Meet the Man Whose Browser Tool Turns All Mentions of ‘Millennials’ Into ‘Snake People’

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Ever get the sense that millennials are treated in the press like some sort of inscrutable alien race? Well now there’s the perfect Chrome extension for you.

Eric Bailey

The “Millennials to Snake People” extension, created by Boston-based UX designer Eric Bailey, has quickly become the talk of social media. Much like the infamous “Cloud to Butt” extension, Bailey’s creation converts all mentions of “millennials” in your browser to “snake people.”

So is this a pointed commentary on how the media has created a stereotyped mystique around millennials? Not really, Bailey says, though the 32-year-old admits he was inspired by the seemingly endless writeups about millennial tips and trends.

“I read one too many listicles, and I was like, this is getting a little weird,” he told Adweek in his first interview about the project. “I had a free Saturday night, as sad as that sounds, and banged it out in a night.”

So why snake people, specifically?

“I don’t know,” Bailey said. “I’m a huge nerd, so it just seemed funny. The testing was basically a week of giggling straight.”

For the first few days of the extension’s lifespan, it didn’t get much attention.

“I was tweeting it out here and there,” Bailey said, “but when you’re not Twitter famous, it’s just like screaming into the void.”

He’s not sure how it started picking up steam, but Bailey was soon shocked to see a mention of the app (by The Next Web’s Owen Williams) retweeted by famed author William Gibson.

As of this morning, the extension was only being used by 19 people, but that number is likely to skyrocket after it was featured today by BuzzFeed.

Bailey says that while he’s glad so many people are enjoying his project, he feels it’s part of the natural cycle for generations to sound somewhat detached and baffled by those soon to replace them.

“It’s sort of a lampoon,” he said. “Every generation seems to do this to the generation that comes after it.”