So I just came across a chapter in the book Culture in an age of money: The legacy of the 1980s in America, which refers to pluggies, “those who are plugged in but tuned out” (p. 84). Basically, it is referring to the rise of “me” technology in the 80s that allowed people to lock themselves in their homes and be completely asocial. This includes the rise of VCRs, video games, and computers.

I think the term makes complete sense, and as it is not encompassing of an entire generation, it may be more fitting than the typical response of, “that’s all of Gen X” or Gen Y or Gen Now, or any of the other innumerable names for those of us in the 18-35 age range. However, when I did a google search for the term, it only came up with ~2500 results, which means “pluggies” never caught on. Maybe the idea of yuppies, which originated around the same time, just overwhelmed people’s abilities to divide society up into groups so much that people couldn’t afford another denomination. Or maybe society just agreed the word is kind of silly.

So has anyone else ever heard of pluggies or come across the term in reading?