MILLENNIALS: THE NEW ONLINE DINO-SAURS

Those born between 1980 and 1996 are already past their sell-by-date. Generation Z is now in charge.

Millennials… Even typing that word takes one back to 2012. Pampered by sociologists and marketing gurus, the generation born between 1980 and 1996 is now the object of ridicule on TikTok, where the latest generational battle is being waged. The millennial pause (#MillennialPause) is among the latest sendups. Those who are now 20 make videos imitating the bewilderment of a 30- or 40-year-old millennial in front of the camera. They press play and simulate a pause before starting to speak. Those two seconds, they say, give them away. A genuine Z knows that the TikTok camera is always rolling.

Generation Z is totally abreast of age-revealing behavior, which includes posting stories on Instagram and having the lyrics of a song show up – don’t millennials know how to hide them? Or using GIFs to make jokes. Or starting videos with images of idyllic landscapes, taking a selfie from above, ordering your social media bio in the form of a list, making puns in Instagram captions, making faces at the camera, constantly talking about yourself, overacting and dramatizing every incident (Generation Z consider themselves to be much more chilled). TikTok parodies, including tutorials on how to avoid being caught in a millennial gesture, mark the end of an era.

Is the internet accelerating our irrelevance? Is the relentless succession of generational labels – X, millennials, Z, alpha – shortening our minute of glory of being sociologically desirable? Oriol Bartomeus, a professor of political science at Barcelona’s Autonomous University, points out that there is no single valid way of categorizing social groups.

Whether you’re Generation X, millennial or a lucky Gen Z is of no consequence. You’ll never be anything for long.

Karelia Vázquez