My Life as an Echo Boomer:
Searching for a Letter between Y and Z
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By Hannah Nyren

As a part of the current youth generation, I haven’t quite settled in to my label. We’ve been called the Millennials, Echo Boomers, the Tech Generation, iGeneration, Google Generation, and even the oh-so-original Generation Y.

Terminology floats around, dates get pushed back and forth between decades, and thirty years of children are defined by one commonality: Baby Boomer parents.

And trust me -- this group of offspring hates being defined by their parents. We’re the latchkey kids: the-overprotected, super-controlled, multitasking, gadget-wielding top-achievers whose greatest resentment was that mommy and daddy just couldn’t leave us alone.

Sick of the hover-crafts, we’re control freaks who like to gain independence early and conquer the work force with our superior technological skills (while taking pottery classes on the side).

Until recently, I had no idea what people called my generation, and frankly, I didn’t care. But at dinner the other night when my aunt asked, “What are you, Generation Y or something?” I actually took her question to heart.

I knew my parents were Boomers, but the letters of the alphabet to follow were beyond my radar. So, like a good Millennial, I Googled it.

Of the usual 30 million results that showed up, I checked out about 10 (excluding Wikipedia). Most articles warned of the Gen Y takeover to come, preparing businesses for new workers like they were the next Y2K.

But why are they treating us like the plague? Or small pox? Or anthrax? My answer: fear.

Let’s face it -- Generation Y presents a vital threat to middle aged (Baby Boomer) workers. We have better technological skills, and that seems to be about all you need to succeed in today’s business environment.

On top of that, businesses aren’t quite sure what to expect. There aren’t any distinct boundaries to the group quite yet. The vague indecision of the experts tells us that Generation Y consists of individuals born somewhere between 1977 and 2001. Translation: Mothers of 9-year-olds could actually be in the same generation as their children. Isn’t that lovely?

But where does that put me? Well, I’m an Echo Boomer. Though often used to generalize all members of Generation Y, the phrase “Echo Boom” actually refers to the period between 1989 and 1995 when more than 4 million people were born (echoing the Baby Boom). Since my birthday falls in 1989 I am one of the few (or 4 million) who can actually claim this title.

Before the Echo Boom, the typical Gen Y-ers were still using training wheels. But their training wheels must have been on mopeds, because this group seemed to have a wild, rebellious streak. The 1990s teemed with teenagers sporting spiked green hair and nose rings, but the Echo Boom teenagers carry laptops and business degrees.

Teenagers of the next decade (Generation Z) promise another new wave of characteristics. They’re the first generation with a knowledge of computers to rival Bill Gates and no memory of life before the World Wide Web. Who knows what they will grow up to be? Robots?

So between all the debates on who’s who in baby births, I’m kind of somewhere in the middle of Generation Y and Generation Z. Does this make me a Y or a Z?

Am I some sort of pre-millenial post-rebellion hybrid of the two? Or should those born during the Echo Boom be classified separately, since they have so many distinctive character traits?

Amid all this speculation, we can only rely on time to decide.

Hannah Nyren
Lexington Family Magazine Intern