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Pew Research Center defines the millennial cutoff—and everyone’s fighting about it

If you were born after 1996, sorry. You’re not a millennial.

Photo of Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly

The millennial cutoff period has been defined.

We’ve been calling people who are in their early 20s to mid-30s “millennials” for a while now. As of this week, though, we have a new official millennial cutoff period: people born between 1981 and 1996. People born in 1997 and later are considered “post-millennials.”

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On Thursday, the Pew Research Center tweeted about their decision:

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The comment thread on the tweet was filled with many bitter responses from people who claimed not to care about the millennial distinction to people who refused to be classified as millennials.

https://twitter.com/spencerwindes/status/969292168010452994

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Some people were very excited that they didn’t make the millennial cut.

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The next generation is vaguely referred to as post-millennial. According to Pew, it’s still too early to give the generation a name (though many have been calling this Gen Z for years):

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Since the oldest among this rising generation are just turning 21 this year, and most are still in their teens, we think it’s too early to give them a name – though The New York Times asked readers to take a stab – and we look forward to watching as conversations among researchers, the media and the public help a name for this generation take shape. In the meantime, we will simply call them “post-Millennials” until a common nomenclature takes hold.

There’s just one question. When this “post-millennial” generation does get a name, will they get shamed for doing things like eating avocado toast, too?

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The Daily Dot