Urban Dictionary added a new term: Zelnyal. A young generation that bridges the gap between the two known generations. According to The Urban Dictionary, the latter will be especially useful to marketers.
Culture researcher Martijn Lampert of Glocalities believes the term zillennial came about because people need to better understand where the world is going. “Because half of the world’s population is under 30, many organizations depend on this new generation,” he told Editie NL. “Companies need this generation as an employee and as a donor, but also as a target group of consumers, for example.”
Year of Birth
Journalist San Van Rij identifies herself as Zilali. “Your identity, in my opinion, is based on much more than the year you were born, but at the same time it has a lot to do with generations and which generation you belong to.”
Generations:
He was born roughly between 1946 and 1964
He was born between 1965 and 1980
- Millennials (Generation Y)
He was born between 1981 and 1996
He was born between 1997 and 2012
Source: Pew Research Center
Although she was born in 1996, she does not feel that she belongs to both generations. “It’s often said about millennials that they grew up with MySpace but I grew up with MSN and not like millennials with disco, but with an MP3 player. You’re already a millennial if you were born in 1981, but growing up in the 80s 80s 90s makes a big difference. Odd Indeed that generational scale is drawn.”
I felt a handle on the term zillennial only when I saw it. “You’re a Zillennial if you fall between Gen Z and Millennial. For example, you remember the Idols finale between Jim and Jamai and you remember 9/11 but you were too young to understand. I can relate to that. I also love that I’ve Got Two Worlds.” Gen Z people have completely grown up with the internet and I have a bit of that myself. It makes me feel like I can easily keep up with both Gen Z people and millennials and actually speak the language of both.”
“The cradle in which I was born is more important”
But Van Rigg wants to make sure that she now only fits into Zelali’s category. “While I consider myself generational, it is not at all important which generation you belong to. It can greatly reduce people to one time period or stereotype. Millennials or Generation Z are clearly not the other. The cradle is what you were born with.” It is really more important than the year you were born.”
Lambert agrees. “I think you should basically use generations to explain social change over time, but defining a person purely as a millennial, baby boomer, or millennial without paying attention to other characteristics is going too far. Help interpret information for business, education, health care, employers, politicians How can they better communicate with certain generations.”