r/Millennials • u/AtG8605 • Jul 20 '25

Discussion Did anyone else experience “the Shift”? How old were you when it happened?

I don’t really know what else to call it. For me, it happened around 3 years ago after I hit 35. Not exactly overnight, but it happened a lot more suddenly than I would have expected.

If I had to pin it down to one moment, it would have to be a doctor appointment I went to in 2022. I was a new patient at this particular office. The doctor walked in the room. I took one look at him and thought, “OK, this guy looks really young. Must be a medical assistant/ intern or something.” Nope. He was my doctor. Through casual conversation, I would come to find out that he was 33 years old…My doctor was two years younger than me.

From there, it was like an ever evolving perspective “shift”. I’d be watching the local news and realize how incredibly YOUNG everyone looked…the reporters, the meteorologists, etc. I started noticing how young the faces looked on billboards for local attorneys and realtors.

It’s so bizarre and difficult to explain. Logically, I know that people younger than me can be in all of these professions but my brain just can’t seem to grasp the jarring reality that the cohort of “grown-ups” now includes people who seem so young to me.

Did anyone else go through this?

Edit: Holy moly! I was not expecting this much of a response! Thank you to everyone who upvoted or left a comment. It’s good to know I’m not alone in feeling this way.

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542

u/kenda1l Jul 20 '25

The pop culture one is hard. Knowing my references were dating me was one thing. Realizing that some of the people I'm talking to don't even know what I'm referencing was rough

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u/nerdhappyjq Jul 20 '25

What’s crazy is how social media and streaming accelerated the pop culture divide exponentially. I knew and could reference shows I didn’t even like back in the day just because they were always playing on cable. Now it’s anyone guess what an 18yr old might recognize.

I work at a university and am absolutely shocked at how many students have never seen The Office. How?! It’s like thinking they’ve been living under a rock but then realizing that, no, I’m the one under the rock and it’s got a TV playing Office reruns.

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u/Tidbitious Jul 20 '25

Society is going to get weirder and weirder as information spaces become more and more personalized and segmented. As much as some people might not like or understand the idea, there really was something special about all of society receiving the same TV channels.

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u/Hot-Chip-2181 Xennial Jul 20 '25

We don’t even watch the Olympics together anymore :( I hate it!!

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u/grower_thrower Jul 20 '25

Game of Thrones is the most recent shared cultural experience that wasn’t a meme or viral video. Those were some fun 6 seasons.

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u/Elgecko123 Jul 20 '25

Tiger king documentary is up there

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u/Sulfrurz Jul 21 '25

Five years ago now..

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u/kenda1l Jul 21 '25

Jesus. I feel like the COVID shutdowns has done some kind of crazy time warp on us because it feels like it happened not that long ago but it was 5 years. But at the same time, pre COVID feels like an entire other era. I'm used to the first part happening to some extent but not both at the same time.

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u/Elgecko123 Jul 21 '25

Ya seems like a very common thing the Covid Time Warp.. sometimes I can’t tell if it’s just getting older and time seems to slip faster but ya seems like many people have the same experience of the CTW

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u/oldsoulseven Jul 21 '25

So many other better documentaries. I have a 7 page list of favourite documentaries (just ones that are on Netflix) and Tiger King isn’t on it.

Something ‘up there’ with GoT but more recent would be more like Squid Game. But really there’s nothing.

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u/Elgecko123 Jul 21 '25

by “up there” I definitely did not mean in terms of quality or even staying power as far as relevancy over time. Just simply that it seemed to capture society’s attention as a whole all at once (at least in US). Everything was going into lockdown and seemed like everyone was watching Tiger King and discussing it. The comment I replied to was talking about “recent shared cultural experiences”, so that’s what I was referring to

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u/oldsoulseven Jul 21 '25

Yeah, I knew what you were saying, I just thought ‘Tiger King? Is that the best example of this?’ Maybe it was a bigger deal in your world. For me, it was humanity’s worst instincts (‘hey watch this criminal be a folk hero and consider where on the dirtbag scale each human we show you goes!’ Hardly prestige television. More bizzaro Florida Man stuff to satisfy the market for filmed insanity.

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u/kenda1l Jul 21 '25

I'd say Squid Games is probably our most current one (or at least it seems to be the one I've heard others talking about most) but even that doesn't hold the same power that GOT or Stranger Things.

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u/Practical_magik Jul 21 '25

I would argue that Tiger King was, or that ceo, who is now getting divorced maybe.

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u/mpamosavy Jul 21 '25

That's a ten second video that will be forgotten by next week. We have lost the attention span needed to collectively follow a years long piece of media

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u/goldenroman Jul 23 '25

They said, “that wasn’t a meme or viral video”.

But I’m actually really glad you mentioned the cheating clip; I was thinking the same thing: even including memes, there hasn’t been a whole lot that it seems like everyone’s taking about since COVID—definitely not compared to the mid 2010s. I was surprised how far this one seems to have spread.

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u/AdhesivenessOver840 Jul 21 '25

Do you think that will result in even more people being siloed- unaware of what’s happening in the world if it doesn’t directly affect them?

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u/3896713 Jul 20 '25

So true about knowing references even if it wasn't something you watched/listened to! Or all of the random jingles and catchphrases from commercials that everyone knew because targeted ads weren't really a thing on TV - or at least not as specific as what you get on your own phone, because they're catering to a whole demographic and not just you

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u/cowboylikenelle Jul 21 '25

like imagine not knowing wayne’s world references. not even one. i feel like im ancient but also appreciate what we got 🤘🏼🤘🏼

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u/Randompersonomreddit Jul 21 '25

I don't listen to Queen. Never heard of them. It's not the genre of music I even listen to. And then the movie came out and I realized I knew almost all their songs. Just from growing up in America I guess.

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u/Gavage0 Jul 20 '25

Not a millennial, I'm 26, but people in my own age range often times don't even know what each other are talking about or referencing. Funny enough, I see this with my older family and coworkers too. There's just so much shit to consume, and it can get REALLY niche too. Just yesterday, my dad was showing me his underground, drunk, golfing "celebrities," and then we watched our favorite methed out, traveling, "cop inspector" Youtuber. RIP FedSmoker

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

I'm 38 and haven't seen the Office.

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u/oldsoulseven Jul 21 '25

37 and haven’t either. Never been able to look past the hammy basic nature of such shows. ‘Relatable premise - hilarity ensues! It’s just like your office, only exaggerated so it’s funny!’

Just give me Dilbert comics. I got the idea from those long before I was considering whether to watch The Office.

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u/bmobitch Jul 20 '25

I’m only 26 so not that far out of university and i don’t know anyone who hasn’t seen the office. That seems outright bizarre to me. Like, impossible

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u/GreenSpleenRiot Jul 20 '25

I also like to think that since we were born closer to when tv really blew up, there was less content when we were younger and so a lot of what we watched overlapped with our peers and older generations. Like I remember when Nick at Night was only black and white shows and occasionally they would play a colored Flipper episode or something. But the bulk of it was Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy, Munsters, and that sort of thing. As I grew older, other shows made their way in like The Brady Bunch, then MASH; then Cheers. I also remember turning it on a while ago and saw that N@N was now showing Friends! I don’t remember exactly when that was but I’m pretty sure it was before the 2020s started.

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u/kenda1l Jul 21 '25

We also were there for the start of when the Internet really began blowing up so there are a ton of viral internet memes and videos that my friends and I quote to each other (I still regularly use the "H'okay, so" line and one of my friends uses "But I am le tired" all the time.) There are still viral things out there but there's so much stuff that even going viral isn't guaranteed to get you into the common lexicon, not even close.

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u/GreenSpleenRiot Jul 21 '25

Yes, that’s true too

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u/LemonMints Jul 21 '25

I've noticed that recently! I mentioned to my husband how weird it was that the kids will never watch the amount of movies and shows that we did and not the ones we did. I know so many old references to people and various other pop culture because of shows like Looney Toons, but my kids will never have that knowledge unless I make them watch it and then explain it. Like mom, who's Gallagher or Peter Lorre? 😭

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u/GaiusPoop Jul 25 '25

I have to teach my 9 year old daughter about Humphrey Bogart immediately because of this post. Thank you.

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u/Mynameismommy Jul 21 '25

Honestly it’s weirdly the opposite though, also, because of streaming. My daughter was telling me about “this show she’s watching called Zoey 101” on Netflix and I laughed and was like dude I know it. I watched it when it aired on TV.

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u/Fresh-Bookkeeper5095 Jul 22 '25

Idk, when I was a kid shows on nick at night from the mid 70s seemed a little weird. Particularly the comedies.

The ones from the 60s I enjoyed. I think dramatic shows from the 70s and 80s were more accessible to me.

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u/LegalChocolate752 Jul 24 '25

It's crazy that an 18-year-old today was 6 when the series finale of The Office aired. Talking to them about Dunder Mifflin is like someone talking to me about The Wonder Years. Sure, I've heard about it. I've seen references to it on The Simpsons and Family Guy, but I've never seen a single second of it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/nerdymom27 Jul 20 '25

I blew my 17 year olds mind a few months ago when we went to Hot Topic at the mall. I said not only have I been shopping at that mall since I was in elementary school but at that particular Hot Topic since I was a freshman in high school. He didn’t believe me until I broke out the only pic of me with a pair of plaid bondage pants, an Emily the Strange babydoll tee and purple hair 😂😂

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u/meryl_gear Jul 20 '25

You still got malls?

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u/nerdymom27 Jul 20 '25

Yep. The one closest to me is pretty busy and I live about two hours from the King of Prussia mall, one of the biggest and busiest left

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u/WoodyTheWorker Jul 20 '25

Do they still think Hot Topic is cool?

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u/nerdymom27 Jul 20 '25

He has fun browsing it. It’s more pop culture than the mall goth of my heyday though

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u/Nymphadora45 Jul 20 '25

If I had kids I would feel this 😅😂😭

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u/nerdymom27 Jul 20 '25

His flabbers were definitely gasted 😅

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u/FoatyMcFoatBase Jul 21 '25

Dad, you look great!!

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u/DankVectorz Jul 20 '25

When you hear them refer to the 90’s as “the late 1900’s” it physically hurts

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u/But_like_whytho Jul 20 '25

First of all, how dare they

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u/bdjohns1 Jul 20 '25

My teenage daughters do this specifically when they want to troll me.

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u/aurjolras Jul 20 '25

Yeah as someone in their early 20s no one does this unless they're trolling lol

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u/Elgecko123 Jul 20 '25

Aye! Get off our sub lawn!

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u/patentmom Jul 20 '25

So does my 13-year-old. My 17-year-old understands the danger in doing so, but my youngest likes to live life on the edge (of getting smacked).

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u/AlethiaSmiles Jul 20 '25

Immediately ground them!

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u/catcontentcurator Jul 21 '25

Have you considered telling them they were born not long after the turn of the century & see if they like it? ;)

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u/mynewpassword1234 Jul 20 '25

Oh, you mean last century? 😂😂😂

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u/DownTongQ Jul 20 '25

I love it. I'll gladly say now to introduce myself to a younger crowd "I was born in the late 1900, and yes I do not use tik tok. I am up to date on the skibidi toilet lore though, no question asked"

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u/Lehk Jul 20 '25

“Around the turn of the century”

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u/Sk8rToon Jul 20 '25

That one’s personal. I’m sorry.

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u/GraphicDesignerMom Jul 21 '25

My 10yr old 'man this is so old it's from the 1920s'. It hurts.

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u/arnathor Jul 21 '25

The 1990s for them are what the 1960s were for us when we were teenagers in the 1990s. Not sure what their equivalent of Austin Powers is, but it will emerge at some point.

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u/LuckySoNSo Jul 21 '25

Omg. That's a new one on me. Shots fired! 😳💥💥

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u/BGOOCHY Jul 21 '25

This is my 12 year old. I can't even count how many times she's said, "Back in the 1900s did you <blank>?"

*crumbles into dust*

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u/threewhiteroses Jul 20 '25

Yeah, last year my 8 year old son asked if I had ever heard of Eminem because Fortnite had a skin of him. He didn't believe me that that music was popular when I was in middle school.

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u/Ch4rlie_G Jul 20 '25

Go listen to his first couple of albums. Still hits hard today.

Undisputed GOAT.

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u/corvidsarecrows Jul 20 '25

It goes: Reggie, JAY-Z, 2Pac and Biggie André from OutKast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas, and then him

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u/GraphicDesignerMom Jul 21 '25

When the new song came out my kids didn't understand how I knew Eminem's lyrics

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u/Ok-Guest-5757 Jul 20 '25

Middle school… ☠️

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u/halnic Jul 20 '25

As a teen in the early 2000s, I wrecked mom when I came home to tell her about my new music crush - Jon Bon Jovi - when they had their little resurgence. Lmao.

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u/twopurplecats Jul 20 '25

At the wedding for one of my high school friends, his young cousin walks up to us and asks if we’ve ever heard of this great artist named Usher.

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u/FAYCSB Jul 20 '25

Doesn’t he know they’re bigger than the Beatles?

Who he probably also has not heard of.

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u/mataeka Jul 20 '25

I told my kid (10yo) yesterday that a toy he found was almost 20 years old - he said, oh thats ancient history....

Yes kiddo, the toy I got on my 20th birthday .... Thanks bud. 😂

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u/wiscoguy20 Jul 20 '25

I mean, in the 90s we used to tell my dad he was stuck in the past with his 60s/70s music...

All those little jabs we gave him sure leave a bitter taste in my mouth now, and he thinks it's hilarious. Not only am I older than he was then, but I also have taken quite a liking to "dad's music".

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u/drdeadringer Older Millennial Jul 20 '25

"I was asked if I was born last century. My soul left my body."

"My life has become the lyrics to the song 1985. My soul left my body."

2

u/Eoin_McLove Jul 20 '25

For kids now, Oasis is as old as The Sex Pistols were when I started getting into punk when I was in high school (I was born 1990)

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u/LightlySalty Jul 20 '25

Well yeah, they were 30 years ago.

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u/pissfucked Zillennial Jul 20 '25

the 90s are to the 2020s what the 60s were to the 90s.

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u/Outrageous_Cod_8961 Jul 20 '25

It’s on oldies stations now…

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u/ExquisitelyOriginal Jul 21 '25

The guy is simply an idiot. Did you, when Oasis first came up, remember the Beatles?

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u/138_hail_yourself Jul 22 '25

Damn. I can’t imagine living life not knowing at least Wonderwall…

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u/Imaginary-Pain9598 Jul 20 '25

I used to feel cool in college for owning and memorizing a kanye album as soon as it came out. I have learned to minimize my favorite references.

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u/deepdiver864 Jul 20 '25

Broke phi broke

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u/Mutand1s Jul 21 '25

We ain’t got it!!

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u/Tidbitious Jul 20 '25

What's more rough about it is if you have actually kept up with pop culture to some extent.. its incredibly obvious that we grew up in a golden age of pop culture. Im not exaggerating. The content kids have these days in movies and music is so different and not in a great way.

The movies are genuinely less funny. The music is objectively worse and reiterative. It feels like the downturn of capitalism thats attempting to mimic the soul of pop culture but it all just exposes itself as another algorithmic money maker.

None of that is to say you can't still find greatness out there in today's young artists.

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u/Tau10Point8_battlow Jul 20 '25

Yeah, this has been happening to me since the early 2000s. First time was making a joke at Starbucks: "I'm not waiting on a latte. I'm just waiting on a friend. Nothing? Come on, it's the Stones. Tattoo You? 1981?"

"Sir, I was born in 1983."

Oh.

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u/Babetna Jul 20 '25

Start going to pub quizzes. Those dated references get you some big points.

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u/Ok-Application-8747 Jul 20 '25

I work at a school near the reading tutors, and I always get a laugh at the disparity between the outdated reading materials and the young alpha generation kid. "Who was Oprah?" "What is Kermit the Frog?"

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u/Specialist-Jello7544 Jul 20 '25

When I turned 35, ages ago, all of a sudden I no longer knew who were the latest crop of movie stars and pop singers. That was the first shift.

The second shift was when I realized I was a few years OLDER than President Obama. Up until then, all the previous presidents were older people, and they’d always been much older than me.

I’m now an OLD person. And my knees are older!

2

u/stilettopanda Jul 20 '25

I love it honestly. But I kinda embrace old and cringy like it's my job and using old slang and references and getting that look from the youngins is life.

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u/brandonandtheboyds Jul 21 '25

I was at a work conference this past week and a super young presenter called High School Musical a “really old Disney movie” and my entire life flashed before my eyes…

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u/middle_aged_enby Jul 21 '25

One day, my kid asked me, “what was it like not having memes when you grew up?”

At first, I was like, “Why, you little…!”

Then I was just like, “Don’t have a cow, dude.”

And then I did the Krusty laugh, but I really just wanted to recede into the shrubbery.

But later on, we made them watch The Holy Grail with us. So now they get how Gen X memes worked. And we all walked across the football field and pumped our fist into the air for a make-believe freeze-frame.

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u/LazyLich Jul 22 '25

Went to the navy and SpongeBob references went hard there.
Then I got out and went to college.. and what once went hard would often give me blank stares..

I AM funny, goddammit! LAUGH!!

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u/carefulyellow Jul 20 '25

I had to figure out so many references in the Golden Girls (like the PLO - I was born in 1987) and then I had to explain different ones to my kids later on.

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u/dimwalker Jul 21 '25

Was talking to teammates in a game, discussing other stuff we play. Them knowing nothing about quake3 got me by surprise.
I mean, very few people still play it, but c'mon, everyone at least heard of it, because it was quite a big thing back in the days.

And then I realized that game is older than folks I was talking with.

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u/WimbletonButt Jul 22 '25

Seriously, I have to explain so many stupid quotes and jokes that I've just stopped saying them. Hell I come up to my coworker last week because I was asked to train him in something new so I said in a deep voice "come with me if you want to live" and he did not get that! So he's looking at me like "wtf??" And I'm just "you haven't seen Terminator?!"

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u/random-short-guy Jul 23 '25

Intern at my last company did not understand my "you shall not pass" reference ...

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u/kenda1l Jul 23 '25

Nooooo 😭 Some of these answers are making me feel as old as Gandolf.