractive
3. Dont be unattractive

82-04 is based on Strauss/Howe's generational theory ("Turning" concept). While I have not read their work, personally I'm content to break up "generations" into groups of 9 years, with the behavior of a particular group being echoed every 3 cycles:

1945-53, 54-62, 63-71, 72-80, 81-89, 90-98, etc.

This probably results from ~25 being the average first age of becoming a parent, with any given child's parent's age probably being about 27 at birth (yeah, I know, grammar). Take a look at, for example, how these groups correspond with who gets sent off to die in wars, who was responsible for disco / cocaine fueled 80s / recent financial crisis, and what kind of parents each of these groups had. It's not perfect, but from what I've seen, those born in the middle of each span are by and large very characteristic of their entire "decade".

As far as tech is concerned, I think '81 and beyond pretty much grew up with computers in the home, were heavy IM users, etc. How many people born in the 70s are heavy text message users?

batcookie: I am still trying to figure out the point of all this nonsense. Seriously? It's a freaking school dance. And you're not trying to show "how romantic" you are, you're being an attention whore.

But in any case, I agree that 1980s kids are definitely not millenials.

At first, when I read tfa, I thought, "what a bunch of assholes. It's the prom, get over it." BUT... Think about being 17-18 in high school. The prom was a huge deal and very important at the time. You can look back years later and see how silly and meaningless it actually was, or you can remember how foolish you were at that age.

Let them do their thing. It's creative and fun but also harmless and there are worse things they could be spending their time. And yes, it's pretty stupid, but so what?

Marcintosh: Lligeret: Is it weird that I never asked any of my girlfriends out and they never asked me out?

Maybe it is just me, you are friends with someone if you two get along you start spending more and more time together, and then a couple months down the road you both just kind of realize you are actually dating, usually because someone you have not seen in a long time says something like "how long have you two been going out?" and then you both realize shiat when the fark did this happen.

and there you have my wife and I

born way before hipity-hop.

My wife and I were kind of the same way... We just hung out a lot. Over time, we grew closer (I know, that's sappy), eventually making out one night. A couple of days after that, she asked "So, I suppose this means that we're dating now, huh?". Yup. And so the story goes.

/ Also born in 1982
// High school sweethearts
/// Yes, those do work out sometimes
//// No, despite what nearly everyone told us would happen, we didn't break up the first month at college

You can always go the route of offering the girl your parents money in exchange for an evening of her life and a small portion of her dignity.

Lligeret: Is it weird that I never asked any of my girlfriends out and they never asked me out?

Maybe it is just me, you are friends with someone if you two get along you start spending more and more time together, and then a couple months down the road you both just kind of realize you are actually dating, usually because someone you have not seen in a long time says something like "how long have you two been going out?" and then you both realize shiat when the fark did this happen.

Yeah, my first love first relationship happened kind of like that. She asked me to the soph-hop and three weeks later, after hanging out every day, holding hands, kissing, she's like "Why haven't you asked me out?" and I was like, "Um, I didnt't know I had to. I thought we were dating? Am I wrong?"
Except it was much more awkard. We ended up being together for almost 2 years, but... Girls are insane.

Everything is Awful: batcookie: I am still trying to figure out the point of all this nonsense. Seriously? It's a freaking school dance. And you're not trying to show "how romantic" you are, you're being an attention whore.

But in any case, I agree that 1980s kids are definitely not millenials.

At first, when I read tfa, I thought, "what a bunch of assholes. It's the prom, get over it." BUT... Think about being 17-18 in high school. The prom was a huge deal and very important at the time. You can look back years later and see how silly and meaningless it actually was, or you can remember how foolish you were at that age.

Let them do their thing. It's creative and fun but also harmless and there are worse things they could be spending their time. And yes, it's pretty stupid, but so what?

I'd go even further, actually. I'd say that it isn't really silly and meaningless.

Even though none of the exaggerated fears and distress that teenagers worry about comes to fruition, and most of their triumphs don't actually mean much in any tangible sense the second they leave HS, that doesn't mean that the things they did were meaningless. Everything we do shapes us as people, especially those young experiences where we learn to deal with emotions like disappointment and love, learn to deal with relationships and friends, and everything else that teenagers worry about.

Even if it doesn't influence what job you get after college, even if you don't marry your high school sweetheart, even if none of HS drama we get into contributes to putting us in the place we get to at age 35, all of those things still contribute to the type of person we become and, if nothing else, the memories we have to look back on.

I think people put way too much emphasis on tangibles when it comes to deciding what matters in life and what doesn't, and not enough people value, or are even in touch with, what it was like to be a kid or a teenager.

So, I guess it's still up to the guy to do the asking?

Whats up with that asian kids head? looks like a freak'n lightbulb

I first noticed this kind of trend going to the weddings of children of friends of ours. The announced "red carpet" entrance to the wedding reception/banquet, and seeing the same thing for high school proms.

Psychological research since the time of Erickson has shown a tendency for adolescents to have what has been dubbed an "imagined audience"... Now that we've given them a real audience, we've discouraged them from growing out of this childish, self-centered behavior.

I need to read up on this, before the kid gets into adolescence.

FTA: "I nearly fainted," Brooke Drury said about the way Alex Hom invited her to South Pasadena High School's winter formal, which included a choreographed a dance routine .

More like Alex Homo. 'M'rite? Fellas? Fellas? 'M'rite?

TFA: So he rounded up more than 20 friends, supplied them with red roses, choreographed a dance routine and wrote out his plea on signs. Then he had a friend bring Brooke, blindfolded, to a spot on campus for the big production.

Just me, or did I not first see that... er.. hear about that, as the opening scene for "Glee Gang Bang 28"?

Notabunny: Parking the van at the curb and offering free candy still works, though, right?
.
.

Lewis: [planning the party] Do any of you have dates, besides Gilbert?
Lamar Latrell, Tri-Lam: I do!
Booger: Yeah, but that's with a guy.
Lewis: Well, what about you, Booger?
Booger: I've been out combing the High Schools all day...

batcookie:

I found this pdf for ya, it covers a good range of psychosocial developmental theories, including Erikson's.
Link (new window)

Thanks.

bighasbeen: Youth culture expert Melanie Shreffler said that today's high school students are part of the "millennial generation" - those born between 1982 and 2004 who grew up with technology and social media and find it perfectly natural to post their experiences and opinions online for mass consumption.

Whoa, time the fark out. I was born in 1982. Most of my "growing up" was done in a time without widespread cable TV much less widespread internet, cell phones and before 9/11. I work at a library where we have undergraduate student employees and very few, if any, can remember a time without cell phones and the internet. I don't think you can put people born over a 22 year span into the same "generation". Would you say that people born in 1958 are in the same generation as those born in 1980?

You want to know how to break apart that time span? Ask this simple question:

Did you (or a majority of your friends) ever own a pager?

If yes, go to group 1 (1978-1988)
If no, go to group 2 (1989-2004)

I broke your test. I should fall into group 1 but I never owned a pager and I only had 1 friend that had one. In fact, I doubt more than 20 or 30 kids in the entire high school did and we had around 1,000 students. And it wasn't like we were a group that wasn't behind on technology either. Quite a few of us were active on local BBSes. For a long time I knew more people with modems than cell phones.

Born in 77. I consider myself as part of the Commodore 64 generation. We are the ones for whom a computer was first a mainstream, household item.

What they're simply saying is the generation brought up on Rap Music is flashy? That's mint.

Whatever happened to peer pressure and your dickless buddies daring you to actually go talk to a girl?