Somewhere between analogue and digital, between Generation X and millennials, is a micro generation of people who are currently entering their 40s. Xennials are those born between the late 1970s and early 1980s and are identified as those born amongst analogue tech who experienced the birth of the digital World as they grew up. This gives xennials a unique outlook on life and they have earned themselves their own classification. The word ‘xennial’ is one of Merriam-Webster’s ‘words to watch’, but unlike their millennial successors, the term has not formally entered the dictionary yet.
The Xennial Experience
As someone born in 1981, I stand as a solid example of a Xennial. I grew up without a mobile phone, given the freedom to spend my Saturdays exploring outside, unsupervised. There were four TV channels available with scheduled broadcasting. I made mix tapes by laboriously editing out the conversation between songs on the radio. Dad installed dial up internet when I was 12, and I experienced the thrill of talking to strangers via online messenger boards in my teens. Nokia phones and text messaging arrived as I turned 18, but I wouldn’t send an emoji until I was well into my 20s.
I miss browsing Blockbuster Video on weekends, yet contributed to its demise by having a Netflix account when they sent out DVDs by mail. My teen work experience witnessed blueprints drawn by hand, but when I graduated university 5 years later all architectural drafting was computerized. I grew up in the transition: born analogue and matured to digital.
Traits of Xennials
As a hybrid generation, xennials have traits of both Gen-X and millennials and some other unique to their placement in time. Typically, xennials are reliable and focused to ‘get it done’ like Gen-X, while being entrepreneurial and creative like millennials. They may not be as tech savvy as digital natives, but they grew up adapting to change, a quality which gives them the edge in unexpected circumstances. Xennials are inherent problem solvers, open to learning new things and good communicators.
They remember life pre-wifi, pre-9/11, pre-smartphones, etc. They’ve had no choice but to be nimble and flexible to change.
Carrie Skowronski, Xennials: An Integral Part of Your Organization.
Where did the term ‘xennial’ come from?
The classification of xennials likely came about because there existed a group of people who were two young to fit into the Gen-X bracket, yet felt disgruntled being considered a millennial. Millenials have been given a bad wrap, older generations often describing them as whiny and entitled. On its May 2013 cover, Time magazine called millennials the “Me-Me’Me Generation“, and understandably, not everyone born around 1980 wants to be tarnished with the millennial brush.
The difference between millennials and xennials
A big difference for those born around 1980 and those born ten years later is the economic setting for their upbringing. Xennials grew up in a time of financial growth, their parents had more money to spend on them, and there were jobs available to them when they left college. They had a chance of getting on the property ladder, and could spin a quick profit on their first house as the market boomed before the bubble burst.
Millennials on the other hand were graduating during the financial crash, many finding themselves well educated yet unemployed. More of them stayed home with their parents into adulthood due to the financial limitations of the world they were facing. This means xennials, just a few years ahead, were able to gain experience, independence and financial stability that millennials couldn’t. Xennials therefore less cynical than Gen-Xers and more optimistic than millennials. We hit the sweet spot, and often act as mediators between two generations hardwired to clash in the workplace.
They’re both comfortable in the company of older more senior staff and younger junior staff members, often appearing to be a ‘social glue’ between the two.
P H Davis, Ten reasons why Xennials make great leaders.
Xennials parenting generation alpha
Mid-life xennials have witnessed a lot. Many are now parents of Gen-Z or Gen-Alpha children, trying to curb screen time and stay up to date with the dangers of the social media. Xennial-style childhoods are a thing of the past, and instead children experience virtual learning, smartphone games, and Youtube. While I, as a xennial, fight to keep some traditional outdoorsy, crafty, face-to-face fun in my kids’ lives, I do wonder what their kids will experience. Xennials will be the last generation who remember growing up analogue, pre Google search. How long until a new generation is being born within the Metaverse?