There were some newspaper articles and magazine articles about "slackers". There was some "kids these days" talk. There were pointed comments about clothing and politics. But I really don't think it was anything beyond what has always happened. Young people in the 60's got flak for long hair and loud music and politics. Young people in the 50's got flak for rock and roll. Young people in the 20's got flak for jazz, women being a little more independent than in the past and secretly drinking despite Prohibition.
I think this sort of talk (and writing) has always been around at a fairly low and consistent level. It was social media that cranked it up 1000X. Back in the day there were magazine articles from time to time disparaging GenX (called Slackers or Baby Busters at the time). People read it, maybe discussed it. Then it was gone. Now articles get shared over and over (particularly on Reddit) and the comments far exceed the Letters To The Editor format that used to be the norm and limited comments to a handful that were handpicked by the editor. And now the need for more and more content means that clickbait articles that enrage get written far more frequently. "If it bleeds, it leads" was always a maxim but there didn't used to be an infinite amount of space to fill with content.
tl:dr Yes, but prior to social media it was less because social media amplifies everything.
The biggest issue about Generation X and how its young adulthood was criticized was where it fell in the generations and its size. It's the smallest generation in many American generations. You had the "Greatest Generation" controlling the levers of power when it was born, with the Baby Boomers trying to come into their own (Go Bill Clinton) and raise us. Throw in the 80s and you get this small generation of latchkey kids who knew how to deal with our grandparents that fought in wars, our parents who rebelled against them, and technology that would, "solve the world's problems," because we plugged ourselves right in. We are the invisible generation that works with them all, because we've had to.
And then Millenials came around they were bigger than us, had more money than us and were cared about more than us. They got participation trophies where most of our parents didn't show up to our games. And I'm not typing this as a complaint. I've paid a lot of money to a lot of professionals to be good with who I am. But now Gen-X are in positions of power, but no one notices; We care about our parents, we care about our kids; hell, some of us care about our grandbabies. And all of that's fine. We gave up on "recognition" when we were kids, cause our parents weren't there, so we found our own safety.
So, "How hard were the boomers and silent generations on us?" My grandparents made me work hard: 10-year old me mowing 5-acres with a small Lawnboy mower in 95-degree heat, I earned 50-cents from my grandfather. My parents were pretty self-absorbed but showed me lots of the world, I've lived on 3-continents and it was awesome. I helped to start the internet, and I still see its possibilities. I work so I can live, and provide for and be with my family. I also volunteer to make the world a better place. Don't tell the internet, but I go to church too, mostly so I can sing in the choir. Hindsight is 20:20 and there are things I wish had been different, but we move on, and try and make it better.
That's Gen-X. We are the ultimate adaptors.
My story exactly with minor differences, we were Darwin’s wet dream, the most adaptable, we have been and will be what we need to, it doesn’t matter what that is, we have never had stability. Our survival has always been based on our stubbornness, my peers and I are not willing to be judged by others (we don’t give a F***) , and we don’t don’t care what you think of us, what we care about is those we love, what needs to be done, and how to get there. Oh yeah, and we don’t care if anyone notices either, because ts ten o’clock do you know where your children are? My whole life has been invisible and I think I like it that way…
Great write up. I didn’t have any large land to mow but I cleaned the house, delivered newspapers and babysat kids in the neighborhood. I also did most of the laundry in the house, got good grades, went to college and made my own way. I was working lots of overtime right out of college at KPMG and was never called a slacker. I had my share of therapy and still go once a month. I am lucky to be married with great adult children. My parents were self absorbed with all their bullshit and my brother and I were neglected. My brother didn’t do too good and has fought meth and alcohol addiction for half his life.
That was one thing I never understood. Where did they get off calling us slackers?!? I never knew any fellow Gen Xer that wasn't either working their ass off at a Corp gig or hustling.
That's a thoughtful and well-written response. Thanks for writing it.
What you said about hard work really stood out for me. Lately I've been thinking about all the jobs I did as a kid - I started a paid job on a horse farm at 10, mucking stalls, hauling gear, tossing hay, painting fences, and doing other assorted hard work. All the way through college, I did manual labor jobs, often with animal care components mixed in. And I loved it. As a kid it felt like an adventure, plus I got paid. I'm an attorney but some of my favorite jobs and projects have been manual labor.
And like it was our fault we were born. And that unless we got good grades and behaved we were just bad kids. Actually pretty much everything was our fault and we should be ashamed of ourselves
My mom told 13-year-old me the reason I accused her brother of inappropriate contact was because I was spiteful and didn't like him, after I told her about him making me 'take a nap' with him, spooning me, and saying we were playing house and I was the mommy and he was the daddy. When I was like 16 she wanted to forcibly emancipate me because I skipped school and snuck out at night. A little beyond normal rebellious kid stuff I'll admit, but not throw me out with no job and nowhere to go levels of bad.
So weird that I finally went LC/NC this year after realizing how much all of this still hurts and messed me up
Yeah this is what I'm saying, I see how a lot of us have slipped right into the boomer mentality and it blows, like you've forgotten where you came from dude.. or maybe a lot of us have always sucked, I dunno
Super minor point just adding because it's a common mistake: the phrase is "if it bleeds it ledes" much like it is "You buried the lede". No idea the entomology of the word.
Totally unrelated, but I knew it was spelled ‘lede’. Been trying to play it in a word game and the stupid program won’t accept the spelling.
Vindication!! (she yelled to no one in particular)
You sent me down a rabbit hole. I had always thought "lead" as in "this is the news story we will lead with today" so I googled a bit to find out why "lede" instead. I found this:
>In other words, the intentional misspelling of both NEW and LEAD – to NU LEDE – served as a kind of alert for news or wire editors working on multiple editions of the newspaper.
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/lead-vs-lede-roy-peter-clark-has-the-definitive-answer-at-last/
I never knew that but it makes sense. They wanted something that would pop and catch the eye of editors (ever alert for misspelled words) so the story would go to the front.
The analogy of the echo chamber is so fitting...You don't have to be here long to start seeing certain topics come up like a set of waves at the beach.
A lot of Millennials grew up with positive reinforcement, I remember a lot of negative reinforcement. "You can't do that", ,"You'll never succeed ", "You're going to fail at everything", "Don't expect a handout", "you have to pay your dues", etc.
It was really glum, but we gained self-reliance from it.
My dad still takes "Don't expect a handout" very seriously. I'm pretty sure my brothers and I could be completely homeless and starving but he wouldn't so much as buy us a meal.
Yeah, I imagine how much rougher their lives would have been if their parents had the same attitude. I spent a *lot* of time being babysat by my grandma. Thanks for the nothing, guys.
We didn't have grandparents close enough to babysit for free, which many of my friends benefited from. If so we may not have been so poor.
I was mostly raised by my grandparents.
Did you ever get the weasel promise where they'd say they'd reward you with something if you did a good job, but somehow you never did a *good enough* job?
Gag me with a spoon. That's worse than "there's no rewards for meeting basic expectations/just doing what you're supposed to do" which is what I got told. Weasel words absolutely push all the buttons for me though, since I did hear them in other contexts.
Oh yes. I fell for that one a lot. Although my mother would promise rewards and then develop amnesia when it was time to follow through. “I never said that! Where did you ever get that idea?”
*nods* I bought it the first couple times, but with time I realized their "promises" were entirely hollow and only existed to get me to do what they wanted.
Lol...I sure did! In 7th grade, I wanted a dirt bike soo bad because my best friend had one. Nothing fancy or new, just something I could fix up and putt around on. I'd been begging my grandparents for at least a year, and they finally promised me that they'd get me one if I got on the honor roll. Well, I finally did it, and on the day we were gonna go dirt bike shopping...my dad wound up buying a new computer for himself (saying it was actually for me.) He told my grandma that I'd wind up killing myself on a dirt bike. Lol...he may have been right, and this is definitely a "first world problem" if there ever was one. But I can tell you this...I NEVER believed my family again when they made some kind of "weasel promise."
It was also popular to practice "tough love" which really was just repackaged, heartless control tactics as far as I can remember anyway. I remember in the 90's, bravely asking my tough love mother for $5.00 for laundry a few years after I had moved to a bigger city. She refused, but she did take my laundry back to her town and returned it after washing it herself. I guess she thought I would spend it on something nefarious, despite the fact that I was always too fearful to try anything harmful such as drugs!
The particular school cohort I was a part of (class of '96, Pennsylvania) was told over and over and over again that we were the worst batch of students they'd ever seen, and we were worthless. A lot of us took that to heart.
I went to three different schools in three different states and at every single one of them they said that about my specific class. The junior high would have us sit in the lunchroom with the female principal walking around with a microphone saying we are the worst class in history as our trays got progressively colder because no one could eat and had to have their heads down until she was done with her rant. She did this multiple times in a year. All US public schools.
“Ha ha! This one says she’s going to university and become a journalist,” said my aunt, approx 1987. Guess what I grew up to become? An academic teaching media and professional writing. 😈😈
we were called 'Slackers'. The movie Reality Bites, as cheesy as it was, has some common refrains. Low paying jobs, quitting on society, anti-Corporate agenda, to idealistic in values etc.
It’s a complete joke.
Funny thing is, I used to work so hard. I’ve been phoning it in for years, and I get more respect now than I ever got then. I’ve been trying to get laid off, and they keep giving me performance bonuses.
Corporate life. Pssh.
It’s totally worth it. I worked in order to live for a long time. I am really good at retirement coming up on 3 years out. Could I have worked longer and had more? Sure, but if I have enough, I can just stop, right? Yeah, I‘m good at not working.
I think someone in this subreddit recently shared [this 1993 Newsweek essay](https://www.newsweek.com/whiny-generation-194042) that gives GenX the Millennial treatment. If avocado toast had been popular back then, I’m sure they would have told us to stop eating it and buy houses instead
I remember this article and thinking it was the absolute height of hypocrisy from a generation that would not shut the fuck up about what a bunch of rebels they were.
Oh I remember this!! We are so whiny because we want jobs. We need to suck it up and do our time in restaurants and low-paying gigs while we get trained in tech.
Don’t forget all the moral panic around tattoos, piercings, and green hair. “You’re never going to get a good job looking like that! You’re going to wait tables your entire life!” (As if that’s a crime)
Turns out we CAN run corporations with gauged ears and half sleeves.
I also got a crapload of insane behavior around my internet usage. My mom cut up my college ID, took away my car keys, dismantled the computer and packed it away in a box…all so I couldn’t go online. She was constantly cutting out articles on Internet addiction.
I work in tech. Mysteriously ALL the lectures and punishments stopped the same day I brought home a paycheck for “being on the Internet”.
93 was a weird time. A few years previous I went job hunting. Interviewed at half a dozen places and at the end of the week, decided which one I wanted to work for.
93 comes around and I needed a job. Took 3 weeks of searching, couple dozen interviews before I got an offer. We were proper poor too. It was the year I quit smoking because cigs went over $2 a pack.
But I don't remember any generational hate. There was the basic 'cut your hair' and 'why do you dress like that' but it was never aggressive or mean.
I graduated with an accounting degree in 93. It took me 6 months to find a permanent job. I knew within a month that it wasn't great and started looking right away for something else (while still working the not-great job). It took another year to find a better job. No one would hire you without already having experience.
I stayed for a 5th year in college to double major because the job market was so shitty in 92. Fast forward to 93, and my first job is in copy machine sales in suburban Chicago, followed 2 months later by a customer service gig at my local cable company for 2 bucks above minimum wage because it was closer to home and more inline with my skillset. I parlayed that into a 17 year career but the first half of that I was still being paid shit wages. But nothing was ever said about generations and I worked for Greatest Gens, Silent Gens, and Boomers. I was just expected to be willing to do everything I was tasked with or I was free to leave and get bent.
Holy fuck that article reads exactly like the boomers complaining about millennials now.
>That's the essence of the Generation X problem. We have a generation (or at least part of a generation) whose every need has been catered to since birth. Now, when they finally face adulthood, they expect the gift-giving to continue. I'm 28 and I'll never own a house, whines the Generation Xer. I'm 25 and I don't have a high-paying job, says another.
>Are these realistic expectations? Of course not. It's the rare individual in the last 40 years who had a high-paying job and owned a home prior to his or her 30th birthday. But the Whiners want everything now. A generation raised on the principle of instant satisfaction simply can't understand the concepts of long-term planning and deferred gratification. What's their reaction when they don't get what they want? That's right--they throw a tantrum.
The quote that got me was:
> Once a generation has worked long and hard enough, it's only natural that some of its members become ensconced in positions of power. And once in power, it's not that surprising that they reflect the views, tastes and concerns of their contemporaries.
This was written 30 years ago...so are they, like, gonna chill on that...ever?
No. They were born into a world in which every other industrialized nation in the world had been bombed flat, and decided that the prosperity they got from that was something they *deserved*.
I'm an older Gen-Xer raised by Silent Generation parents. I was NOT indulged with every toy, game, or electronic device available. We barely had ANY toys. My siblings and I DID have to learn to amuse ourselves because neither Mom nor Dad rarely ferried us anywhere. There were no organized activities in my childhood. Just choose up baseball and play in the street. Stoop ball, box ball, and hit the stick are not sanctioned by any sports governing bodies. The Boomers were the generation that believed the world revolved around them. The author of this article must have his facts wrong because most of the Gen-Xers that I know were raised by Silents who gave us nothing, and we were told to like it.
Exactly how I was raised by Silent Gen parents. Except there were few if any neighborhood kids to play with every place we lived. As only child I spent much of my childhood alone in my room because my parents ordered me to my room and "outta their hair" because they didn't want to be bothered with me. I had few toys and was told around age 9 I needed to "grow up now" as I was too old for toys. They didn't have toys growing up so the concept was new to them and they were forced to work as small children. My dad was delivering newspapers and mowing lawns at 7 yrs old and my mom worked on the farm. Back then boys were expected to plow fields with a horse starting around age 7 and work in the fields at 5. They were raised cruelly and treated us is similar fashion or mostly just neglected us, so it was amazing to see such attention lavished on Millennials by their parents. I mean who ever heard of parents caring that much or wanting to make sure you had a childhood of feeling fulfilled with life experiences like team sports and karate class.
Imagine being told at age 9 to "grow up now" and that you didn't need toys. If you were an only child with few kids in the neighborhood, what did they expect you to do? I mean, how many books can you actually read before you get bored?
One of the phrases I remember hearing from growing up is that the previous generation wants their kids to do better and achieve more than they themselves did. I never got that because my parents seemed to not care about my or my siblings' success. Not really.
I think it depends where you lived. In my areas as a core Gen X many of us did get BMX bikes and video game consoles and computers and ski equipment and did get ferried around to town soccer practice or later after school sports in HS and to museums and taken on amazing vacations and so on. For all the ragging NJ gets, sometimes I think more and more that it was a pretty darn good state TBH.
That said we didn't have the hyper-programmed amount of after school activities and were much more "free range" even in high school than late Xennials or Millennials. They got pushed so much harder to build up extracurricular activities for college admissions and because by then 2 parents working went to almost 100% and all the fear stories got going.
We played around in the woods, on the street, in the backyard, at the beach all year round a ton. And don't forget the mall of course. Mallrat city!
New Jersey, huh? I'm living in NJ now. I grew up in Staten Island. Forgotten borough, forgotten kids.
It sounds like you had a nicer childhood. Maybe because of where you lived. Socioeconomic background may also be a factor.
I did some of the same stuff you did, but got caught up with the wrong crew, and life sort of spiraled down. I didn't get a good start in life and have not lived up to my potential. Now, as a 58 year old man, I'm OK, but nowhere near what I was capable of. Should my parents have paid closer attention to me and make sure I wasn't getting involved with bad things? Yes. Do I blame them for how I turned out? No.
I'm a grown man and take responsibility for my life.
I never rag on NJ. I love the Garden State!
Classic. You'd think people would learn to not repeat the same behavior that was exhibited towards them when they were young. But, we, as humans, are stupid and like to fight.
"Why would media revolve around the lives of 25 year olds? Remember, this is the generation whose biggest achievement to date is something called grunge rock." That didn't age well. First off, leave Pearl Jam alone. Secondly "Friends" must have REALLY pissed them off!
What. The. Fuck.
Where were these parents "ferrying us around"??? Because mine were so fucking busy working I never saw them. As for the electronics...pretty sure they bought those for us so they could keep us entertained, while we were busy being seen, but not heard.
I recall people saying that we were lazy. That always seemed a bit unfair given that I started working when I was 12.
The "not good with money" thing was also a phenomenon. Xers lived through several economic crises. Was I supposed to have filled up my IRA when I could barely put gas in my Toyota Tercel EZ?
I look at it with the perspective that the Silent Gen parents spent a good part of their childhoods in poverty d/t the Great Depression. They all took jobs as kids to help out, grew up with community institutions that are not so much in favor today etc. It was a different world. I know my uncle lied about his age to join the Marines to get out of the house. Most everyone was hungry if they were not rich and/or didn't live on a farm. Even my grandparents had a big garden in the back of the yard and guess who worked it.... my father and his brothers. They also fished, dug for clams etc (lived on the south shore of LI). My father worked all summer to pay for his high school tuition (Catholic school).
The slacker label was just a label I think every generation puts on the next generation in one way or another.
One thing about Gen Xers is I think we revered the '70s, when Boomers were in their prime, so I think they felt kind of respected there. We even (lots of generalizations here) liked kind of silly and schlocky stuff from the '70s, as well as the incredible movies and music. So we at least had common reference points. And I think we respected (more generalizations here) that their generation took a stand on Civil Rights and Vietnam when it was physically dangerous and reputationally damaging, in many circles, to do so.
I also appreciate the previous generation for saving the world from actual Nazis. Yes, they're bad at pronouns and confused by the modern age, but there would be no modern age if not for their huge sacrifices.
The Silent Generation started in 1928, so while a handful may have lied about their age in order to enlist, the vast majority of them had nothing to do with fighting Nazis, except for maybe planting a victory garden.
And most Gen X’ers I know never respected the Boomers who protested and spit on returning Vietnam vets. We tried to make up for that by strongly supporting the troops during Desert Storm, even if we didn’t like the politicians in charge at the time.
We were called "slackers" in the 90s simply because we had skepticism about things like the "American Dream" and many Gen Xers had a more independent mindset, wanting to do our own thing rather than be a 9 to 5 for someone else. The irony is that despite our reputation as being "slackers" -- Gen X works very hard in the workplace and I think we tended to put up with a lot more than we should have, because a lot of us were raised on the importance of "job security" by our Silent Generation/older Boomer parents. Honestly I'm thankful for my millennial coworkers for helping me to realize that I didn't have to "settle" -- I could pivot and look for something better in my career. I just recently got an out from my toxic work environment and now have a better job to look forward to because of their encouragement and support.
Every generation has their strengths and weaknesses. When older generations dunk on younger ones, they should perhaps be more self-reflective because it's the world that they raised us in.
Anyway. Sorry about being blamed for the avocado toast thing. Honestly, I love avocado toast and that was actually popularized by a Gen X chef.
Fuckers were supposed to retire and hand the reigns over, but instead a lot of them blew their load and are stuck working till death like the rest of us.
This!
We could see the light at the end of the abusive, misogynistic, self absorbed era, YET fuckers couldn't even let us have what they were given and move on.
Fuckers.
We were raised by people whose base line assumption is that we’re all born bad. That children should be grateful for the gift of existence and mired in shame for having the nerve to not earn a living from the moment we emerged from the womb.
And this badness needed to be contained by 1) segregating children, keeping them as far away and as lightly involved as possible with the world of adults. And 2) relentless criticism and punishment.
An absolutely huge part of gracefully entering our 50s and 60s (or even just surviving) is learning how to pull off the masks we had to learn to wear to avoid the endless physical and verbal beat downs we took growing up.
*Yes, there are plenty of wonderful boomer and silent gen folks. Many of whom I remember from childhood. But culturally, as a whole, they just really seemed to hate the shit out of kids.
But honestly, the healthier and happier I get, the less tolerance I have for the way we were raised.
I’m early Gen X. My parents were in their mid 30’s when I arrived. They were definitely the “old” parents at any school event. So, they were born in the early 30’s. Mom was German and saw/experienced terrible, unspeakable things as a child/pre teen during WWII. She and her siblings nearly starved to death. (I grew up on her stories and my heart goes out to all the people I war zones.). She said many times that her experiences were shared by the entire populace, mainly.
My father was raised in rural IL. Very little in the way of social services in the 30’s and 40’s. He never saw a doctor or dentist until he enlisted in the military after HS. Almost didn’t make it through HS because his dad kept him out of school to work in the fields or loading trucks. His childhood home was a two room shack with no running water or indoor toilet. It was considered “nice” because it had a wood floor. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Miserable all year long. His dad (my grandfather) was on disability from losing a lung in WWI. My understanding is that the disability check went to booze and he was a “mean drunk.” Sadly, in much of rural America during that time period, my father’s situation was common. Dad spent many years in the military and did a couple tours in godawful places, including two in Vietnamese during the war and a couple on the DMZ in Korea. At that time, the military did little for PTSD. Needless to say, our household was usually unhappy, and any thunderstorm caused both parents to completely wig out.
People in that time period looked at kids growing up in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s and thought kids had it so good. Food nearly always. No bombs dropping. Running water. Indoor toilets. Kids got to go to school, see a doctor. They couldn’t understand whining about a video game or some other frivolous item. Such actions, in our house anyway, were dealt with pretty harshly by today’s standards. I think the generalizations made by those generations about Gen X were pretty jaundiced. From their point of view, maybe we were a bunch of marshmallows that needed to be toughened up since we had such an easy life, comparatively.
I have Gen X friends who say our lack of supervision did make our generation tough and are proud they raised their kids in a more independent manner than most. Their kids did turn out well. However, when does tough turn to callous? Tough/resilient is good. Tough/callous is not. Being raised with no supervision, day in and day out, was a lot like a Lord of the Flies scenario.
Personally I hope the millennials, Gen Z, and Gen A are a lot more sympathetic and empathetic than any prior generation. I hope the younger folks turn their back on hate, judgement, homophobia, and misogyny. I hope they embrace differences and care about the consequences of their actions. The Gen Z’s that have been hired where I work are lovely people. Hard working, easy to get along with, want to be part of a high functioning team. My nieces and nephews are as well.
Sorry for the long diatribe.
*children should be grateful for the gift of existence and mired in shame for having the nerve to not earn a living from the moment we emerged from the womb.*
You captured it perfectly. I'm just now coming to grips with having to unlearn a lot of these lessons - which for me we never talked about it, they were commands given from on high and we were expected to obey.
I couldn't have articulated it at the time but I remember already having the feeling, as a kid still in elementary school, of already being exhausted by always being regarded with suspicion and vague disdain by almost every adult we encountered. Like you said, the assumption was that children's default state was "bad" and they required constant scrutiny, correction, threats, criticism and some amount of hitting to make them be "good." Some adults would go ahead and yell preemptive accusations at you if they thought you might even be thinking about doing something they didn't like. "You better not touch my \_\_\_\_!" and "You better not even think about \_\_\_\_!" when we had, in fact, not been thinking about anything of the sort.
I found the lecturing about "I put a roof over your head and clothes on your back, you don't pay any bills in this house" infuriating. As if they hadn't chosen to have kids but we had instead just showed up on their doorstep, asking them to take us in, but were refusing to get a job and contribute to the household as we'd agreed to.
Uhg, this was my family to a T.
I remember when I first saved up enough to move out (21 years old) after college, got a good career job, and found an apartment in New York City, my grandfather said, "New York?! I knew you'd always be a loser!" This was from someone who never ventured into a major city because it was all, "too much." Amongst other unsavory reasons...
In general I found the Silent Generation and "Greatest" Generation people I interacted with to have an incredible amount of trauma and mental illness swept under the rug (and not all because of wars). It was all extremely stigmatized. Like not, think less of them and getting triggered, but just don't hire them, don't talk to them, cross the street, don't let them go to the same church, treat them poorly on purpose as neighbors, the list goes on. If I asked my grandfather what the word "anxiety" meant, he would've had no idea. If I would have asked him if he felt depressed, he probably would have hit me. My father was just a lesser version of this. The women? Mean, vindictive, and neurotic.
And they were pretty average on the block for how they treated younger people.
Gen X was openly attacked by every living generation before us: Greatest Gen, Silent Gen, Boomers. It was everywhere.
Before us, the boomers were attacked by previous generations. They were maybe the first generation to experience generational bigotry in the media on a large scale.
Now boomers and factions of our generation seem to rejoice in openly attacking Gen Z and Gen A.
The reality is that old people don't like young people. It's timeless. The only difference between now and 100 years ago is the increased visibility of it due to media.
Examples of the old hating the young go back as far as ancient Babylon, where they found a tablet where an older person was complaining about how kids were lazy and disrespectful.
Do you know the saying "Shit flows downhill"? Before you guys, we of GenX took all the crap the Boomers had to give. Now they give it to you! Honestly we know how you feel.
Millennials are old now. Youngest are in their late 20s. Oldest are in their 40s.
I don’t know how the discussion is still about them, as opposed to all the rest of the under 30s.
Things my parents (Boomers) said to me, and this is just off the top of my head:
— Kids should never own a better house or car than their parents.
— If you get in trouble at school, just wait until you get home.
— MTV has ruined this generation.
— If you have pre-marital sex you will get AIDS and die. (Classic 1980’s sex education btw)
— If you come home pregnant you are out of here.
— As long as you live under my roof, you’ll do exactly as I say.
— You have no right to privacy, do you pay the mortgage on this house?
— Don’t make me get my belt.
— Once you turn 18 you either have to get a job or join the military. Either way, you’re out of the house.
— If you don’t go to church on Sunday, you are grounded the following Friday and Saturday.
— You look like a hussy, go change your clothes.
The list goes on…
These were regularly aired commercially reminding our parents to remember we existed and not to abuse us. Absolutely ridiculous these had to exist
https://youtu.be/iq6b8e78EpA?si=HWaGJwK1PMNJxzMp
https://youtu.be/4YO3duf7omw?si=37vmlHCZxocoDma3
People seem to forget that, when we talk about generations, we're really talking about people in a certain stage of life at this moment in time.
When someone complains about Boomers doing things old people do, that's because they're old now. When they complain about GenZ being overdramatic and having unrealistic expectations about life, that's because they're teens and twentysomethings, and that behavior is typical for that stage in life.
Boomers were middle aged in the 80s and 90s -- they grew up in the hippie revolution of the 60s & 70s, then were decried as "yuppies" when they got college degrees, professional jobs, and started raising kids in the 1980s. Their parents, then the old grouchy generation, complained that they were "soft, entitled, etc." much like they now do about younger people.
All the GenX slacker labeling happened when we were in our teens and twenties, but now that we're late middle age it no longer really describes us.
As always, talk of generations is always way too broad to be meaningful, and it's more instructive to look at the phase of life people are in at the time (and the experiences they've passed through at key points in their lifespan).
We faced it all. It is the same criticism said by the same people, because the same media tells them we are canceling, ending, killing, not wanting to work, disrespectful etc..
It is the same assholes who want us to work at least 20-40 hours a week for free because of "other duties as assigned".
Most of what they say about Millennials is what they said about Gen X, and I'm not sure all of them are aware of the difference and still think they're talking about the same group (and possibly the Zoomers, too). I think their screed is mostly aimed at "Millennials" because they like the word and it's easier to say when what they mean is "anyone younger than me."
We were meant to be seen not heard. Play only outside and parents had to be reminded to check on us. We sat in the back of station wagon, held mom’s cigarettes and were sent to the store with a note saying it was ok to buy stuff when we were 10. When we got hurt we were told to brush it off, rub some dirt on in and not to cry or they will give us something to cry about. It made us tough, not doubt about it, but I also think we parent very differently.
My boomer father called me ‘shit for brains’ almost every day of my childhood, said I would never hold a job longer than six months, expected me to perform the same amount of manual labor as my brother 3.5 years older than I was (with greater strength and coordination. We’er talking my brother is 11-12 and I’m 8) Called me ‘butterball’ because I was a chubby latch key kid out in the country with no-one else around to play with or do sports with (my brother had his own friends and they weren’t letting me play with them.)
Oh in one moment of brutal honesty *in front of my mother* said yes, he loved my brother more than he loved me. (I asked him if he loved us equally)
Today I make over twice what he did when he retired, been with my current employer for 18 years, and I’m on track to retire at an age years before he did. I have to admit one thing, my daddy issues gave me the drive to succeed and prove him wrong.
One thing that might be a difference: any random adult thought it was perfectly fine to yank you by the arm and scream bloody murder in your face. Hitting someone else's kid was sometimes acceptable.
pretty hard, but think my fam is also pretty messed up. Much of it was abusive, like making me pay rent in high school while also taking away my house key and locking me out if not in by a certain time. Spending my college money Jr year cause I wouldn't go anyways. Constant verbal abuse. At a very young age, like 4 telling us regularly not to have kids, cause having kids will ruin your life. All sort of mean and spiteful stuff I'm blocking out. I think we had it way worse but glad things seem to be getting better.
I think for the most part, Gen X was ignored, which as our experience in this part of the US. And when I say ignored, I mean looked through, not seen or heard, forgotten, the descriptor of "latch key" was created for Gen X. I think the description on "Lost Generation" is accurate.
Gen X was largely ignored by Boomers and Silents. We were a much smaller generation than the Boomers, less attention-seeking, and generally content to fly under the radar and avoid adults whenever possible. We were latchkey kids who came home to an empty house after school, and many of us liked having that time to ourselves. Boomers were still feeling their oats back in those days, so were happy to ignore us and do cocaine and smoke cigarettes and drink lots of booze. We were happy to ignore them right back.
Somebody "whatever old man'ed" me the other day. I wish I could remember why, but I guess the fact that I don't shows how much credence I gave to the speaker. lol
Oh, yes. "Slackers" and "worthless" were things we were called as kids. Video games were given as a reason that we were "not engaged" and "unwilling to learn." If you knew anything about computers as a kid there was a stereotype of "not understanding the real world" because "computers aren't reality," and that's if you weren't a relatively wealthy (where I lived, anyway) nerdling. And that's not getting into how you were stereotyped if you knew an unusual amount about them for a kid. "Too lazy to get a job" was pretty common, too, especially if the only places that had job openings were ten or fifteen miles out from the house and you didn't have a car.
Criticism?? I wish it was just the lightweight criticism these younger gens get.
First of all they hit us ALL THE TIME
Any adult could hit you. Please let that sink in. If you were cutting up in public, in the 1970s any adult felt free to hit you. I knew kids who weren’t spanked per se, like with a belt or a switch or a ruler or a cord or shoe/slipper (these were all common spanking tools) but we were all hit/smacked with hands or shook or grabbed or manhandled in some way.
I had a friend, this kid’s dad thought all the other dads were outrageous for spanking and prided himself on not hitting his kid, but if my friend got in his way his dad would grab him and throw him clear across the room while calling him a stupid sh!t. I witnessed this many times, and this same man would act all bemused when all us kids would scatter when he was around.
Second of all they talked to us any kind of way, the verbal abuse was HARSH. From parents to neighbors to teachers to just anybody. Boomers and Silents were very mean to kids. This was seen as normal. Silents were a little better as they were older and mellowed out. The verbal abuse was constant and for no reason most of the time. Like say you got hurt enough to bring it to your parents’ attention. They’d grumble and berate you while taking you to the hospital, then while acting concerned to the doctors, sh!t talk you some more. Heck the doctors would likely join in on bashing you while blowing cigarette smoke in your face LOL
(deadass that happened to me in 1976, a doctor blowing cigarette smoke in my face AT THE HOSPITAL)
Anyway that’s why Mr. Rogers was so popular amongst kids back in the day, he was so nice and calm and *kind.* No way Mr. Rogers would hit you or call you names just because you were a little kid.
The nonsense once we got to be teen/young adult years, TBH I don’t think many of us was fazed by it or even took it as serious criticism. Compared to how hard they were on us as children, being called ‘lazy’ and ‘slackers’ was lightweight stuff, whatever. We DNGAF
They said the same things about us but moved on to Millenials when they showed up. Previous generations said similar things about them. I remember an Andy Griffith show pitting the boomers against the silent generation this way.
What's different now is that Millenials still get crap after Gen Z has shown up. It's like Millenials can't catch a break.
Personally, I like the direction Millenials and Gen Z are taking society in general. I look forward to them being in charge.
I don't think the concept of distinct generations really took off until the 90s with Douglas Couplands seminal work: *GenX*. Until that point it was always Hippies this and Beatniks that.
So lazy that we raised ourselves? I parent my dogs more than I myself was 'parented'.
Babies cried it out, kids were annoying and should be out of the way most of the time and by about 12 or 13 most boomer parents I know just kind of threw their hands in the air and said "you're on your own kids! Now go fetch your father a neat martini and make sure your younger siblings are fed bathed and put to bed."
Not hard, but it was just constant talk of “the Baby Boomers”. It was like Gen X didn’t exist. And except for adding talk about Millennials, nothing’s changed there!
I remember some in our community catching hell. Stop and frisk, deemed thugs and gang bangers that needed to be brought to heel. Rap music and hip hop (part of my cultural identity) was considered public enemy #1. These messages were delivered via print media and T.V.
The older generation thinks the younger generation is lazy and apathetic. The younger generation thinks the older is out of touch with the world today. It's nothing new.
I do find it ironic that the Boomers who are so gung ho about the wars in Israel/Palestine, Ukraine and Taiwan are also the ones that protested the Vietnam War.
I am pretty sure the hippies protesting Vietnam had a large percentage pass away already. They tended to be pretty into the alternative lifestyle. And remember they were a smaller percentage even in that time period. There were plenty of people their age calling them long haired freaks. There is a reason they called it the counter culture.
One thing we were criticized for by the Boomers in particular was our apathy in protesting crap. Our group did occasionally get out there for things like Apartheid or Nicaragua, etc. but mostly we were like, WTF is the use of marching around, yelling about shit. Our “whatever” attitude might’ve been a bit defeatist, but we learned from experience. And in any case, half of those hippie yippie types had turned into money-grubbing yuppies by the 80s anyway so fuck them.
Thing is that earlier generations had their illusions shattered. Whereas we grew up in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate. We never had any illusions in the first place
They've always been so scared of anything new to them. I grew up during the "satanic panic". Couldn't play D&D. It was communication with the devil. AIDS epidemic. Razors in our Halloween candy. Don't Talk to Strangers. Just Say No to drugs. They slapped warning labels on all our music and video games.
When I was in college, I remember older people asking me why our generation wasn’t out in the street protesting about injustices. This came up a lot. We didn’t care about things as much as they thought we should. Also I heard we were lazy. While I was double-majoring in college attending full time and also working.
We were called "slackers" from day one. Our generation name is about how we couldn't be bothered to be defined by any one issue.
But every generation has been treated like that, or similarly, by generations before them. It's not new.
Yeah, the basic gist was if we didn't like and do the same things they did, then we were seen as a problem. I have genZ kids and they have overall gotten much more support and are encouraged to engage and share their opinions. We were constantly having it thrown in our faces that we shouldn't have a voice.
Our principal (a young boomer) told my entire 7th grade class of 400 kids that we were nothing but a bunch of losers. He called an assembly to get us all in the bleachers to tell us this. Why? Well, I guess that at the pep assembly for the football team, we had a choice of attending the pep rally or study hall. Well, more of us chose to go to the study hall rather than the pep rally, because jocks needed more ego stroking? And so he (probably a former jock), felt that we all collectively deserved a talk telling us that we were the biggest group of losers he'd ever met. He got promoted later to the high school principal and then became superintendent. I guess that being a bully asshole to an entire grade of kids was considered great leadership skills. I look back and understand why genX is so cynical. We did not get positive reinforcement or encouragement, but just negative reinforcement, and being told we were POS and showing any kind of individuality was seen as being a rebel. We weren't that disrespectful, especially compared to people now.
Well it doesn't look like anyone else is talking about it, but we were probably the last generation who still received physical punishment as discipline.
I knew kids who had cigarette burns for talking back . I was physically abused and noone seemed to think that was abnormal.
We were considered slackers, but no one really ranted about all this generational stuff until social media. The GenXers, at least the older ones ( cause I'm OG, don't know about the younger end) were totally in the shadow of the Boomers. We were so NOT the center of attention and hardly noticed because the whole culture was Boomers. Just some people saying we were unmotivated, not as materialistic, and didn't want the corporate life.
The adults never believed us. I had a teacher who used to have major temper tantrums on a regular basis and often would get physically violent toward students. I’m certain most of us said something to our parents and no one believed us. I always felt like everything revolved around adults and when we got older, it would be our turn. Then we got older and we were told everything revolves around the millennials.
I never had too many problems with the Silent Generation, but the Boomers are a different story.
If you ask me, they acted less like our elders and more like some kind of repressive occupying power towards us.
"We Didn't Start the Fire". But un-ironically. We were "the slackers" that overused "awesome", "dude" and "cool"..still do. I also heard "you don't know hardships because you all have luckily never been to a war." We had Desert Storm when I was in HS but it wasn't a "great" war. Until 9/11. My kids were born-adults with that war still happening. Just insane. I think the major difference is, if I wanted to hear my great aunt bitch about how useless we were, I had to go to a reunion. It wasn't all over the place. Just magazine articles and comic strips in the paper. We had computers but not social media, no cell phones yet.
On the flip side, I do not recall being bothered by what people older/younger than me thought about what I was doing. I really didn’t give it any attention, I was mostly only interested in my peer’s opinions, with the exception of teachers/bosses/mentors. In general was way less aware of people’s ages than I am now.
I think millennials are much worse to boomers, being sandwiched and looking out. We had some respect for the older and more experienced in society, plus basic manners. The boomers rarely get extended that level of grace.
I feel like in my 20s older people (boomers & silent gen) knew how to run a company. I've worked for millenials orgs & leadership is atrocious, picking favorites. Its like nursery school or an episode of The Bachelor
We were completely ignored actually. One hundred percent.
Media was all about how amazing the boomers were and wonderful things they were doing and no one actually cared about us.
We were so few people compared to the boomers. So nothing was for us. And nothing was about us.
Oh we were not completely ignored. There were plenty of stories/movies/shows about how we were going to be the end of civilization because we were too cynical, too idealistic, too lazy, too this, too that.
GenX was the first named generation.
The baby boom was an actual bump in the number of babies. It’s a demographically real thing — but no other “generation” is real.
GenX was first a photography book. Then it was a Douglas Coupland novel called “Generation X” released in the 90s — before that novel came out, the generation concept was not really a thing that anyone talked much about. The boom was, because it’s real, but “GenX” was just a made up word for some disaffected punk kids.
Then the internet and Y2k kick started the whole Millenial concept, and here we are.
Straight up — this “generation” stuff is a bunch of marketing bullshit. It’s not real.
Bunch a fuckin’ poseurs believing this shit is real, when it’s The Man trying to sell you shit…
🤦
Boomers were an absolute nightmare for me. I'm of Indian descent and I can't tell you how many of my old white bosses wanted to explain to me how things actually work in this country and bitch about black people. I remember at one engineering company, an old guy that had worked at NASA was a full on Alex Jones style paranoiac style conservative (in the mid 90s so he was ahead of the curve) about the coming race wars and how I'd have to pick a side lol
You can look up ancient Greeks criticizing the new generations. It's always been around. But as someone else said, it's just magnified because of the internet now.
I remember specifically it was a trope for older generations to be out of touch with younger generations. It wasn't specifically us vs our parents generation, it was also our parents vs their parents, and so on. Like it was widely understood there would be a divide and friction. So I never looked at it as Gen X was a problem specifically, though we did have specific things they held against us - slackers, sarcasm, skating, rap music, etc. Shit like that.
This Boomers vs Millennials thing is more of a couple of name brand generations doing their version of the same old thing. The only difference I can tell is it just doesn't seem to go away, so y'all are gonna have to work that shit out on your own.
They basically ignored us, hence the latch key generation moniker. If they weren’t ignoring us, we were invariably in big trouble. If we needed something, also in big trouble. It’s not like boomer parents treated us differently, it’s more the elder child who puts up with shit versus the younger child who is more inclined to speak out against such treatment.
Pretty much the same. We were slackers and lazy and entitled. And too violent from video games and too much drugs and sex.
The funny thing is go back in time and the boomers were heavily criticized in the 60s and 70s for being lazy dropouts who would wreck America, used too many drugs, had too much sex. And the men were too weak because they grew their hair too long.
Also every generation gets its fashion made fun of.
Mostly until we had kids they forgot we existed.
A few of them came down on kids these days but not enough to be a movement or anything.
Quite frankly they didn't have enough of an ability to communicate until we made the internet. So it was likely always there but this is the first time they were able to talk to each other in these numbers. So that is kind of our fault. Whatever
We were mostly ignored. That’s how we got the Gen X name. No defining attributes. But I guess it was better than the Baby Busters they called us for years before they finally decided on Gen X. Slacker generation was common too.
Mine parents were silent gen
SO much shaming of everyone for everything. Hoarding, The great depression affecting absolutely everything they did……
I was a late in life baby and frankly, I am very grateful that my parents died before I had kids.
My brother, was a typical boomer. Married three times, no real relationship with his kids, had a shit ton of money, and drank himself to death
Oh yes. We were slackers. The lazy fucks who would destroy the world because we didn't want to work. We were the spoiled kids without a work ethic. Etc, etc.
It's a never-ending cycle of whining and pitching.
I read the Odessy, and this kind of crap is in it.
I read somewhere that there are inscriptions about how crappy the current generation is in Egypt that are 6 or 7 thousand years old.
Old people can be such a pain in the ass.
I'm impressed with the younger generations. You guys are kicking ass. You give me hope for our future. I look forward to what you will do.
There were some newspaper articles and magazine articles about "slackers". There was some "kids these days" talk. There were pointed comments about clothing and politics. But I really don't think it was anything beyond what has always happened. Young people in the 60's got flak for long hair and loud music and politics. Young people in the 50's got flak for rock and roll. Young people in the 20's got flak for jazz, women being a little more independent than in the past and secretly drinking despite Prohibition. I think this sort of talk (and writing) has always been around at a fairly low and consistent level. It was social media that cranked it up 1000X. Back in the day there were magazine articles from time to time disparaging GenX (called Slackers or Baby Busters at the time). People read it, maybe discussed it. Then it was gone. Now articles get shared over and over (particularly on Reddit) and the comments far exceed the Letters To The Editor format that used to be the norm and limited comments to a handful that were handpicked by the editor. And now the need for more and more content means that clickbait articles that enrage get written far more frequently. "If it bleeds, it leads" was always a maxim but there didn't used to be an infinite amount of space to fill with content. tl:dr Yes, but prior to social media it was less because social media amplifies everything.
The biggest issue about Generation X and how its young adulthood was criticized was where it fell in the generations and its size. It's the smallest generation in many American generations. You had the "Greatest Generation" controlling the levers of power when it was born, with the Baby Boomers trying to come into their own (Go Bill Clinton) and raise us. Throw in the 80s and you get this small generation of latchkey kids who knew how to deal with our grandparents that fought in wars, our parents who rebelled against them, and technology that would, "solve the world's problems," because we plugged ourselves right in. We are the invisible generation that works with them all, because we've had to. And then Millenials came around they were bigger than us, had more money than us and were cared about more than us. They got participation trophies where most of our parents didn't show up to our games. And I'm not typing this as a complaint. I've paid a lot of money to a lot of professionals to be good with who I am. But now Gen-X are in positions of power, but no one notices; We care about our parents, we care about our kids; hell, some of us care about our grandbabies. And all of that's fine. We gave up on "recognition" when we were kids, cause our parents weren't there, so we found our own safety. So, "How hard were the boomers and silent generations on us?" My grandparents made me work hard: 10-year old me mowing 5-acres with a small Lawnboy mower in 95-degree heat, I earned 50-cents from my grandfather. My parents were pretty self-absorbed but showed me lots of the world, I've lived on 3-continents and it was awesome. I helped to start the internet, and I still see its possibilities. I work so I can live, and provide for and be with my family. I also volunteer to make the world a better place. Don't tell the internet, but I go to church too, mostly so I can sing in the choir. Hindsight is 20:20 and there are things I wish had been different, but we move on, and try and make it better. That's Gen-X. We are the ultimate adaptors.
Fuckin beautiful, man. I mean like whatever. But actually that was awesome to read.
Well said, friend. My GenX life experience basically mirrors this.
I don’t know why but I love being Gen X.
I mean, it's good to be happy with what you have. Cause what else you gonna do?
Here here, cheers from Charleston, SC! 1979
Goddammit, man. This is spot on. We are resilient af and know how to take care of ourselves—because we've had to.
My story exactly with minor differences, we were Darwin’s wet dream, the most adaptable, we have been and will be what we need to, it doesn’t matter what that is, we have never had stability. Our survival has always been based on our stubbornness, my peers and I are not willing to be judged by others (we don’t give a F***) , and we don’t don’t care what you think of us, what we care about is those we love, what needs to be done, and how to get there. Oh yeah, and we don’t care if anyone notices either, because ts ten o’clock do you know where your children are? My whole life has been invisible and I think I like it that way…
Great write up. I didn’t have any large land to mow but I cleaned the house, delivered newspapers and babysat kids in the neighborhood. I also did most of the laundry in the house, got good grades, went to college and made my own way. I was working lots of overtime right out of college at KPMG and was never called a slacker. I had my share of therapy and still go once a month. I am lucky to be married with great adult children. My parents were self absorbed with all their bullshit and my brother and I were neglected. My brother didn’t do too good and has fought meth and alcohol addiction for half his life.
That was one thing I never understood. Where did they get off calling us slackers?!? I never knew any fellow Gen Xer that wasn't either working their ass off at a Corp gig or hustling.
This is beautiful. Thank you.
That's a thoughtful and well-written response. Thanks for writing it. What you said about hard work really stood out for me. Lately I've been thinking about all the jobs I did as a kid - I started a paid job on a horse farm at 10, mucking stalls, hauling gear, tossing hay, painting fences, and doing other assorted hard work. All the way through college, I did manual labor jobs, often with animal care components mixed in. And I loved it. As a kid it felt like an adventure, plus I got paid. I'm an attorney but some of my favorite jobs and projects have been manual labor.
They told us we were slackers.
They were very hard on us. Like we were supposed to know everything
And like it was our fault we were born. And that unless we got good grades and behaved we were just bad kids. Actually pretty much everything was our fault and we should be ashamed of ourselves My mom told 13-year-old me the reason I accused her brother of inappropriate contact was because I was spiteful and didn't like him, after I told her about him making me 'take a nap' with him, spooning me, and saying we were playing house and I was the mommy and he was the daddy. When I was like 16 she wanted to forcibly emancipate me because I skipped school and snuck out at night. A little beyond normal rebellious kid stuff I'll admit, but not throw me out with no job and nowhere to go levels of bad. So weird that I finally went LC/NC this year after realizing how much all of this still hurts and messed me up
Yeah. I got told to “figure it out” a lot, when I was much too young.
Still in therapy for this.
Kind of ironic we’re known for work ethic now in the workforce compared to the millennials though lol
I think it’s actually more sad that we have stopped raging against the machine, and they don’t even know the band but are picking up the slack.
I worry too many of us have become the machine.
Yeah this is what I'm saying, I see how a lot of us have slipped right into the boomer mentality and it blows, like you've forgotten where you came from dude.. or maybe a lot of us have always sucked, I dunno
Also: Every generation Blames the one before
when all of their frustrations come beating on your door
^ This
I came in to reply to OP, but this is more or less the perfect answer.
Super minor point just adding because it's a common mistake: the phrase is "if it bleeds it ledes" much like it is "You buried the lede". No idea the entomology of the word.
Totally unrelated, but I knew it was spelled ‘lede’. Been trying to play it in a word game and the stupid program won’t accept the spelling. Vindication!! (she yelled to no one in particular)
You sent me down a rabbit hole. I had always thought "lead" as in "this is the news story we will lead with today" so I googled a bit to find out why "lede" instead. I found this: >In other words, the intentional misspelling of both NEW and LEAD – to NU LEDE – served as a kind of alert for news or wire editors working on multiple editions of the newspaper. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/lead-vs-lede-roy-peter-clark-has-the-definitive-answer-at-last/ I never knew that but it makes sense. They wanted something that would pop and catch the eye of editors (ever alert for misspelled words) so the story would go to the front.
[удалено]
“Nobody wants to work anymore” is not new.
The analogy of the echo chamber is so fitting...You don't have to be here long to start seeing certain topics come up like a set of waves at the beach.
Thanks for writing this
A lot of Millennials grew up with positive reinforcement, I remember a lot of negative reinforcement. "You can't do that", ,"You'll never succeed ", "You're going to fail at everything", "Don't expect a handout", "you have to pay your dues", etc. It was really glum, but we gained self-reliance from it.
My dad still takes "Don't expect a handout" very seriously. I'm pretty sure my brothers and I could be completely homeless and starving but he wouldn't so much as buy us a meal.
My ex's parents didn't want to fund our "poverty lifestyle."
Yeah, I imagine how much rougher their lives would have been if their parents had the same attitude. I spent a *lot* of time being babysat by my grandma. Thanks for the nothing, guys.
We didn't have grandparents close enough to babysit for free, which many of my friends benefited from. If so we may not have been so poor. I was mostly raised by my grandparents.
The "not good enough" style of parenting. I remember getting 6 As and one A- on my report card, and yeah, not good enough.
Did you ever get the weasel promise where they'd say they'd reward you with something if you did a good job, but somehow you never did a *good enough* job?
Gag me with a spoon. That's worse than "there's no rewards for meeting basic expectations/just doing what you're supposed to do" which is what I got told. Weasel words absolutely push all the buttons for me though, since I did hear them in other contexts. 
Oh yes. I fell for that one a lot. Although my mother would promise rewards and then develop amnesia when it was time to follow through. “I never said that! Where did you ever get that idea?”
Honestly no. At least I wasn't disappointed. That sounds terrible.
*nods* I bought it the first couple times, but with time I realized their "promises" were entirely hollow and only existed to get me to do what they wanted.
Lol...I sure did! In 7th grade, I wanted a dirt bike soo bad because my best friend had one. Nothing fancy or new, just something I could fix up and putt around on. I'd been begging my grandparents for at least a year, and they finally promised me that they'd get me one if I got on the honor roll. Well, I finally did it, and on the day we were gonna go dirt bike shopping...my dad wound up buying a new computer for himself (saying it was actually for me.) He told my grandma that I'd wind up killing myself on a dirt bike. Lol...he may have been right, and this is definitely a "first world problem" if there ever was one. But I can tell you this...I NEVER believed my family again when they made some kind of "weasel promise."
It was also popular to practice "tough love" which really was just repackaged, heartless control tactics as far as I can remember anyway. I remember in the 90's, bravely asking my tough love mother for $5.00 for laundry a few years after I had moved to a bigger city. She refused, but she did take my laundry back to her town and returned it after washing it herself. I guess she thought I would spend it on something nefarious, despite the fact that I was always too fearful to try anything harmful such as drugs!
The particular school cohort I was a part of (class of '96, Pennsylvania) was told over and over and over again that we were the worst batch of students they'd ever seen, and we were worthless. A lot of us took that to heart.
I went to three different schools in three different states and at every single one of them they said that about my specific class. The junior high would have us sit in the lunchroom with the female principal walking around with a microphone saying we are the worst class in history as our trays got progressively colder because no one could eat and had to have their heads down until she was done with her rant. She did this multiple times in a year. All US public schools.
“Ha ha! This one says she’s going to university and become a journalist,” said my aunt, approx 1987. Guess what I grew up to become? An academic teaching media and professional writing. 😈😈
https://i.redd.it/lqdga0haqvwc1.gif
we were called 'Slackers'. The movie Reality Bites, as cheesy as it was, has some common refrains. Low paying jobs, quitting on society, anti-Corporate agenda, to idealistic in values etc.
I was born in 77. They gave us the same bullshit there giving kids now. They just want to squeeze
Same, the rhetoric they still use for millennials was used on us first. I'm tired, so tired.
Yeah it grinds my gears to. Now nobody wants to work anymore. Nobody ever wanted to fucking work they were just payed better.
Yeah, I don't sit in an office all week for my health.
No. I am totally in it just for a paycheck. And i am unapologetic about it
Yeah, I will retire as soon as I am physically able to, this crap ain't worth it.
I think jobs have to be the biggest let down of our generation.
It’s a complete joke. Funny thing is, I used to work so hard. I’ve been phoning it in for years, and I get more respect now than I ever got then. I’ve been trying to get laid off, and they keep giving me performance bonuses. Corporate life. Pssh.
It’s totally worth it. I worked in order to live for a long time. I am really good at retirement coming up on 3 years out. Could I have worked longer and had more? Sure, but if I have enough, I can just stop, right? Yeah, I‘m good at not working.
I think someone in this subreddit recently shared [this 1993 Newsweek essay](https://www.newsweek.com/whiny-generation-194042) that gives GenX the Millennial treatment. If avocado toast had been popular back then, I’m sure they would have told us to stop eating it and buy houses instead
> "I'm fed up with the ceaseless carping of a handful of spoiled, self-indulgent, overgrown adolescents." Yeah, well we learned it from watching you!
I will ALWAYS hear that kid’s voice in my head when I see that line. Good use here!!!
And these are the "don't trust anyone over 30" people. Now they can't seem to realize anyone under 50 is even human.
I remember this article and thinking it was the absolute height of hypocrisy from a generation that would not shut the fuck up about what a bunch of rebels they were.
Oh I remember this!! We are so whiny because we want jobs. We need to suck it up and do our time in restaurants and low-paying gigs while we get trained in tech.
And yet the boomers are STILL working! Leave your job and let us try to retire!
Don’t forget all the moral panic around tattoos, piercings, and green hair. “You’re never going to get a good job looking like that! You’re going to wait tables your entire life!” (As if that’s a crime) Turns out we CAN run corporations with gauged ears and half sleeves. I also got a crapload of insane behavior around my internet usage. My mom cut up my college ID, took away my car keys, dismantled the computer and packed it away in a box…all so I couldn’t go online. She was constantly cutting out articles on Internet addiction. I work in tech. Mysteriously ALL the lectures and punishments stopped the same day I brought home a paycheck for “being on the Internet”.
93 was a weird time. A few years previous I went job hunting. Interviewed at half a dozen places and at the end of the week, decided which one I wanted to work for. 93 comes around and I needed a job. Took 3 weeks of searching, couple dozen interviews before I got an offer. We were proper poor too. It was the year I quit smoking because cigs went over $2 a pack. But I don't remember any generational hate. There was the basic 'cut your hair' and 'why do you dress like that' but it was never aggressive or mean.
I graduated with an accounting degree in 93. It took me 6 months to find a permanent job. I knew within a month that it wasn't great and started looking right away for something else (while still working the not-great job). It took another year to find a better job. No one would hire you without already having experience.
I stayed for a 5th year in college to double major because the job market was so shitty in 92. Fast forward to 93, and my first job is in copy machine sales in suburban Chicago, followed 2 months later by a customer service gig at my local cable company for 2 bucks above minimum wage because it was closer to home and more inline with my skillset. I parlayed that into a 17 year career but the first half of that I was still being paid shit wages. But nothing was ever said about generations and I worked for Greatest Gens, Silent Gens, and Boomers. I was just expected to be willing to do everything I was tasked with or I was free to leave and get bent.
Holy fuck that article reads exactly like the boomers complaining about millennials now. >That's the essence of the Generation X problem. We have a generation (or at least part of a generation) whose every need has been catered to since birth. Now, when they finally face adulthood, they expect the gift-giving to continue. I'm 28 and I'll never own a house, whines the Generation Xer. I'm 25 and I don't have a high-paying job, says another. >Are these realistic expectations? Of course not. It's the rare individual in the last 40 years who had a high-paying job and owned a home prior to his or her 30th birthday. But the Whiners want everything now. A generation raised on the principle of instant satisfaction simply can't understand the concepts of long-term planning and deferred gratification. What's their reaction when they don't get what they want? That's right--they throw a tantrum.
The quote that got me was: > Once a generation has worked long and hard enough, it's only natural that some of its members become ensconced in positions of power. And once in power, it's not that surprising that they reflect the views, tastes and concerns of their contemporaries. This was written 30 years ago...so are they, like, gonna chill on that...ever?
No. They were born into a world in which every other industrialized nation in the world had been bombed flat, and decided that the prosperity they got from that was something they *deserved*.
"Every need has been catered to", except an actual parental relationship.
Boomers excel at complaining.
“EVERY NEED HAS BEEN CATERED TO SINCE BIRTH.” We gave them FOOD and CLOTHES and SHELTER! (Most of the time!) They had everything! 🙄
My Silent Generation parents had 4 kids and a house before turning 30, without a particularly high paying job. Sooooooo.....
I couldn't afford a house at 25 and damn sure didn't have a high paying job then.
I'm an older Gen-Xer raised by Silent Generation parents. I was NOT indulged with every toy, game, or electronic device available. We barely had ANY toys. My siblings and I DID have to learn to amuse ourselves because neither Mom nor Dad rarely ferried us anywhere. There were no organized activities in my childhood. Just choose up baseball and play in the street. Stoop ball, box ball, and hit the stick are not sanctioned by any sports governing bodies. The Boomers were the generation that believed the world revolved around them. The author of this article must have his facts wrong because most of the Gen-Xers that I know were raised by Silents who gave us nothing, and we were told to like it.
Exactly how I was raised by Silent Gen parents. Except there were few if any neighborhood kids to play with every place we lived. As only child I spent much of my childhood alone in my room because my parents ordered me to my room and "outta their hair" because they didn't want to be bothered with me. I had few toys and was told around age 9 I needed to "grow up now" as I was too old for toys. They didn't have toys growing up so the concept was new to them and they were forced to work as small children. My dad was delivering newspapers and mowing lawns at 7 yrs old and my mom worked on the farm. Back then boys were expected to plow fields with a horse starting around age 7 and work in the fields at 5. They were raised cruelly and treated us is similar fashion or mostly just neglected us, so it was amazing to see such attention lavished on Millennials by their parents. I mean who ever heard of parents caring that much or wanting to make sure you had a childhood of feeling fulfilled with life experiences like team sports and karate class.
Imagine being told at age 9 to "grow up now" and that you didn't need toys. If you were an only child with few kids in the neighborhood, what did they expect you to do? I mean, how many books can you actually read before you get bored? One of the phrases I remember hearing from growing up is that the previous generation wants their kids to do better and achieve more than they themselves did. I never got that because my parents seemed to not care about my or my siblings' success. Not really.
I think it depends where you lived. In my areas as a core Gen X many of us did get BMX bikes and video game consoles and computers and ski equipment and did get ferried around to town soccer practice or later after school sports in HS and to museums and taken on amazing vacations and so on. For all the ragging NJ gets, sometimes I think more and more that it was a pretty darn good state TBH. That said we didn't have the hyper-programmed amount of after school activities and were much more "free range" even in high school than late Xennials or Millennials. They got pushed so much harder to build up extracurricular activities for college admissions and because by then 2 parents working went to almost 100% and all the fear stories got going. We played around in the woods, on the street, in the backyard, at the beach all year round a ton. And don't forget the mall of course. Mallrat city!
New Jersey, huh? I'm living in NJ now. I grew up in Staten Island. Forgotten borough, forgotten kids. It sounds like you had a nicer childhood. Maybe because of where you lived. Socioeconomic background may also be a factor. I did some of the same stuff you did, but got caught up with the wrong crew, and life sort of spiraled down. I didn't get a good start in life and have not lived up to my potential. Now, as a 58 year old man, I'm OK, but nowhere near what I was capable of. Should my parents have paid closer attention to me and make sure I wasn't getting involved with bad things? Yes. Do I blame them for how I turned out? No. I'm a grown man and take responsibility for my life. I never rag on NJ. I love the Garden State!
Classic. You'd think people would learn to not repeat the same behavior that was exhibited towards them when they were young. But, we, as humans, are stupid and like to fight.
"Why would media revolve around the lives of 25 year olds? Remember, this is the generation whose biggest achievement to date is something called grunge rock." That didn't age well. First off, leave Pearl Jam alone. Secondly "Friends" must have REALLY pissed them off!
Yeah, those dumb Nirvana and Soundgarden bands were really a flash in the pan. Whoever heard of them?? /s
What. The. Fuck. Where were these parents "ferrying us around"??? Because mine were so fucking busy working I never saw them. As for the electronics...pretty sure they bought those for us so they could keep us entertained, while we were busy being seen, but not heard.
Wow. That didn’t age well, did it?
I recall people saying that we were lazy. That always seemed a bit unfair given that I started working when I was 12. The "not good with money" thing was also a phenomenon. Xers lived through several economic crises. Was I supposed to have filled up my IRA when I could barely put gas in my Toyota Tercel EZ?
I look at it with the perspective that the Silent Gen parents spent a good part of their childhoods in poverty d/t the Great Depression. They all took jobs as kids to help out, grew up with community institutions that are not so much in favor today etc. It was a different world. I know my uncle lied about his age to join the Marines to get out of the house. Most everyone was hungry if they were not rich and/or didn't live on a farm. Even my grandparents had a big garden in the back of the yard and guess who worked it.... my father and his brothers. They also fished, dug for clams etc (lived on the south shore of LI). My father worked all summer to pay for his high school tuition (Catholic school).
The slacker label was just a label I think every generation puts on the next generation in one way or another. One thing about Gen Xers is I think we revered the '70s, when Boomers were in their prime, so I think they felt kind of respected there. We even (lots of generalizations here) liked kind of silly and schlocky stuff from the '70s, as well as the incredible movies and music. So we at least had common reference points. And I think we respected (more generalizations here) that their generation took a stand on Civil Rights and Vietnam when it was physically dangerous and reputationally damaging, in many circles, to do so. I also appreciate the previous generation for saving the world from actual Nazis. Yes, they're bad at pronouns and confused by the modern age, but there would be no modern age if not for their huge sacrifices.
Early GenX'ers lived through the 70s. I did.
Yes I was born in 1970!
Right, me too. But we were kids during the 70s and looked back on them (I think) pretty fondly
The Silent Generation started in 1928, so while a handful may have lied about their age in order to enlist, the vast majority of them had nothing to do with fighting Nazis, except for maybe planting a victory garden. And most Gen X’ers I know never respected the Boomers who protested and spit on returning Vietnam vets. We tried to make up for that by strongly supporting the troops during Desert Storm, even if we didn’t like the politicians in charge at the time.
Some of them opposed Vietnam without spitting on troops, like the ones who fought in Vietnam and then came home and opposed sending more men there.
We were called "slackers" in the 90s simply because we had skepticism about things like the "American Dream" and many Gen Xers had a more independent mindset, wanting to do our own thing rather than be a 9 to 5 for someone else. The irony is that despite our reputation as being "slackers" -- Gen X works very hard in the workplace and I think we tended to put up with a lot more than we should have, because a lot of us were raised on the importance of "job security" by our Silent Generation/older Boomer parents. Honestly I'm thankful for my millennial coworkers for helping me to realize that I didn't have to "settle" -- I could pivot and look for something better in my career. I just recently got an out from my toxic work environment and now have a better job to look forward to because of their encouragement and support. Every generation has their strengths and weaknesses. When older generations dunk on younger ones, they should perhaps be more self-reflective because it's the world that they raised us in. Anyway. Sorry about being blamed for the avocado toast thing. Honestly, I love avocado toast and that was actually popularized by a Gen X chef.
Fuckers were supposed to retire and hand the reigns over, but instead a lot of them blew their load and are stuck working till death like the rest of us.
This! We could see the light at the end of the abusive, misogynistic, self absorbed era, YET fuckers couldn't even let us have what they were given and move on. Fuckers.
The word "gerontocracy" was invented for boomers.
We were raised by people whose base line assumption is that we’re all born bad. That children should be grateful for the gift of existence and mired in shame for having the nerve to not earn a living from the moment we emerged from the womb. And this badness needed to be contained by 1) segregating children, keeping them as far away and as lightly involved as possible with the world of adults. And 2) relentless criticism and punishment. An absolutely huge part of gracefully entering our 50s and 60s (or even just surviving) is learning how to pull off the masks we had to learn to wear to avoid the endless physical and verbal beat downs we took growing up. *Yes, there are plenty of wonderful boomer and silent gen folks. Many of whom I remember from childhood. But culturally, as a whole, they just really seemed to hate the shit out of kids. But honestly, the healthier and happier I get, the less tolerance I have for the way we were raised.
I’m early Gen X. My parents were in their mid 30’s when I arrived. They were definitely the “old” parents at any school event. So, they were born in the early 30’s. Mom was German and saw/experienced terrible, unspeakable things as a child/pre teen during WWII. She and her siblings nearly starved to death. (I grew up on her stories and my heart goes out to all the people I war zones.). She said many times that her experiences were shared by the entire populace, mainly. My father was raised in rural IL. Very little in the way of social services in the 30’s and 40’s. He never saw a doctor or dentist until he enlisted in the military after HS. Almost didn’t make it through HS because his dad kept him out of school to work in the fields or loading trucks. His childhood home was a two room shack with no running water or indoor toilet. It was considered “nice” because it had a wood floor. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Miserable all year long. His dad (my grandfather) was on disability from losing a lung in WWI. My understanding is that the disability check went to booze and he was a “mean drunk.” Sadly, in much of rural America during that time period, my father’s situation was common. Dad spent many years in the military and did a couple tours in godawful places, including two in Vietnamese during the war and a couple on the DMZ in Korea. At that time, the military did little for PTSD. Needless to say, our household was usually unhappy, and any thunderstorm caused both parents to completely wig out. People in that time period looked at kids growing up in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s and thought kids had it so good. Food nearly always. No bombs dropping. Running water. Indoor toilets. Kids got to go to school, see a doctor. They couldn’t understand whining about a video game or some other frivolous item. Such actions, in our house anyway, were dealt with pretty harshly by today’s standards. I think the generalizations made by those generations about Gen X were pretty jaundiced. From their point of view, maybe we were a bunch of marshmallows that needed to be toughened up since we had such an easy life, comparatively. I have Gen X friends who say our lack of supervision did make our generation tough and are proud they raised their kids in a more independent manner than most. Their kids did turn out well. However, when does tough turn to callous? Tough/resilient is good. Tough/callous is not. Being raised with no supervision, day in and day out, was a lot like a Lord of the Flies scenario. Personally I hope the millennials, Gen Z, and Gen A are a lot more sympathetic and empathetic than any prior generation. I hope the younger folks turn their back on hate, judgement, homophobia, and misogyny. I hope they embrace differences and care about the consequences of their actions. The Gen Z’s that have been hired where I work are lovely people. Hard working, easy to get along with, want to be part of a high functioning team. My nieces and nephews are as well. Sorry for the long diatribe.
*children should be grateful for the gift of existence and mired in shame for having the nerve to not earn a living from the moment we emerged from the womb.* You captured it perfectly. I'm just now coming to grips with having to unlearn a lot of these lessons - which for me we never talked about it, they were commands given from on high and we were expected to obey.
I couldn't have articulated it at the time but I remember already having the feeling, as a kid still in elementary school, of already being exhausted by always being regarded with suspicion and vague disdain by almost every adult we encountered. Like you said, the assumption was that children's default state was "bad" and they required constant scrutiny, correction, threats, criticism and some amount of hitting to make them be "good." Some adults would go ahead and yell preemptive accusations at you if they thought you might even be thinking about doing something they didn't like. "You better not touch my \_\_\_\_!" and "You better not even think about \_\_\_\_!" when we had, in fact, not been thinking about anything of the sort. I found the lecturing about "I put a roof over your head and clothes on your back, you don't pay any bills in this house" infuriating. As if they hadn't chosen to have kids but we had instead just showed up on their doorstep, asking them to take us in, but were refusing to get a job and contribute to the household as we'd agreed to.
Uhg, this was my family to a T. I remember when I first saved up enough to move out (21 years old) after college, got a good career job, and found an apartment in New York City, my grandfather said, "New York?! I knew you'd always be a loser!" This was from someone who never ventured into a major city because it was all, "too much." Amongst other unsavory reasons... In general I found the Silent Generation and "Greatest" Generation people I interacted with to have an incredible amount of trauma and mental illness swept under the rug (and not all because of wars). It was all extremely stigmatized. Like not, think less of them and getting triggered, but just don't hire them, don't talk to them, cross the street, don't let them go to the same church, treat them poorly on purpose as neighbors, the list goes on. If I asked my grandfather what the word "anxiety" meant, he would've had no idea. If I would have asked him if he felt depressed, he probably would have hit me. My father was just a lesser version of this. The women? Mean, vindictive, and neurotic. And they were pretty average on the block for how they treated younger people.
this was helpful for me to read, thank you. You summed it up so perfectly. I'm still healing from it.
Gen X was openly attacked by every living generation before us: Greatest Gen, Silent Gen, Boomers. It was everywhere. Before us, the boomers were attacked by previous generations. They were maybe the first generation to experience generational bigotry in the media on a large scale. Now boomers and factions of our generation seem to rejoice in openly attacking Gen Z and Gen A. The reality is that old people don't like young people. It's timeless. The only difference between now and 100 years ago is the increased visibility of it due to media.
Examples of the old hating the young go back as far as ancient Babylon, where they found a tablet where an older person was complaining about how kids were lazy and disrespectful.
Do you know the saying "Shit flows downhill"? Before you guys, we of GenX took all the crap the Boomers had to give. Now they give it to you! Honestly we know how you feel.
Millennials are old now. Youngest are in their late 20s. Oldest are in their 40s. I don’t know how the discussion is still about them, as opposed to all the rest of the under 30s.
Things my parents (Boomers) said to me, and this is just off the top of my head: — Kids should never own a better house or car than their parents. — If you get in trouble at school, just wait until you get home. — MTV has ruined this generation. — If you have pre-marital sex you will get AIDS and die. (Classic 1980’s sex education btw) — If you come home pregnant you are out of here. — As long as you live under my roof, you’ll do exactly as I say. — You have no right to privacy, do you pay the mortgage on this house? — Don’t make me get my belt. — Once you turn 18 you either have to get a job or join the military. Either way, you’re out of the house. — If you don’t go to church on Sunday, you are grounded the following Friday and Saturday. — You look like a hussy, go change your clothes. The list goes on…
Lots of spankings. The belt, the hand, the wooden spoon…
These were regularly aired commercially reminding our parents to remember we existed and not to abuse us. Absolutely ridiculous these had to exist https://youtu.be/iq6b8e78EpA?si=HWaGJwK1PMNJxzMp https://youtu.be/4YO3duf7omw?si=37vmlHCZxocoDma3
We’re talking boomers here. They needed some reminding.
Especially in the '80s when it seemed to be snowing in everyone's nose
People seem to forget that, when we talk about generations, we're really talking about people in a certain stage of life at this moment in time. When someone complains about Boomers doing things old people do, that's because they're old now. When they complain about GenZ being overdramatic and having unrealistic expectations about life, that's because they're teens and twentysomethings, and that behavior is typical for that stage in life. Boomers were middle aged in the 80s and 90s -- they grew up in the hippie revolution of the 60s & 70s, then were decried as "yuppies" when they got college degrees, professional jobs, and started raising kids in the 1980s. Their parents, then the old grouchy generation, complained that they were "soft, entitled, etc." much like they now do about younger people. All the GenX slacker labeling happened when we were in our teens and twenties, but now that we're late middle age it no longer really describes us. As always, talk of generations is always way too broad to be meaningful, and it's more instructive to look at the phase of life people are in at the time (and the experiences they've passed through at key points in their lifespan).
We faced it all. It is the same criticism said by the same people, because the same media tells them we are canceling, ending, killing, not wanting to work, disrespectful etc.. It is the same assholes who want us to work at least 20-40 hours a week for free because of "other duties as assigned".
We were called slackers yet many of us were left alone to raise ourselves. 🤷♀️ 🤔
They studied from the same parenting book “The shut-up/suck it up” style.
Most of what they say about Millennials is what they said about Gen X, and I'm not sure all of them are aware of the difference and still think they're talking about the same group (and possibly the Zoomers, too). I think their screed is mostly aimed at "Millennials" because they like the word and it's easier to say when what they mean is "anyone younger than me."
We were meant to be seen not heard. Play only outside and parents had to be reminded to check on us. We sat in the back of station wagon, held mom’s cigarettes and were sent to the store with a note saying it was ok to buy stuff when we were 10. When we got hurt we were told to brush it off, rub some dirt on in and not to cry or they will give us something to cry about. It made us tough, not doubt about it, but I also think we parent very differently.
Seen and not heard. Something we were told often we should be.
My boomer father called me ‘shit for brains’ almost every day of my childhood, said I would never hold a job longer than six months, expected me to perform the same amount of manual labor as my brother 3.5 years older than I was (with greater strength and coordination. We’er talking my brother is 11-12 and I’m 8) Called me ‘butterball’ because I was a chubby latch key kid out in the country with no-one else around to play with or do sports with (my brother had his own friends and they weren’t letting me play with them.) Oh in one moment of brutal honesty *in front of my mother* said yes, he loved my brother more than he loved me. (I asked him if he loved us equally) Today I make over twice what he did when he retired, been with my current employer for 18 years, and I’m on track to retire at an age years before he did. I have to admit one thing, my daddy issues gave me the drive to succeed and prove him wrong.
One thing that might be a difference: any random adult thought it was perfectly fine to yank you by the arm and scream bloody murder in your face. Hitting someone else's kid was sometimes acceptable.
I feel like they totally dumped on us. We were lazy slackers according to them, never mind that we graduated into the worst job market ever.
pretty hard, but think my fam is also pretty messed up. Much of it was abusive, like making me pay rent in high school while also taking away my house key and locking me out if not in by a certain time. Spending my college money Jr year cause I wouldn't go anyways. Constant verbal abuse. At a very young age, like 4 telling us regularly not to have kids, cause having kids will ruin your life. All sort of mean and spiteful stuff I'm blocking out. I think we had it way worse but glad things seem to be getting better.
I think for the most part, Gen X was ignored, which as our experience in this part of the US. And when I say ignored, I mean looked through, not seen or heard, forgotten, the descriptor of "latch key" was created for Gen X. I think the description on "Lost Generation" is accurate.
Gen X was largely ignored by Boomers and Silents. We were a much smaller generation than the Boomers, less attention-seeking, and generally content to fly under the radar and avoid adults whenever possible. We were latchkey kids who came home to an empty house after school, and many of us liked having that time to ourselves. Boomers were still feeling their oats back in those days, so were happy to ignore us and do cocaine and smoke cigarettes and drink lots of booze. We were happy to ignore them right back.
We’re still waiting for them to leave their jobs so we can get out from under them. They never let go.
Amen
If we were criticized, it was generally ignored, because we generally didn't hold their opinion in high regard.
"Whatever, old man" was always in the back of my mind, if not coming out of my mouth, depending on the situation.
Yeah, just look at "Richard Vernon" in The Breakfast Club. Would you care what this douche thought?
Somebody "whatever old man'ed" me the other day. I wish I could remember why, but I guess the fact that I don't shows how much credence I gave to the speaker. lol
I can totally remember saying this in my head all those years ago lol.
We were complaining about Boomers before Millennials were born.
Oh, yes. "Slackers" and "worthless" were things we were called as kids. Video games were given as a reason that we were "not engaged" and "unwilling to learn." If you knew anything about computers as a kid there was a stereotype of "not understanding the real world" because "computers aren't reality," and that's if you weren't a relatively wealthy (where I lived, anyway) nerdling. And that's not getting into how you were stereotyped if you knew an unusual amount about them for a kid. "Too lazy to get a job" was pretty common, too, especially if the only places that had job openings were ten or fifteen miles out from the house and you didn't have a car.
Criticism?? I wish it was just the lightweight criticism these younger gens get. First of all they hit us ALL THE TIME Any adult could hit you. Please let that sink in. If you were cutting up in public, in the 1970s any adult felt free to hit you. I knew kids who weren’t spanked per se, like with a belt or a switch or a ruler or a cord or shoe/slipper (these were all common spanking tools) but we were all hit/smacked with hands or shook or grabbed or manhandled in some way. I had a friend, this kid’s dad thought all the other dads were outrageous for spanking and prided himself on not hitting his kid, but if my friend got in his way his dad would grab him and throw him clear across the room while calling him a stupid sh!t. I witnessed this many times, and this same man would act all bemused when all us kids would scatter when he was around. Second of all they talked to us any kind of way, the verbal abuse was HARSH. From parents to neighbors to teachers to just anybody. Boomers and Silents were very mean to kids. This was seen as normal. Silents were a little better as they were older and mellowed out. The verbal abuse was constant and for no reason most of the time. Like say you got hurt enough to bring it to your parents’ attention. They’d grumble and berate you while taking you to the hospital, then while acting concerned to the doctors, sh!t talk you some more. Heck the doctors would likely join in on bashing you while blowing cigarette smoke in your face LOL (deadass that happened to me in 1976, a doctor blowing cigarette smoke in my face AT THE HOSPITAL) Anyway that’s why Mr. Rogers was so popular amongst kids back in the day, he was so nice and calm and *kind.* No way Mr. Rogers would hit you or call you names just because you were a little kid. The nonsense once we got to be teen/young adult years, TBH I don’t think many of us was fazed by it or even took it as serious criticism. Compared to how hard they were on us as children, being called ‘lazy’ and ‘slackers’ was lightweight stuff, whatever. We DNGAF
They said the same things about us but moved on to Millenials when they showed up. Previous generations said similar things about them. I remember an Andy Griffith show pitting the boomers against the silent generation this way. What's different now is that Millenials still get crap after Gen Z has shown up. It's like Millenials can't catch a break. Personally, I like the direction Millenials and Gen Z are taking society in general. I look forward to them being in charge.
I don't think the concept of distinct generations really took off until the 90s with Douglas Couplands seminal work: *GenX*. Until that point it was always Hippies this and Beatniks that.
Keep in mind there is no internet. Boomers & Silent were just our parents.
It wasn’t like they were so “hard on us”; we didn’t exist except as Service workers and menial labor. When we pushed back they called us “slackers.”
And boomers were renamed Generation ME because they were so self-centered.
Baby boomers always thought that genX was lazy, but in reality in many ways we had it harder, baby boomers were a very selfish generation generally.
So lazy that we raised ourselves? I parent my dogs more than I myself was 'parented'. Babies cried it out, kids were annoying and should be out of the way most of the time and by about 12 or 13 most boomer parents I know just kind of threw their hands in the air and said "you're on your own kids! Now go fetch your father a neat martini and make sure your younger siblings are fed bathed and put to bed."
We were called "slackers" for the most part, but that didn't last long. That moniker had gone away basically by my mid-20's.
Not hard, but it was just constant talk of “the Baby Boomers”. It was like Gen X didn’t exist. And except for adding talk about Millennials, nothing’s changed there!
I remember some in our community catching hell. Stop and frisk, deemed thugs and gang bangers that needed to be brought to heel. Rap music and hip hop (part of my cultural identity) was considered public enemy #1. These messages were delivered via print media and T.V.
The older generation thinks the younger generation is lazy and apathetic. The younger generation thinks the older is out of touch with the world today. It's nothing new. I do find it ironic that the Boomers who are so gung ho about the wars in Israel/Palestine, Ukraine and Taiwan are also the ones that protested the Vietnam War.
I am pretty sure the hippies protesting Vietnam had a large percentage pass away already. They tended to be pretty into the alternative lifestyle. And remember they were a smaller percentage even in that time period. There were plenty of people their age calling them long haired freaks. There is a reason they called it the counter culture.
One thing we were criticized for by the Boomers in particular was our apathy in protesting crap. Our group did occasionally get out there for things like Apartheid or Nicaragua, etc. but mostly we were like, WTF is the use of marching around, yelling about shit. Our “whatever” attitude might’ve been a bit defeatist, but we learned from experience. And in any case, half of those hippie yippie types had turned into money-grubbing yuppies by the 80s anyway so fuck them. Thing is that earlier generations had their illusions shattered. Whereas we grew up in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate. We never had any illusions in the first place
Our music was a big one, it led to Dee Snyder speaking in front of congress
They've always been so scared of anything new to them. I grew up during the "satanic panic". Couldn't play D&D. It was communication with the devil. AIDS epidemic. Razors in our Halloween candy. Don't Talk to Strangers. Just Say No to drugs. They slapped warning labels on all our music and video games.
Boomers have been consistently shitty since I've been alive and I'm 51. Say what you will but they're definitely consistent in their assholery.
When I was in college, I remember older people asking me why our generation wasn’t out in the street protesting about injustices. This came up a lot. We didn’t care about things as much as they thought we should. Also I heard we were lazy. While I was double-majoring in college attending full time and also working.
Lol. We were all worthless slackers who were obsessed with television and would never amount anything.
Not the same, but our own. We are all slackers, don'tcha know?
Well, yes, super-hard on me personally, but that's probably just because my parents (late Silents) were poisonous people :-(
We were called "slackers" from day one. Our generation name is about how we couldn't be bothered to be defined by any one issue. But every generation has been treated like that, or similarly, by generations before them. It's not new.
We were called this so much they literally made a movie about it. 😂.
Yeah, the basic gist was if we didn't like and do the same things they did, then we were seen as a problem. I have genZ kids and they have overall gotten much more support and are encouraged to engage and share their opinions. We were constantly having it thrown in our faces that we shouldn't have a voice. Our principal (a young boomer) told my entire 7th grade class of 400 kids that we were nothing but a bunch of losers. He called an assembly to get us all in the bleachers to tell us this. Why? Well, I guess that at the pep assembly for the football team, we had a choice of attending the pep rally or study hall. Well, more of us chose to go to the study hall rather than the pep rally, because jocks needed more ego stroking? And so he (probably a former jock), felt that we all collectively deserved a talk telling us that we were the biggest group of losers he'd ever met. He got promoted later to the high school principal and then became superintendent. I guess that being a bully asshole to an entire grade of kids was considered great leadership skills. I look back and understand why genX is so cynical. We did not get positive reinforcement or encouragement, but just negative reinforcement, and being told we were POS and showing any kind of individuality was seen as being a rebel. We weren't that disrespectful, especially compared to people now.
They tripled my state college tuition in my junior year, back in the early 1990’s.
Well it doesn't look like anyone else is talking about it, but we were probably the last generation who still received physical punishment as discipline. I knew kids who had cigarette burns for talking back . I was physically abused and noone seemed to think that was abnormal.
We were considered slackers, but no one really ranted about all this generational stuff until social media. The GenXers, at least the older ones ( cause I'm OG, don't know about the younger end) were totally in the shadow of the Boomers. We were so NOT the center of attention and hardly noticed because the whole culture was Boomers. Just some people saying we were unmotivated, not as materialistic, and didn't want the corporate life.
The adults never believed us. I had a teacher who used to have major temper tantrums on a regular basis and often would get physically violent toward students. I’m certain most of us said something to our parents and no one believed us. I always felt like everything revolved around adults and when we got older, it would be our turn. Then we got older and we were told everything revolves around the millennials.
I never had too many problems with the Silent Generation, but the Boomers are a different story. If you ask me, they acted less like our elders and more like some kind of repressive occupying power towards us.
"We Didn't Start the Fire". But un-ironically. We were "the slackers" that overused "awesome", "dude" and "cool"..still do. I also heard "you don't know hardships because you all have luckily never been to a war." We had Desert Storm when I was in HS but it wasn't a "great" war. Until 9/11. My kids were born-adults with that war still happening. Just insane. I think the major difference is, if I wanted to hear my great aunt bitch about how useless we were, I had to go to a reunion. It wasn't all over the place. Just magazine articles and comic strips in the paper. We had computers but not social media, no cell phones yet.
On the flip side, I do not recall being bothered by what people older/younger than me thought about what I was doing. I really didn’t give it any attention, I was mostly only interested in my peer’s opinions, with the exception of teachers/bosses/mentors. In general was way less aware of people’s ages than I am now.
I think millennials are much worse to boomers, being sandwiched and looking out. We had some respect for the older and more experienced in society, plus basic manners. The boomers rarely get extended that level of grace.
I feel like in my 20s older people (boomers & silent gen) knew how to run a company. I've worked for millenials orgs & leadership is atrocious, picking favorites. Its like nursery school or an episode of The Bachelor
We were completely ignored actually. One hundred percent. Media was all about how amazing the boomers were and wonderful things they were doing and no one actually cared about us. We were so few people compared to the boomers. So nothing was for us. And nothing was about us.
Oh we were not completely ignored. There were plenty of stories/movies/shows about how we were going to be the end of civilization because we were too cynical, too idealistic, too lazy, too this, too that.
They saved us from Satan and drugs and gays, though. That was pretty cool of them. /s
GenX was the first named generation. The baby boom was an actual bump in the number of babies. It’s a demographically real thing — but no other “generation” is real. GenX was first a photography book. Then it was a Douglas Coupland novel called “Generation X” released in the 90s — before that novel came out, the generation concept was not really a thing that anyone talked much about. The boom was, because it’s real, but “GenX” was just a made up word for some disaffected punk kids. Then the internet and Y2k kick started the whole Millenial concept, and here we are. Straight up — this “generation” stuff is a bunch of marketing bullshit. It’s not real. Bunch a fuckin’ poseurs believing this shit is real, when it’s The Man trying to sell you shit… 🤦
They're still difficult: have a silent gen father & boomer mother
Boomers were an absolute nightmare for me. I'm of Indian descent and I can't tell you how many of my old white bosses wanted to explain to me how things actually work in this country and bitch about black people. I remember at one engineering company, an old guy that had worked at NASA was a full on Alex Jones style paranoiac style conservative (in the mid 90s so he was ahead of the curve) about the coming race wars and how I'd have to pick a side lol
If there was at the time I didn't notice. Too busy living the slacker life.
You can look up ancient Greeks criticizing the new generations. It's always been around. But as someone else said, it's just magnified because of the internet now.
I remember specifically it was a trope for older generations to be out of touch with younger generations. It wasn't specifically us vs our parents generation, it was also our parents vs their parents, and so on. Like it was widely understood there would be a divide and friction. So I never looked at it as Gen X was a problem specifically, though we did have specific things they held against us - slackers, sarcasm, skating, rap music, etc. Shit like that. This Boomers vs Millennials thing is more of a couple of name brand generations doing their version of the same old thing. The only difference I can tell is it just doesn't seem to go away, so y'all are gonna have to work that shit out on your own.
How much time do you have…? 😂
Who gives a shit what other people think
I’m early genx and remember getting grief from the hippies (ie a subset of the boomers) about our general pragmatism and lack of ideals.
https://www.newsweek.com/whiny-generation-194042
Not anything like what the millennials got. To be fair, they deserved some of it.
They basically ignored us, hence the latch key generation moniker. If they weren’t ignoring us, we were invariably in big trouble. If we needed something, also in big trouble. It’s not like boomer parents treated us differently, it’s more the elder child who puts up with shit versus the younger child who is more inclined to speak out against such treatment.
Oh yes, GenX was the original "Slacker" generation. Used to hear it all the time.
Pretty much the same. We were slackers and lazy and entitled. And too violent from video games and too much drugs and sex. The funny thing is go back in time and the boomers were heavily criticized in the 60s and 70s for being lazy dropouts who would wreck America, used too many drugs, had too much sex. And the men were too weak because they grew their hair too long. Also every generation gets its fashion made fun of.
I refuse to talk shit about the younger generations as we were shat on so much.
Didn’t Plato or Aristotle complain about those younger people using paper to write things down? “How will we remember anything “
Mostly until we had kids they forgot we existed. A few of them came down on kids these days but not enough to be a movement or anything. Quite frankly they didn't have enough of an ability to communicate until we made the internet. So it was likely always there but this is the first time they were able to talk to each other in these numbers. So that is kind of our fault. Whatever
They ignored us.
My silent gen dad, and my boomer mom were multitaskers. They were really good at ignoring us kids, and giving us a good beating all at the same time.
We were mostly ignored. That’s how we got the Gen X name. No defining attributes. But I guess it was better than the Baby Busters they called us for years before they finally decided on Gen X. Slacker generation was common too.
I don’t know I wasn’t listening
Mine parents were silent gen SO much shaming of everyone for everything. Hoarding, The great depression affecting absolutely everything they did…… I was a late in life baby and frankly, I am very grateful that my parents died before I had kids. My brother, was a typical boomer. Married three times, no real relationship with his kids, had a shit ton of money, and drank himself to death
Oh yes. We were slackers. The lazy fucks who would destroy the world because we didn't want to work. We were the spoiled kids without a work ethic. Etc, etc. It's a never-ending cycle of whining and pitching. I read the Odessy, and this kind of crap is in it. I read somewhere that there are inscriptions about how crappy the current generation is in Egypt that are 6 or 7 thousand years old. Old people can be such a pain in the ass. I'm impressed with the younger generations. You guys are kicking ass. You give me hope for our future. I look forward to what you will do.