Middle Child Syndrome

As Gen Z finds the millennials 'cheugy' and the millennials try to understand how to use 'no cap', a microgeneration between the two is realising it falls on neither sides. Meet the zillennial

- SAMREEN TUNGEKAR

There's a scene in the popular sitcom Modern Family, where Phil Dunphy calls his middle child, Alex, a 'self-cleaning oven. Typical of middle children, Alex often finds herself relating to none of her siblings, is often solving her own problems, or figuring out what she's too old for, but not young enough for.

A parallel to the middle child conversation is how we are defining generations now. With the onset of the internet and multiple sources to help one identify their generation, there's a bracket that isn't old enough to be millennial, but has experienced certain millennial milestones. This is a generation that doesn't find F.R.L.E.N.D.S all that funny, but also doesn't particularly indulge in TikTok trends. They didn't use MySpace, but had a brief tryst with Orkut. They were born when the Internet was around, but didn't need an iPad at age six. They are the zillennials.

NEITHER HERE, NOR THERE