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How Real Are the Generation Wars?

Debunking the divisions between boomers, zoomers, millennials and covid kids.

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It’s an internet battle for the ages. Gen Z thinks Millennials are cheugy and cringe with their Harry Potter Sorting Hat quizzes and their avocado toast. Millennials want the TikTok-obsessives of Gen Z to know that they were the original digital natives. Both generations are apparently united in their loathing of the Boomers, who are probably complaining about kids these days on Facebook. But what, if anything, actually defines a generation? Here’s a curated guide to the web’s favorite demographic debate.

Image by Sylverarts/Getty Images

Do Generations Matter? Well, Maybe.

Emma Goldberg
The New York Times

Many researchers are skeptical about analyses of generational divisions, noting that it is limiting to collapse all distinctions except for birth years. But that hasn’t diminished the appeal of generational markers.