Move over Millennials, Xennials are new (older) kids on the block

Xennials had the best of both worlds. Photo / 123RF

Move over Millennials and Generation X-ers, there's some new kids on the block.

Australian Dan Woodman, associate professor of Sociology at the University of Melbourne, claims there is a new micro generation, called Xennials, who were born between 1977 and 1983.

Speaking to Mamamia, Professor Woodman said Xennials are a mix of the pessimistic generation X and the optimistic Millennials.

"The idea is there's this micro or in-between generation between the Gen X group - who we think of as the depressed flannelette-shirt-wearing, grunge-listening children that came after the Baby Boomers and the Millennials - who get described as optimistic, tech savvy and maybe a little bit too sure of themselves and too confident," Professor Woodman told the publication.

Xennials grew up in a time where landline phones were used to organise catch ups with friends, and people read the newspaper and watched the nightly news to keep up to date with current affairs.

Professor Woodman said Xennials have a unique experience when it comes to technology, enjoying their childhoods without the worry of social media posts to gain Instagram popularity.

Then in their 20s, Xennials hit the technology boom.

"Then we hit this technology revolution before we were maybe in that frazzled period of our life with kids and no time to learn anything new. We hit it where we could still adopt in a selective way the new technologies," Professor Woodman said.

"We learned to consume media and came of age before there was Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and all these things where you still watch the evening news or read the newspaper."

However, it's not likely that a whole micro generation experienced the same upbringing, Professor Woodman explained.

"Internal to whatever these groups are, whether it's Millennials or Xennials, there's going to be people who have very very different experiences based on whether they're a man or a woman, whether they had a lot of money or not much money as a kid," he said.

English leadership consultant Simon Sinek previously spoke of the "entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused and lazy" attitudes of Millennials, claiming it's not their fault.

Touring Australia and New Zealand in March earlier in the year, Sinek said millennials had been dealt "a bad hand" with their upbringing because they had grown up in an environment where "every child wins a prize".

"Some of them got into honours classes, not because they deserved it, but because their parents complained," Sinek said.

"(They were) thrust into the real world and in an instant, they find out they're not special, their mums can't get them a promotion. And by the way, you can't just have it because you want it."