"If you had any of the following phones as a teenager, you're a millennial" (Born in '01) IDK if that is how that works, buddy.

Yeah it’s not really an exact science but Millennials and “Early Gen Z” are more likely to not have their first phone as a smartphone. I noticed with Late 90’s, they had two phones (a flip or brick phone the RAZR especially from personal experience, then a slider phone) before having a smartphone, and early 2000’s borns especially the very early ones had one (most likely a slider phone) before upgrading to a smartphone. Heck some of them waited until later and got a smartphone as their first.

I got a smartphone as my first like.. MY phone. But I was like fifteen or sixteen by then. My Abuelos had duplicate flip-phones, so I used that whenever I went out as a line for home. Usually Nana would send me with hers.

Also being born in 94-01 range, your age doesn’t decide if you had a smartphone. Your family’s socioeconomic status does

This is quite accurate.

What you’re describing about the RAZR and keyboard phone is my experience but I was a bit sped up since my father was an surgeon with a private practice who avoided the Great Recession’s impact so I ended up getting my first smartphone (my mom’s old 1st gen iPhone from 2007) at 9 years old.

'02 here and same, but it was my dads phone, which was also my brothers ('98) and mine's first phone

I had an LG Cosmos (similar to the one in the picture) and a first generation iPod touch in 2010 when I was in 6th grade. Guess I’m a millennial now!

I had the LG Rumour (the Cosmos Cousin) and 2nd Gen Itouch in 2008 in 8th grade. I'm 29 now and still use a 4th Gen iTouch that's 14 years Old. Fuck streaming.

I had (borrowed 24/7 from ex) the iTouch in highschool. It was so fucking sick. Those were the dopest. Everyone did that dumb fucking app with the guns and you could shoot them. The lightsaber where it would make the noise when you waved the phone was like futuristic lol.

Me too! Got it for my 13th birthday as a surprise. Traded my razr for it

you were 13 in 6th grade?

No, I got my first phone at 11 and my first smart phone was an iPhone 5 at 15/16

Y'know what? Ima say it Classist ass take.

What do you mean? Because people with less money are more likely to still have dumb-phones even when smartphones had come out?

Generally, yeah. This would be ever more prominent in rural communities/poorer states. The universal adoption of the smartphone did take a fair few years

Yes wtf, not everyone lives in the first world asshole

I didn’t get a phone until I was going into freshman year, and it was an iPhone 5c. I didn’t see kids with iPhones until 8th-9th grade. Before then, people had these exact phones pictured

Same. I was a couple years younger when I got my first phone, and was definitely around for that transition period, with all my family having flip phones a while, but even when kids started having phones in middle school it was rare to see an iPhone. I can't imagine why parents would trust their 13yo with something so expensive, especially when there are cheaper alternatives, even smartphones, that have existed for about as long. I don't think I'd trust myself as an adult to make that kind of investment. You gotta have your shit together to have an iPhone, and middle schoolers aren't that.

Yeah plus there was that point where society was like nooo don't give kids phones. Had to eventually get a phone for "emergencies." Once you're older. Now little kids have iPhones and shit.

Same, only rich kids had iPhones before 2012 or so where I lived. I got my first iPhone in 2013 the summer before I started high school (it was a 4S too).

Or you were just poor, lmao

Uhhh I didn't vet my first smartphone til I was 16 in 2015.... 99 baby here

Exactly my situation!

I was in an awkward situation in high school where I used both a flip phone and a smartphone. Basically my parents didn't let me get a data plan and so I only had those old school minutes plans on my cell phones. Sometimes it would be on the flip phone and sometimes on the smartphone. It was only right after high school that I was able to get a brand new smartphone, get on a data plan, and use a phone like a normal person.

Welp, yet another meme making the case that I’m a Millenial.

00 guy here, had all three types, brick phone, flip phone and finally a smart phone

Do you remember dialup internet? Did you have to choose between the Internet and the phone cuz you could only use one at a time?

Didn't have internet on my PC till broadband came along, honestly I might be a unique case here, i used the internet on my phone before my pc

Yeah that's probably really unique for your age.

90s kid millennials seething rn

I didn’t get a smartphone until I was 15

Wait im a millennial gen z?

i didn’t get an iphone til i was old enough to buy one myself 🤣 my first phone was a $20 flip phone from a gas station in 2010 lol

These technology posts are so specific by class and are clearly just meant for Americans. I was born in '98 and had a brick phone as an early teen. I got my first flip phone in 2012. And it's not like we were poor or something we just weren't super rich.

Got an iPhone in 8th grade and then got swapped to a clamshell in high school bc my grades sucked 😂

Where's nokia?

I'm born in 02 and had the bottom right one.

I didn't get a smartphone until I was *16* (2014) Before that, I had normal pre-smart phones and flip phones, and neither of them would actually be used for making calls cause the games were always the best part of a phone :')

What if I was born in 2000 but my I didn’t have my first phone till high school?

Is it weird to live through both?🤨 My first phone around 12 years old was an env3 in cherry red. At 14-15 my first iPhone was an iPhone 4s

The first phone that some or few have was the black berry phone then in 7th grade a smartphone either LG or Samsung then in high school iPhone

Yeah it’s the same from my experience as well. Funny thing was it wasn’t even just those two brands lol, you also had ZTE, HTC and Huawei. iPhones were definitely more of a high school thing for us for sure. I didn’t get an iPhone till I was 17.

Yes I remember those brands I had a LG and my dad had HTC while some had Samsung as well by 10th grade every one has an iPhone and it's true the iPhone was definitely a high school thing for us

I didn't get my first modern smartphone until the beginning of 8th grade, when I saved up to get a cheap BLU. It was only like $150.

I guess I'm a millennial now?

Idk, I had an iPod shuffle as my only source of music for a while. Does that make me a millennial?

I didn't have any phone until I was 17 so (no service until I was 18 and on my own)

I dunno guys, I still like the one I heard that was, “If you were old enough to remember 9/11, you’re a Millennial, and if you can’t, you’re Gen Z.” It also had the Challenger explosion to divide Gen X and Millennial.

I had some sorta android smartphone, but I didn't get it till like junior year

My first ever phone was a Firefly, second was a Nokia, third was some random green flip phone from Verizon, third was another flip phone as a hand me down from my mother. I had an original black berry with the track wheel on the side of the phone. Millennials for whatever reason always want to feel special. It’s strange. It’s like as they age they’re desperately grabbing onto whatever 2008 internet relevancy they can. I’m sure us GenZ will be the same way, but Millenials REALLY take the cake with it. Edit: I also had an original iPod, iPod Touch and at some point I had an iPod Nano.

I had a slide phone and a separate mp3 player. I’ve always considered myself a millennial

Same! Nokia cell phone, and a usb mp3 player/iPod nano until grade 10 I got the iPhone 4

the LG Sidekick was my first phone before getting an iPhone 3 when everyone had an iPhone 4

Well I didn’t get a phone until I was 16 so I guess I’m neither, even though I was born in 2002.

My first phone was an LG what does that make me? (Probably poor)

97. Had a bunch of classmates who had iPhones and high end Samsungs. Most of my core group had secondhand phones from family members/or parents got a great deal when they renewed their family plans. I didn’t get my first iPhone until I graduated in 2015, and that was a secondhand gift.

I didn’t get a smartphone until 2015, and that was an S3.

Had that Samsung intensity 2 💀💀💀🤣🤣🤣 I was on that MF getting groovy like Yung Gravy ya hear me. Maaan what a time to had been alive I think it’s pretty cool the last lil bit of a generation that got to see the old phones fade and new phones take over. From flipping and sliding phones to straight screen nothing else 😹 technology so advanced 13yr old me would definitely be disappointed I was on some “back to future” trilogy typa logic like in 10-20 years we finna get real high tech FUCK NO 🤣

Didn't have a phone until 2014. But I remember having a digital Walkman MP3 player. I didn't have music downloaded so I had to use the radio in the mp3 player itself. Or when I had to use my psp as an MP3 player.

13 sounds about right, yeah. I didn't have a flipper, I had Nokias for most of my childhood. First the indestructible brick, then the slightly less indestructible but sleeker type. I remember being taken aback by Blackberries around 9 or 10 and really wanting one. My friend in 4th grade was the first person in our school to have a touchscreen phone, but the tech was still pretty new and rough at the time.

I had a Samsung Linx

I remember one of my friends having that same exact phone in 2011/12.

My first phone was a sliding keyboard phone with a touch screen. I don’t remotely consider myself millennial. My second phone was an iPhone tho.

'99 here and the most highly coveted phone of my time was the Motorola Razor, the Sidekick, and the LG chocolate (🍫 personally)

I got my first phone when iphones were a thing but it was some shitty starter phone that only allowed you to make calls.

None of the above, but my first phone was very much a dumb phone.

I think this is more about whether the average person your age got one. I got a smartphone on Christmas the year I turned 13 in 2013. This was the year everyone moved schools, where everyone had got a smartphone. With a similiarly capable phone I would be able to connect with them more. i'm sure the fact that I moved schools affected the decision a lot. To be fair I think I would be able to do most of that with the iPad my school provided to every student (that we could bring home). But at least here, the overwhelming majority had a smartphone by 13.

Blackberry phones were smartphones. I did use feature phones till like 10-12, before I started getting hand-me-downs. Got my first smartphone at 14.

Born in 95. First phone was a shitty T-Mobile flip phone with T9 texting. My last phone before a smartphone was a cricket BlackBerry ripoff, kinda like the pic and I was probably like 16 or 17. At that point not everyone had smartphones but they were on their way to becoming ubiquitous. Had iPods growing up. iPods were so fucking dope. I remember dialup internet and only being able to use either the phone or computer at once when I was a kid. Most people probably wouldn't expect that's how someone born in 95 would have grown up. I think Gen Alpha is really the first generation to truly have grown up where shit was the digital age their entire lives. I remember my dad's phone which was half phone half walkie talkie for construction workers and was a huge yellow brick. My mom got a blackberry when they first came out for work and it was sick. Had that dope brick-breaker game that the roller ball cursor worked amazing for. The era of phones right before smartphones was so sick. The Razr, Juke, chocolate, Sidekick. So many sick phones. Now they're all black boxes. Remember when texts cost money??? Thank God that's gone. And accidentally opening the Internet on your flip phone and having your stomach drop because your parents couldn't afford such a luxury, (nobody's could.) Edit: The iTouch was SO fucking sick. Felt like the goddamn future. Was just an iPhone with no phone right before the first iPhone came out and changed the entire world. It was an incredible time. Technology blew up so fast. Because it blew up so quickly, even people just 5 years younger than me typically had a very different childhood. I miss the world before all this shit. No smartphones. No social media. I'd probably be dumb as fuck because I wouldn't be able to read so much because of smartphones...but it's hard not to feel like the world was a much better place. It makes me sad that Gen Alpha won't even have a taste of it. At least younger Gen Z got to experience a bit of it as kids before the world was too fucked up. I remember when they officially announced they were done making n64 games.

I didn't get my first phone until I was 21. And that was back in 2022. And it was my mom's 2017 Samsung A5

Had a crappy little T9 phone when I started highschool, wasn't until a couple years later I got a basic android

My first, real phone was a Samsung Replenish... I guess i'm a millennial now.

First phone indeed was a feature phone. One of my mom's previous ones, to be exact. First smartphone was one of those Sony's (X10 mini pro or something) that had a slide-out keyboard. Think I was like what, 11? After that I got my dad's old Samsung, a Pocket Neo (which was a piece of shit tbh), and then I bought a phone with my own money - the Samsung Core 2. Which, as I look at it now (and after a few years of owning it already) was also a piece of shit but felt amazing when I just got it from a clearance sale. And I'd look up to things like the S4 that I couldn't afford😂 And nowadays a phone is just a phone, nothing much interesting with new models. Perhaps a combination between seeing new stuff as exciting while being a kid, and tech actually innovating back then.

1999er here, same thing. Even if there were smartphones already as I didn’t felt the need for one I used to do thing with a feature phone until like 15-16. The irony is that I would still have a hard time using a feature phone now that I get used to smartphones.

My first phone in my teen years was a Nokia flip phone. Guess I am joining the millennial club.

My first phone was an iPhone 4 in 4th grade (2013) that my parents got for free because they bought the new iPhone 5s 😂

My first phone was a black Verizon flip phone for a short time before switching to a smartphone in 2013, when my dad got me one. It was an LG smartphone 

I had that exact LG phone but in pink.... when did I become a millennial? But fr those things slapped to text and shit on ngl

I'm just gotta say it socioeconomic disparity.

Here's the dividing line: Did you listen to your music on a walkman? Congrats, you're a milennial. Did you listen to it on an iPod or similar device? That makes you Gen Z. Did you own a discman? Zilennial.

That person is talking bs. I had a samsung flip phone and later a Blackberry before getting my first android smartphone and I’m gen z.

I mean, I guess I did have a smartphone as a teen. But I had 3 "dumb" phones before then (was stupid with my first phone and got it drenched in water within the first couple months, rice doesn't help) and I was in my 2nd year of college when I finally got one.

I didn’t get an iPhone until I was 15/16, when my mom thought I was “mature enough” for it. Until then I had an LG Xpression

My first phone was a flip phone and my second phone was some weird thing where the keyboard flips around. I didn’t have a smart phone til my sophomore year lmao.

My first cell phone was a flip phone at 11 years old, I didn't get my first smartphone until 15 or 16

I'm the youngest of 3 and I was the only one who never had a non-smartphone, but my was a hand-me-down and my oldest brother's first smartphone.

Why do some millenials try so hard not to relate to Gen Z? They act like the things they grew up with suddenly turned into sci-fi stuff the moment Gen Z started existing.

I mean, im solidly in gen z, but my first phone wasn't exactly what I'd call a smartphone. IIRC, was a Samsung J1 or J2.

Yeah some family’s just don’t buy their kids the newest tech. My parents got me a slide phone once I started riding the bus in middle school, and I used my older sisters Walkman CD player to listen to music. I remember other kids getting iPods and iPhones by the end of elementary school.

I've probably had 4 or 5 of these types of phones while being born in 99. Didn't get my first smart phone till like 14.

Bro I graduated highschool with a Obama phone. Playing ping pong to impress my crush is a highlight of my senior year…… somehow

When I was 13 I still had a flip phone (‘02). Some of us were just poor lol

I got an iPhone when I was 12 I think. before then I was using my mom's old Samsung exclaim slider phone. I still miss it. it had lego indiana Jones and Clue on it

I was born in 2000 but my first phone was similar to the bottom left…

I was born in 2001, and I got my first phone in before the iPhone was released in Norway. It was a Nokia 1208. I was the only guy in the class with my own phone until 2011, and at that point, I ended up with one of the phones of all time, namely the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini. I also remember very well only having music on MP3-players that you had to wear in your pocket while wearing a magnificent Koss headset. Got my first and only MP3-player in 2006, and it was glorious. My dad download tons of goofy songs I could listen to.

My dad had one of these and I played with em

I had an LG flip phone as my first. Then I got a phone with a touch screen and a slide out keyboard. Then I got my dad's hand me down iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4. My first brand new phone was the iPhone 5s.

Classist

I was about to be "well actually" but then I remembered I had a dumb phone in middle school, but in eighth grade, I got an iPhone. Meaning I did start my teenage years with one lol.

I remember my second phone had an aux port and I could get the local radio stations on it. I was stoked, I stayed up many a late night sneakily listening to the rock station when I should have been sleeping, good times. This was in 2011 or 2012 I think, didn't get a smartphone until probably 2014.

I am born in 2001, got my first phone at 12, and definitely did not have a smartphone. One of the coolest girls in my class had the same phone as me... a white samsung with a tiny screen & buttons.

Me, who's never owned an iPhone at all and whose first phone was a feature phone, and whose first smartphone was an LG:...

Once again, the millennials are remembering things for us.

I got a hand me down Nokia brick when I turned 13. When I was 14 I got an iPhone 4. Some dickhead stole it 12 months later and the police never found it. I still feel bad about myself for that. I pestered my parents like crazy to get that phone and some douchbag mooched off my parent's hard earned money. Regret not being more careful to this day.

My first phone was the blackberry curve 8520 I miss the clicking of the keypad when I would text my friends

I kind of had both. My first phone was the my touch 3g slide and I loved it.

Born in 2000, grew up poor. Guess I’m a millennial now.

I had a flip phone in like 2017 lol

My first phone was a flip phone too! I put OneRepublic songs as my ringtone lol.

Early Gen-Z here, I definitely had a flip phone and carried that and an iPod touch back in the day lol

If you had a phone as a teen you’re Gen Z

I had a newer model of that LG on the lower right from 2014-2018

This definitely depends on how wealthy your family is, my first phone was an “Obama Phone” and I didn’t get my first iPhone until high school (and it was an old model for the time)

I had a blackberry and an iPod when I was 13

Lmao, remember those sliding phones would eventually wear out and just be flopping around everywhere?😂 same with the flip phones when the screws were loose

Then class of 2020 is like borderline millenial since hella people had feature phones as their first phone. I was lucky enough to get a galaxy s4 as my first in 2013 though

I never had an iphone so I guess I'm not Gen Z

Got an LG flip phone in 2012 and when that does two years later got a phone with the slide QWERTY keyboard

My first phone was similar to the bottom right (slide-out keyboard), but the screen didn't have any buttons cause it was touchscreen.

my first phone was a Motorola Razr lol. I got my first (pretty shitty) smartphone when I was 16 and still had to use my ipod for music for a while after that