Which generation are you, really?

I was born in 1962 a few weeks before the Cuban Missle Crisis. Technically that puts me at the tail end of the Baby Boom. But I never really felt too much like a Boomer. The memories I have of the Vietnam War are watching the body count on TV before I went to Irish dancing lessons and holding tight to my Mom's hand at a Mother's for Peace rally.

When the 80's was in Bonfire of the Vanities-mode I was in college. It was deep in the Heart of Darkness of the Reagan years and I wanted nothing to do with the delusional, self-centered and money-hungry ways of many of my contemporaries. Didn't they realize nuclear war was imminent?

Later, as a marketer examining demographics and profiles, as a writer covering emerging technologies, and working in Internet startups, the low-tech, anti-tech boomer profile was never a fit for me.

My generational slice is sometimes called Generation Jones. We're wedged in there between Boomers and Gen X. "Jones" comes from the slang term “jonesin’”, apparently referring to the unrequited craving felt by my generation of unfulfilled expectations.

MSNBC says that in the tech world, Jonesers are known as the “early adapters,” the ones who jump on the latest tech trends.

If nothing else, can being a Joneser explain my equal love of both The Dead Kennedys and The Grateful Dead?

But I digress.

Luckily for us in-betweeners, Penelope Trunk, who wrote a great book I recently read and reviewed called Brazen Careerist, introduced a fresh idea that she developed with Boston-based media researcher Margaret Weigel.

Trunk says "maybe you are not really part of the generation your birthday falls under." Instead, maybe "we should determine our generation not by our age but by how we use media."

Click here to take her generational test. I took it and my media age is solidly Gen Y. Could it be that the old adage, "you're as old as you think you are" should really be, "you're as old as the media you use?"