About This Quiz
What defines a millennial? A birth year between (approximately) 1980 and 2000? A confident, assertive, and possibly entitled (sorry!) attitude toward life? Or is it just having grown up watching "Lizzie McGuire" and waiting all year for the "McRib" to come back to McDonald's?
There are reams of research on what the Millennial generation is all about -- their politics, their attitudes toward relationships and marriage, their approach to saving, spending and home ownership. Whole books have been written about them. To which we say: How exhausting! Can't we just talk about the TV, the movies and the tech?
The answer to that is yes. Yes, we can. We've created a quiz on '90s and 2000s culture that only Millennials will pass with flying colors. Some of our questions are nostalgic, about the early technology and games that '90s and 2000s kids owned. Others are about about Millennials today, especially the language they use to differentiate themselves from Generation X and Boomers.ÂÂ
Whether you're a true Millennial, an "Xennial" (an older millennial with a lot in common with Generation X), or a Boomer or Gen-Xer trying to remain young and hip, we've got a quiz for you! Grab some shade-grown coffee and a cronut, settle in, and test your cultural savvy now!
Yes, another noun has gotten "verbed." Millennials frequently use "adulting" to describe behaviors like paying the bills on time, carrying enough insurance, getting an annual physical, doing spring cleaning and so on.
This reboot of "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" starred young actors like Berkley, Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen. All of them have continued working in Hollywood, though none have attained A-list status.
"Showgirls" is the only NC-17 movie ever to be given a wide release -- it was sort of a trial balloon for the new rating between R and X. Unfortunately, the movie flopped (though it's become a cult classic on video) and seemed to doom the NC-17 rating as well.
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The Game Boy was a handheld, 8-bit game system. It was released in mid-1989, making it technically a development of the '80s, but really a nostalgia item of the '90s.
Also an 8-bit system, the Game Gear came out in 1991. It lasted until 1996, never quite gaining the popularity of the Game Boy.
Millennials value experiences, like travel and adventure sports. So the coining of this acronym for "fear of missing out" really isn't a surprise.
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Everyone's been to a lame party or an outdoor concert where it rained the whole time. It was for these things that the antonym phrase "JOMO" was coined.
Bubble Tape advertised itself as "six feet of bubblegum, for you, not them." That's right: it rampantly discouraged sharing. Is it any wonder Millennials are accused of being entitled?
"Buffy" was a breakout hit for the WB. A reboot is planned for 2018 or 2019, with original series creator Joss Whedon on board as executive producer.
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Cher says that they get along, in part, because they're both named for 1970s singers. Dionne was played by Stacey Dash, whose polarizing comments about race and politics, made on Fox News appearances, have cost her roles in the present decade.
"Hundo P" is a way of saying you are completely behind somebody in what they are doing. Use it wisely!
"I can't even" is a way of saying "I'm overwhelmed." It needs no verb, but you *can* jump right to an indirect object: "I can't even with this crap right now."
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That's right, "on fleek" used to mean you had really well-sculpted eyebrows. This term has grown to describe almost anything that is well-put-together.
This Millennial word is memorialized in the Bruno Mars song, "Finesse." In it, he brags "We out here drippin' in finesse/You know it, you know it."
This is a way of sympathizing with a difficult situation. Or, since everything Millennials do is potentially ironic, a not-so-difficult situation. "I really want a third beer, but I don't want to be hung over." "The struggle is real!"
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"Humblebragging" is definitely bragging -- you're just trying not to get called on it. Note to everyone: putting #humblebrag at the end of a post does not make you modest.
You'll see this on online polls: "Are these 2000s hair trends cool or nah?" Our recommendation: Save it for online comunication. Boomers and Gen-Xers will probably take offense to its sneering connotation.
This one often turns up as a hashtag: #squadgoal. Spoiler alert: "Squad goals" don't seem to get achieved at any higher rates than regular goals.
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"Woke" comes from the idea of "awakening" -- e.g., to the reality of voter fraud or police brutality or white privilege. Warning: It's often used in a derogatory way, to imply someone who only shows off the right attitudes on social media. If someone calls you "woke AF," they might not be complimenting you.
We're not sure how this one got started. "Saltiness" sounds kind of sexy to us, tbh.
You'll often see this applied to sexual cravings. That is, a sexy photo posted online could be called "thirst-inducing." Or someone might remark, on seeing it, "The thirst is real."
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Okay, a basic girl "might" like "Piers Plowman" and "The Canterbury Tales." But generally, basic girls like yoga, wine, book clubs, pumpkin spice everything ... not necessarily bad things, just very common ones.
Venmo lets you pay tabs, split checks or send money digitally. Its parent company is PayPal.
Can we credit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with the popularity of this term? Maybe. However, "slay" isn't used to the exclusion of other terms -- you can also "kill it" or "nail it."
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Danes is now better known for her role on "Homeland." She won the role of Angela Chase at just 13 years old.
This is a crossing of Millennial slang and "leetspeak." With roots in a simple typo, the word "teh" has become acceptable (at least online) for "the."
These turn-of-the-millennium computers were works of art. However, you had to lift with your knees when you picked them up: They weighed a ton.
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"Turnt" is Millennial slang for "drunk." It can also refer more loosely to having a good time.
The fictitious town of Neptune wasn't just set up to be an "Anytown, California." The show used Neptune to explore a rigid class divide that anyone who's lived in southern California beach towns will recognize.
A new user to Twitter is given an avatar of an egg, because the site's symbol, overall, is a bird. Users who aren't that into Twitter never replace their avatar, and just go on having an "egg account."
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Before Lohan's life went so drastically downhill, she was one of the most promising actresses of her generation. She could have taken a lesson from Jamie Lee Curtis, who handled the transition from teen actor to adult with considerable poise.
Some people look forward all year to the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Stabucks. Others wait for the McRib, which debuted on McDonald's' menu in 1981, was discontinued in 1985, and is now a seasonal item.
The ghost represents the temporary, now-you-see-it nature of "snaps." Unlike other social-media sites, Snapchat only keeps messages and media up for a short time.
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The iPhone arrived on the scene in 2007 -- quite a few Millennials were adults by then. Today, we're on the iPhone X, a tenth-gen phone (depending on how you count).
We know we phrased this question backward: This isn't supposed to be a quiz about Gen-X stuff! But dang it, if you haven't seen "Heathers," see it posthaste. In this new century of school violence and anti-bullying campaigns, this movie would never have gotten made.