Forget Generations X, Y and Z: Let’s Label People by Presidents

What President were you born under?

In the wake of the release of Chuck Klosterman’s terrific book The Nineties, there has been an influx of discussion of Generation X, and how that generation differs from Generations Y, and Z, and Millennials, and Boomers, and whatever other names are floating around that I don’t know about yet. But I do sometimes wonder if having such broad labels spanning decades of time is slicing the bread too thick. I wonder if, on this President’s Day, we should think of this as a matter of Presidents.

Specifically: Who was President were you born? It’s either a four-or-eight-year stretch, and it gives us much clearer, more specific spans of time to deal with. I think you can tell much more about a person by which President’s term they were born under than what “generation” they are. Let’s give it a try.

Biden Babies (Born January 2021-present). These people are literal babies. They have existed only in a pandemic. They’re still shitting in their pants. It’s probably fair to say we don’t know much about these kids yet, except that someday their parents will tell their grandchildren how freaking crazy it was to have a baby in a pandemic.