More with Sharalyn: What do YOU define as Millennial? What events had the most impact on our generational identity?

In my chat with Sharalyn Hartwell (The Examiner's national Gen Y columnist), we discussed the various cut-off dates that are established for who is / who is not considered a Millennial. Sharalyn was born in 1980, which, in Mike and Morley's definition, does not technically qualify (though they address the question "When does one generation end and another begin?" here). According to many other definitions, it does.

Sharalyn commented on being on the older end of the spectrum:

There is almost a division within the generation. For example, I never worked with Internet until I was in college, and my sister [a member of the generation as well] grew up with it throughout her life, and she had it in elementary school. This younger group is very, very aware of The Internet."

She went on:

You can get hung up on figuring out who is a Millennial and who is not, and it becomes inconsequential. I scanned through the [Pew report on Millennials]. One of the things they pointed out was that the parameters are not necessarily categorical, and that they're just trying to find a basis [for commonality].

There is the period effect; how do wars, social movements, and so on impact cohorts depending on which life cycle they're in? For us, there was definition in events like the DotCom rise and fall, 9/11, and this recession.

Some questions:

• There are many definitions regarding what is / is not a Millennial. Which do you adhere to and why?
• Which events do you believe have had the most impact on the formation of our generational identity?
• Are you an older or younger Millennial? What are your views of those on the other end of the spectrum?