I love how everyone has a different definition for what a Millennial is.
My favorite and the one I hear the most is something like 1982-1998 births.
The idea that any span of births crossing the 80s and 90s could be a culturally coherent generation is bullsh[inks]. Consider, someone born in 1985 was 16 during 9/11, old enough to understand what it was. Someone born in 1995 was 6, and wouldn't become politically aware until well after the Iraq War; whereas the '85 kid might well have been deployed to Iraq. The 1995 kid wasn't old enough to care about Obama, while the '85 kid put her hopes and dreams on the big O. The '85 kid graduated college into a recession, and feels cheated. The '95 kid grew up in the "new normal" sh[inks] economy, and knows full well that his degree won't land him a job out of college.
Our experiences are completely different. Generation theory only works if the generations are like 4-8 years long. I think categorizing political generations by who was president when they graduated high school is a more interesting exercise. "Millennials" break down like this (using Strouss-Howe's age range iirc):
1980-82: Clinton Generation
1983-90: W. Bush Generation
1991-98: Obama Generation
1999-04: "Next" Generation
Not necessarily, a 13-year old in 2008 would certainly know about the 2008 campaign and his or her parents may have had an effect. Besides, elections are always big news regardless of age.
Maybe Atlas freaks did, but I was born in '95, post here, and didn't give a sh**t about politics in eighth grade. I can assure you nobody I know in real life was "following the election."
Really? Everyone at my school followed the election back when I was 11 (2008 election) and when I was 15 (2012 election). Everyone knew who candidates were and everything. No one followed the midterms, but nearly everyone followed the presidential election to some extent. Even the people who didn't give two sh**ts about politics (at the very least) knew who the candidates were. Many even had political opinions (although when I was 11, most of the political opinions other student had were inherited from their parents).
I'm not exactly the same age as you, but I had basically the same experience.
