according to time, the millennial generation refers to americans born after 1980 who reached adulthood during the clinton, bush, and obama eras, while the silent generation includes americans over 65 who came of age between world war ii and the vietnam war. the millennial generation almost always carries iphones and ipads with headphones plugged into their ears, constantly surfing the internet, whereas the silent generation is remote from such electronic devices and mainly stay offline, unaware of online social networks, and completely excluded from the online communities so pervasive among younger people.