It’s official kids… we are getting old.

Yesterday, Yahoo reported that Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for Social Security benefits over the Internet. She was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first official baby boomer to sign up. Not only has this so-called newsworthy front page event made me stop think about the fact that our parents are becoming senior citizens (and ourselves mid-lifers), but made me reflect on the irony of categorized generations. And because I deal with demographic profiles and categories all day at work, it has been on my mind.

For example, I am considered Generation Y by most standards. Gen Y is also referred to as the Echo-Boom generation (kids of boomers) or the Millennials. Most sources (including my favorite: Wikipedia) typify Gen Y as those born as early as 1976 and late as 2000. However in the advertising world, most agencies go from about 1980 – 1997. What I don’t get is how the oldest kids of the Echo-Boom generation could be born in 1976 when Boomer parents started being born in 1946? That’s a starting age of 30 for childbirth—and back then the average age for women having children was in the 20s! Our country (and its marketers) are having some serious issues…

Last week my sister and I realized that based on many different sources, we would be different generations. No way; she’s only 28 and clearly a daughter of boomer parents (born in ‘50 and ‘53).

It’s all a little too confusing for me, but nonetheless largely inaccurate. I will work on finding a new category to be a part of, as the stated categories (as proven in this post) are completely bogus. I’m thinking something like this: Youngest, smartest, fastest employees seen in the world who still have time to get more work done than anyone else and blog. Anyone else want to join??