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Xennials: the In-Between Generation Redefining Growing Up

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Xennials: the In-Between Generation Redefining Growing Up The New Adulthood Xennials: the in-between generation redefining growing up. INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 2 The New Adulthood The youngest members of generation They grew up with technology, but aren’t necessarily X are just over 40, but don’t call them digital natives. They were disillusioned, but not middle-aged—midlife crisis is the last completely shattered, by the recession. They redefined thing on their minds. Older millennials family life, were the first to backpack the world after are more than 30, and adults in every graduation, and popularized so much of today’s sense—so why are marketers still hipster culture—from fashion, to television, to lumping them in with 18-year-olds just the workplace. out of high school? As this generation of 30-45-year-olds turns its A new generational cohort is particular lens towards adulthood, it’ll redefine emerging, and it’s one to which everything about this stage in its life: from purchasing marketers need to pay attention. habits, to media and financial products, to family Today’s 30-45-year-olds encompass structure. Gen X has more spending power than a startlingly wide range of life any other generation, earning 31% of US income, stages and accomplishments, and but comprising only 25% of the adult population, yet very similar forces and values according to Shullman Research Center. By 2020, have shaped their lives. millennials will control around $1.4 trillion in spending in the United States, Accenture reports. It’s time to view these two groups as one cohort, and to recognize their unique characteristics. It’s time to define the New Adulthood. Cover Image: Arket This Page: Rumi eco-conscious activewear, Hong Kong INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 3 Mercedes-Benz Grow Up campaign INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 4 What’s In a Name? The rootless twenty-something “No: These are profound differences. For the good millennial, shaped equally by the of both us Old Millennials and our Young Millennial financial crisis and the rise of mobile siblings and friends, let’s stop acting like we’re all in technology, has been endlessly the same boat.” scrutinized. But when the curtain came down on the final season of A third of millennials—predominantly the older Girls this spring, it was time to admit ones—feel so alienated from their own media the obvious: the group that originally portrayal that they now identify more with generation defined the concept of millennials is X, says a 2015 survey from the Pew Research Center. now in its 30s, grown up and tired of The youngest gen X members are equally confused being indulged. about where they stand. Anarchistic, skeptical, cynical: those words hardly describe the generation that “Don’t Call Me a Millennial—I’m makes up more than half of all startup founders an Old Millennial” is the title of an and which has a liberal slant that rivals that of their article by Jesse Singal, published in younger counterparts. New York magazine in April 2017. “It doesn’t benefit anyone to act like a 33-year-old and a 23-year- old came up in the same general climate, or with access to the same types of world-altering technology,” gripes Singal. Delta Dating Wall, Brooklyn INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 5 “We weren’t suburb “When you look at the trends that shaped millennials, ready and still wanted a lot of the same trends had an impact on gen Xers as well,” explains Jean Twenge, professor of psychology a vibrant city full of at San Diego State University and the author of food, arts and energy. Generation Me, published in 2006, and iGen, published Portland came up and recently. “Individualism, positive self-views, higher we hopped on a plane to expectations…a lot of that got its start with gen X. That was the gen X story that millennials took to the check it out, we fell in next level.” love and moved a year later.” The generation that spans older millennials to younger gen X feels unmoored. Naming it has also proved Lindsay Meyer-Harley, owner, Darling elusive. Senior BuzzFeed writer Doree Shafrir suggests Clementine. the demographic be renamed Generation Catalano, after the protagonist on cult hit My So-Called Life, while social media strategist Anna Garvey suggests the Oregon Trail generation. In the United Kingdom, the term midult is taking off. And most recently, Australian professor Dan Woodman popularized the term Xennial in a widely shared social media post. YES & NO Issue 01:01. Sam & Aaron Taylor-Johnson for YES & NO by Brigitte Lacombe. Design and layout; Domenic Lippa & Jeremy Kunze, Pentagram INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 6 Emerging Adults No matter what you call it, this cohort Though cohesive in psychographics terms, they “The Martha Stewart lifestyle, Gap as the uniform has clearly been misunderstood represent incredible demographic diversity. Age of success, and the traditional family with a 4x4 in by everyone from generational is rarely an accurate predictor of lifestyle: Older the drive is just not reality anymore in determining researchers to the general public. generation Xers are still enjoying the creative and success,” says Claire Hobson, a 43-year-old brand unattached city life, while young millennial parents consultant based in New York. “There’s too much “The conversations we were are relocating to less hectic second cities. diversity. I do feel that some part of adulthood having with our friends and our was about putting yourself on the map. Achieving colleagues in our age group just However you slice it, adulthood looks very different something noteworthy. Before, this was about the weren’t chiming with what was today than it did in previous generations. The accumulation of...a husband, kids, and a mortgage. But aimed at us in the media,” says percentage of under-35s who are married with children my commitments are more fluid.” Emilie McMeekan, co-founder has fallen steadily since 1970, hitting just 20% in of The Midult, a media venture 2015. Singledom is an increasingly attractive choice, While some Xennials are opting out of adulthood launched in 2016 for women aged particularly as unattached women experience more milestones altogether, others are just postponing 35-55. “We realized that the cultural financial and sexual freedom. (For more, see our case them. The average age of first marriage is now 27 for underestimation of this generation, study, “The Xennial Single,” page 98.) In 2012, one in women and 29 for men, up from 20 and 23 in 1960. and this demographic, had left a five adults (21%) had never been married, compared The median age of a first-time homebuyer today is huge space.” What’s going on with to just 9% of adults in 1960, according to US Census 32, according to the National Association of Realtors, today’s 30-45-year-olds? They’re analysis. However, about a quarter (24%) of those about three years older than a generation ago. And young, but old enough to prefer never-married millennials live with a partner. while young urban millennials are less likely to move not to be seen that way; hip, but to the suburbs than they were two decades ago, today’s entering traditionally less exciting 30-44-year-olds are transplanting at a significantly life stages. faster rate than in the 1990s. INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 7 It’s not just millennials who experience adulthood differently. Younger gen Xers are approaching prime midlife crisis years and finding that their current situation looks nothing like that of their boomer predecessors. Their expectations of midlife are driven by an economic model that has vanished. According to this model, after a few decades dutifully climbing the career ladder, young adults often reached a breaking point at which they longed to shake up their lives. Today’s emerging adults are just the opposite: They began their careers in a climate of rapid change, in which they have been forced to adapt, retrain and switch jobs from day one. As this group reaches an age of inarguable adulthood, they’re not looking for disruption, but stability. Storq maternity essentials line INTRODUCTION THE NEW ADULTHOOD 8 Adulthood—or Adulting? In the 2000s, Jeffrey Arnett, So they have the time—and, in many cases, the She adds: “It can be a little disorienting… and the research professor of psychology at disposable income—to carry on their extended comparative nature of social media can expose Clark University in Worcester, coined adolescence further and further.” people to a lot of different ways of living, but also the concept of emerging adulthood—a create a comparison where people can have a sense of new life phase in one’s 20s, variously Today, emerging adulthood is more than just a passing insecurity like, ‘Am I doing this right?’ This is the first called transition age youth, delayed stage—it’s a defining attitude for a generation. The rise generation that has grown up as kids with internet adulthood, extended adolescence, of adulting, a slang term for carrying out mundane but and social media. It increases the visibility of the youthhood, adultolescence, and the necessary adult responsibilities, shows how adulthood challenges and the awesomeness of that period twixter years. has become a constant process rather than a fixed of time.” stage. Memes such as “I can’t adult today” and “I drink Whatever the name, millennials coffee because adulting is hard” have taken off online, Brands are adopting the adulting aesthetic to connect have become the poster children while resources have sprung up to help adulting- to young adults at a fraught time. In March 2017, for this period of life, postponing challenged millennials.
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