i think you’re misunderstanding the video from the few sentences in which I tried to give the main point. he doesn’t say generations were invented in the 2000s.
he’s saying in the previous millennium we used to have definitive ideas about decades that were distinct and memorable: we know what most people listened to, what they wore, and in the age of TV, what they watched. every decade had its own characteristics and it applied to almost everyone. when I say picture a 30 year old in the 70s, you can picture what they look like: what they wear, their hairdo and facial hair, even glasses, and the colors of their clothes.
for some reason the 90s is the last decade to have this. there was a lot of talk about the millennium come 2000s but not much about the 00s. maybe it was awkward, maybe something changed but we don’t have 00s, 10s and 20s referred to as decades the same way 1920s or 1980s are. there’s no iconic, clear fashion that belongs to the 10s. instead the media started referring to “gen z fashion”, “gen alpha fashion” or whatever. which is not really how fashion works. in the 80s, pretty much everyone had big hair and shoulder pads, across generations. now it’s segmented.
not only that, but now there’s no TV as there was back then. you pick your streaming service and binge watch a show instead of collectively watching a show every week. there’s nothing like Seinfeld or MASH anymore. basically there’s no shared cultures and experiences anymore.
i am an old person