Xenials are a designated generation which is late Generation-X, and early Millenials (1976-1985). For specific reasons (to be discussed).
Jack Dorsy (Twitter founder): bn. 1976; Pavel Durov (Telegram founder): bn. 1984; Chris Pavlovski (Rumble founder): bn. 1983/4; Chris Ohianon (Reddit founder): bn. 1983; Steve Huffman (Reddit founder): bn 1983; Kevin Systrom (Instragram founder): bn. 1984; Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook founder): bn. 1984; Zhang Yiming (Tictok founder): bn. 1983; Jason Citron (Discord founder): bn. 1984; Jan Khoum (WhatsApp founder): bn. 1976; Sam Altman (Chat GPT founder) bn. 1985...
Myron (dextographer): bn. 1982
We were born at the end of history, such that we could feel its valves (1991, end of Soviet). We were born into peace and prosperity, such that we could examine its glow. Childhood, for us, did not include any Red-scare, or oil scare, or racial segre-integration—these things had already been negotiated (though still in flux).
We remember phones being plugged into walls, we remember a time before the internet. We remember when the most sacred places were the movie theater and the shopping mall—one had to go there, or be bored.
Television meant 'cable'. 57 channels, and nothing on. Our parents were primarily Boomers, who were entirely wrapped up in themselves. Likely, our parents were divorced.
We had to deal with the dot-com bubble burst right when we graduated either high school or college. Then we dealt with the 2007-8 housing bubble collapse, then later—covid. When we were young or relatively young adults, just peaking into our economic comeuppance. Only to be dashed. Again and again. Thanks ma.
But we grew up with crayons, scissors, toothpicks, and glue. We knew how to use our hands. We were bored sometimes. Our parents didn't care about us, but were guilty enough to pretend. We had private lives originally, so we understood the divergence.
We grew up free, and happy, and shameless. They developed shame for your generation (Gen Z). At some point we had to look up the word 'anxiety', because we didn't have it. We thought the world was open, and functional, and filled with possibilities. They told us to follow our dreams—not to find a reasonable living—so we didn't get married, or care about that; we didn't seek to become homeowners, or stock market successes, or enter successful relationships (it was doomed to failure, who cares), of which we had many. They saved this for you.
But what really makes a Xenial, beyond the high success of our Billionaire fellows, and the low success of our relative longings, isn't decadence, or selfishness, or the immodesty and ignorance of our parents—but hopefulness. We are the generation of hope, which is fuel for evil, no doubt. We voted for Barack Obama as a team. We believed in the future. You do not. Because we stole it from you; we took your undeserved self-confidence and burned it on the altar of our hope.
God bless you in your search for 'meaning' and 'purpose', which never occurred to us. The world was supposed to supply this, but instead it is an illusion you cannot even hope to achieve.
(Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen [YouTube founders]: bn. 1977, '78, '79...)