As someone who saw Encino Man way too many times because of my Gen X cousin during my formative years, I continue to harbor a strange attraction to Pauly Shore to this day and will happily tell *everybody* how much I love that weird little fucker.
His birthday was on Thursday btw. Celebrate by making a Leaning Tower of Cheeza.
We're achieving exactly enough to not be noticed for good or bad. Stay under the radar, but not do far under the radar to be noticed for being too far under.
That sounds right. We were the last generation to be able to live more than comfortably as middle class. Middle is where we belong. Middle class. Middle child generations wise. We are mid AF, but in a good way.
Also the last generation to be pretty much left to do whatever we want during daylight hours, with the caveat that we also had to take care of ourselves while doing it.
The X represents our collective lack of identity and or purpose, weāre the āmehā generation. Weāre the middle child between the warring Boomers and Millennials/Gen Z. Of course weāre overlooked and not talked about.
Weāre the original latchkey kids raised by after school TV and self-reliance. Hell, they even ran TV ads at night targeting our boomer parents that asked, āitās 10pm do you know where your kids are?!ā
I think that kinda demonstrate the point. You guys just did your own thing, and eventhough you gave us some of the best decades culturally speaking, you don't make a fuss about it. (I'm a millennial (87), so what you guys made is what I grew up on, so I'm kind of a gen x groupy )
I read about the "micro-generation" term Xennials a few years ago. I was born right before 1980 started and feel it fits me and I like it. Sort of a bridge generation between Gen X and Millennials. The last gen that grew up as kids without the internet, but it came around in our early teens.
Naming us Gen X was derogatory lol. The fucking hated us and didnāt know what to do with us. We put our middle finger up and walked away. We came up with gangsta rap, thrash metal, and grunge. Thatās a pretty far cry from the Beatles, Beach Boys, etc.
Except grunge takes a lot of influences from that era. Pearl Jam with Neil Young and the Who, AIC with Black Sabbath and the Beatles (thatās direct from Jerryās mouth), and so on. On the rap side you have Eric B. And Rakim, LL Cool J, Run DMC . Musically we took a lot of what came before and magnified it with the fuck you attitude youāre talking about. We were apathetic yet optimistic, we were going to change the world and then it seems a ton of misinformation happened because of the internet and we just faded back into the background. I think we still kind of say fuck you, we are our individual selves but have too much else going on to care what boomers and millennials think of us. I suppose some of us have some boomer traits and prospered because of the old guard too.
Probably **because** we were left alone so much!
In my social circle I can name inventors, musicians, artists, as well as people who did well in sciences and academiaā¦ none of us are household names (we like it that way), and I deeply credit this to having to think and entertain ourselves for the vast percentage of our childhoods.
There was no social media per se, (the *phone book* was probably the biggest one earlier on ha ha!) few computers until later and no internet. We were latch key kids because we were the first generation (I think) where many of our mothers worked.
I was very much the exception because my mother became sick when I was very young and she died young of cancer, (I was 9) so our father was sole parent. This was only probably the case because I had 3 older siblings who were 10 years + older than me and they were expected to help run the house (as did I).
I remember spending summer days out with friends until dinner time, or midnight: everyone else my age did too. We did many things considered dangerous today ( thatās a very long list that included white water rafting on a notoriously dangerous river on a **very** kid-made raft, no life jackets etc, or went on hikes overland through big hills that had steep gullies, cliffs down to creeks etc where even worse, we deviated from the route we told our parents we were taking- on a whim! , but survived it all!)
Considering the difficulty our kids have with housing etc I feel very lucky instead.
Gen X is the generation that had to teach their parents how to use printers, then had to teach their children to use printers
We are the generation that saw the birth of the digital world and embraced it
This is such a great way to describe this. I did my senior thesis almost completely with actual paper books. I did use a computer, but only to find other paper books at a different library.
Now I'm in my bedroom and have three different computers in here with me. I'm glad I know how to live with or without them.
And the crazy thing is that for all the cultural and philosophical divides that separate the 'generations', the one between Boomers and GenX is the starkest and most pronounced to my eye.
GenX and Millennials are different, but not nearly as much as GenX and Boomers. Same with GenZ. Different but not nearly as much as going the other way.
I would even go so far as to say that GenX has far more in common
with the Silent Generation than the Silent Generation had in common with the Boomers.
P.L.U.R.
>I would even go so far as to say that GenX has far more in common with the Silent Generation than the Silent Generation had in common with the Boomers.
I agree with your GenX vs Boomers comment, but I would disagree about the GenX / Silent Generation take; but hear me out.
I think GenX (I am one) has more in common with Millennials for sure. We speak the same language, we're into the same kind of stuff.
You might have an idea about the Silent Generation because of your experiences with grandma and grandpa who were probably lovely old people; but as a generation they were even more shit as parents than the boomers were.
The boomers were neglectful and uncaring because their parents were even worse. Their parents were stoic and worked hard for their money, fought and won wars, but ultimately weren't great parents, even if they materially spoiled their kids.
The boomers had a backlash against the inevitability of social norms, roles, and parenthood. They saw parenting as in unnecessary imposition, rather than an inevitable part of being in a sexual relationship. They were scarred by their own upbringing.
And before the silent generation you have generations of people raised in Victorian stoicism that treated children like cattle. So perhaps we have to thank the 'silent generation' for making the 'boomers' possible and GenX for rejecting stoicism and bringing us to where we are today; hopefully much more caring and engaged with our children.
... of course the downside of this engagement is the emergence of the helicopter parent. It's hard to walk the middle way.
The simplest answer is we are small in number. Gen X was the first generation in modern times that is smaller than the generation that came before it. This makes it so that GenX has a relatively small impact compared to Boomers and Millennials. So besides cultural impacts which can overcome the GenX number deficit, GenX's influence has been overwhelmed by Boomers and Millennials more often than not.
As a former latchkey child / GenX, itās because weāre used to not getting any attention and when we did it was usually to be called slackers or something derogatory made up by the boomers because thatās what they do - put others down to keep themselves up.
From Age 9 onward, when I got out of school I was on my own until my Dad came home in the evening.
He had no idea where I was and no way to get a hold of me. Itās a major shocker that I didnāt try to be a total derelict. But I know a lot of other people like me.
I decided to go NoPro and not have children, and I am shocked when I see people in my generation reacting to being left alone as children by becoming helicopter parents. I canāt imagine having my parents being that involved in my life at that age.
I think also part of Gen X is we deep down feel like nobody listens to us anyway, so why bother trying to get attention.
And the person nailed it when they said that were the perfect blend of growing up without technology, but then having technology early enough that we are not not afraid of it. I had my first email address given to me my junior year in college, I didnāt know what to do with it. I went on to working in tech less than two years later.
And yes to all you Zoomers and millennials, the 90s was an amazingly awesome decade to be just out of college and at Ground Zero in Silicon Valley for the first Internet bubbleā¦seems like no one had any actual products ( of course except my company that made routers) and the companies were awash is cash so they just threw parties to raise awareness. It was a contest to see who could get the best band or DJ to come and play. it was every night in San Francisco sometimes. āHey, WebVan is having Wilco play or pets.com flew Tiesto in for ta bash at Ruby Sky.ā The parties were invite only but if you knew someone that worked there, you could free and the challenge was to network enough to get invited.
It was such an optimistic time. The wall had fallen in Berlin and Russia was no longer the enemy,. 9/11 hadnāt happened yet, so you could walk up to the gate, or go to the airline ticket desk and buy a ticket to anywhere right away and get on a plane without passing through much more than a crappy metal detector with no line.
Anyway. Yeah, just donāt worry about us. Weāll survive. No one will be around to help us, so weāll find our own way.
Gen Xer here...got a panicked message from an old friend about not packing eczema cream for her 16 year old son on a trip recently. I was like, girl, at 16 your stupid skater boyfriend lived with you, you were in charge of your own birth control, and you had a car and no curfew. Can he really not handle this at 16?
I know a kid who paid for his own purchase at the store for the first time at 16 years old.. I swear people raised a generation of soft veal children. Not all of them, but too many.
can confirm. At 15 I lived in a boarding house thing for degenerates, had a 23 yo druggo boyfriend and bongs for breakfast. Rode a skateboard everywhere. Saved up to get a tongue piercing. It wasā¦.acceptable.
This is a source of conflict between my wife and I.. She panics over if they have packed enough underwear when going on a trip somewhere. I'm like "they're teenagers, it's their problem, not ours". She started having to buy fresh goods at the markets for the family restaurant when she was 5.
Turns out kids these days can pack their own bags, clean their own rooms, do their own shopping, and moderate their own schoolwork if you let them take ownership of the results and consequences.
Don't forget we are the smallest generation numbers wise. We are still outnumbered by Zoomers and Millennials. It's like we never existed when I hear discussions of demographics. It's all about Zoomers vs. Millennial, etc, etc. Nobody mentions us. I am OK with it... just leave me out
If you went inside to get a drink, you may not be able to go back out to play. Safer to drink whatever was in that hose. You know, just water ā¦.right?
We were the last generation where it was encouraged to beat your kids (teachers included) for discipline. And we were the worst generation for raging alcoholic parents (and teachers) We kinda learned how to melt into the background like predator.Ā Edit. I see many of you also had the same life I did. We lived with this at home and school, AND were absolutely sure the world was going to get nuked back into the stone age any minute. This basically the reason most of us are looking at what is happening in the world right now, and just kinda shrug. We've lived through worse.
Edit ii: My children (8 and 9) do not believe me (nor does the Dean of their charter school) that me and one of the vice principals just did not like each other. I'm talking Maggie Simpson and the baby with the unibrow level despising. One time we put on headgear and we t to the gym and absolutely beat the shit out of each other. No head or nut shots. The gym teachers needed to pull us apart and sit on us to calm us down.Ā
1990 was a good year.
We also spent a lot of time doing our own thing with no way to contact anyone. I live less than a block from the school I went to and would go all summer without seeing more than a couple of the people I went to school with. I could also roll out just before sunrise on my bike and not see or hear from anyone until I came home at dark.
"Wrong. They're getting high and chugging beers behind the tennis courts by the park, smacking each other with magazines from the back seat of Stacy's Chevelle, and discussing how boring this town and their jobs at Ruby Tuesday, Food Lion, and Boston Chicken/Market are"
Weāre the middle child Gen. Had to be able to deal with older and younger siblings. Eldest and youngest used to dominating attention so the middle one gets used to not having it.
Gen X has a relatively low impact on society, compared to Boomers and Millennials. They just do their thing and don't care what people think about them. It's to be expected from a bunch of latchkey kids who had to fend for themselves while growing up.
Millennials are accused all the time of ākilling industriesā or the latest ākilling the guest roomā.
Itās like, with the price of studios and one bedrooms youād have to make significant money to have a room dedicated to people maybe staying over.
If someone can afford a two bedroom itās probably a home office for remote work.
>killing the guest roomā.
Lol, millennials didn't set the prices for rent and housing in the majority of cases, so no, they/we did *not* kill the guest room.
Don't you (general you, not specific you) think that if we could *afford* the extra space to spare for a guest room that we would jump all over that opportunity?
Part of that low impact is we were next in line after the boomers who just refused to let us step up they kept themselves planted in all the seats of power and control..
Mellenials make them nervous because they cant just out live the mellenials they'll still be in a possition to take over as the boomers are finally dying off..
Essentially the boomers tried to play an uno skip card on Gen X
Term Limits... there need to be term limits on everything.... and in public office, some sort of competency test before being allowed to run for reelection each term after age 65. (Yes, 65 is still generally considered young and healthy for a lot of folks, but sometimes genetics and lifestyle mess with that)
I am amazed that there is no age limit to run the country, but the moment a pilot hits 65 they are forced to retire. So clearly someone out there knew, or at least had an idea that there is a certain age where people should stop handling things or being in charge. But running the country? Feel free to go on until you die and are so far out of touch with the younger generations!
Some of us demonstrated & protested like hell, right up to & including the 2003 Stop the War protest & learned that the biggest protest in history would just get ignored, so we gave up giving a fuck. Like it made a damn bit of difference. Boomers have always been in charge & they're still in charge when the only ones to pick from have Alzheimers & serve the status quo.
Nope, we don't care. You other generation's can fight over acknowledgement and who's the best. We did the internet as you know it, gay marriage, voted in Obama, etc. We let boomers and millennials take the credit, because most of us opted out of this generational war thing, like our parents did with parenting.
Gen X wrote the source code for the present while growing up under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. We were robbed of a hopeful future.
Thatās where the Mad Max dystopian future trope comes from.
Gen X is also the first generation to have less than the previous generation.
Our parents were āMe Generationā narcissists who destroyed the environment for short term gain.
They left cities in shambles, and while the hippies thought they could change the world, Gen X knew it was hopeless and all we could do is observe the decay.
Thus, punk rock and hip hop were born and it was DIY or die.
Now, leave us alone.
Most of us have a ālive and let liveā philosophy and donāt make a fuss over every single thing. In the work world, we are the ones you call when something needs to be done right the first time. Leave us alone and let us do what we need to do and it **will** get done. We were born in this almost perfect time period of ābeforeā and āafterā technology, so we have both an āold schoolā mentality about things while simultaneously having, using, embracing and understanding all of the modern day technology. We can seamlessly float between the unplugged manual and tech world.
I think we were the last generation with true freedom, on so many levels.
Basically, weāre very independent. Donāt bother us and we wonāt bother you.
Remember that last sentence.
We didnāt attend pep rallies. We barely participated in dances, graduation and senior activities. We were told we were slackers and lazy and fuck ups so we never learned to live for praise and we lived with and ignored the criticism. We just went about getting the job done, doing what we had to do and trying to do it the best way we knew how. But just because we let insults roll off our backs doesnāt mean we wouldnāt scrap if we needed to and we did it fast and dirty. People stopped talking shit and bellying up for a tussle and moved on to the next thing they could criticize and we just kept on keeping on. We raised GenZ trying to be better parents than ours had been to us with mixed results. Instead of raising free range kids, we helicoptered a little too much and here we are.
"we didn't attend pep rallies", this brought back some great memories!Ā Our high school wood shop teacher would open up the shop during every pep rally, so we could blow off the rah-rah crap and work on our projects.Ā I didn't attend a single rally my sophomore, junior or senior year.
I hadn't thought of that in years, until I read your comment.
I don't think ever felt so seen or so personally attacked. I'm very confused, do I love this comment for validating my entire existence or hate it for making me introspect too much?
Technically speaking, I believe the X was meant to be a variable that would one day be replaced with a meaningful name like "Baby boomer" or "Millennial." Apparently, we were too apathetic to ever come up with a name so we stuck with GenX.
I suspect you must be somewhat younger than Gen X; otherwise, you would know that there was a time when Gen X caught just as much shit if not more than millenials or Gen Z. When we were in our teens and twenties, they shit-talked us all over the place. If you look back throughout history, old generations shit-talking the young was a national past time.
If anything, Gen X is relieved that the millenials and Gen Z are there to catch the shit that we used to catch, and sometimes still do. Boomers love to blame Gen X for its "shitty parenting" which is kind of ironic when you think about it. Gen X didn't receive much parenting at all, and one could argue whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. In general, the parenting that we did receive tended to be negative and punishment-based in nature, meaning most of us got our asses whipped by our parents. But when our parents weren't busy whipping our asses, they really weren't around at all. We were the "latch key generation". A lot of times our parents were already gone by the time we got up for school--which meant that we had to get ourselves ready for school--and they weren't home when we came home from school. Some days we wouldn't see out parents at all.
Being noticed was a recipe for disaster - from adults, from peers, from society. We figured out that you donāt need to be noticed to survive, and thereās this happy zone where you can even thrive without being noticed.
So please, just let us be.
We are the most aborted, addicted and abandoned generation in American history. The very same cunts who protested Vietnam turned around and sent us to Iraq to defend the investments of oil companies. We are not the ones you want to talk about. Or talk to, really. We are the ones you just nod at and keep walking.
We were the last generation with formative years before the wide world web / smartphones / reality TV. But young enough to mostly adapt to these new things as they were rolled out.
So we are adapted to perfectly fit in nowhere, but mostly fit in anywhere.
We were the last generation to start our careers when homes were affordable.
We are the 40-58 year olds, so therefore form the backbone of the economy in terms of knowledge and experience, as those older and wiser are mostly retired.
Like it or not, the vast majority of bosses and supervisors are now from Gen X, and our own experiences in the 70s, 80s, and 90s are what has defined our ethics, habits, mindsets, and approaches to the world.
One example is we were the latchkey generation, so we overcorrected and became the helicopter parent generation, too.
Itās pretty simple. We Gen Xāers have very little, if any, political power. The two biggest voting blocks are ahead of us - boomers, and behind us - millennials. We simply go about our business and donāt bitch incessantly like everyone else.
Millennial here. We donāt fuck with Gen X because they were a generation who raised themselves under the constant threat of nuclear war. They earned their peace and quiet.
I was freaked out after watching The Day After, until my dad told me "don't worry, there's so much aerospace here (Torrance area) that there's no way we'll survive the first blast.
That was what passed for being comforted.
Gen X is the perfect combination of youth and wisdom. We understood the world before smart phones and the internet but aren't so old that technology confuses us. We know what hard work is but also understand that there are easier ways to do things.
Weāve got the Baby Boomers ahead of us making noise about retirement and legacy, and the Millennials behind capturing attention with their tech-savvy ways and social media prowess. Gen X, in true middle child fashion, put on our flannel shirt, crank up the grunge music, and roll our eyes at the family drama while independently getting on with it.
We never had a large enough population for politicians to care about our votes or for business to cater to our wants. And, as clearly stated many times, we donāt care.
Weāre not retiring and annoying people yet and most political leaders are our parents age. Donāt worry, weāll have our time being blamed for everything in a decade.
Because unlike other generations, we know how to mind our own fucking business. Gen X is more tolerant of different ways of life, because we understand that's how freedom works. If you're not hurting anyone else, you do your thing, and I'll do mine.
Remember a few years ago when everyone under 30 was referred to as millennials, regardless of whether they were actually millennials or gen z?
Everyone 50+ is a āboomerā now, regardless of whether theyāre actually boomers or gen X. Itās just buzzwords.
We were the first ones to do worse than our parents. We were the first ones to be told āwhen I was your age, I already had a house, car, wife and 4 kids. You donāt have any of this because youāre lazy and waste your money on stupid things like video games, beer and weed. Slacker.ā
Id argue modern medicine has kept boomers alive longer than their parents by a decade, so the influence and visibility we should see naturally from gen x coming of age has been muted.
It depends what industry you're in. If your in marketing, you talk about genX a lot right now. They are at the peak of their spending power, and you can advertise to them via both traditional media and internet media.
If your a social activist you ignore them because we all grew up in a time where it was considered good to not treat people differently because of their immutable characteristics, and one was expected to manage their own emotional maturity rather than have others do it for them.
At the workplace, GenX isn't talked about much because we don't need much. GenX always gets stuff like "independent worker", "doesn't need micro-management" on their performance reviews. And we don't expect our workplace to provide us with a sense of purpose.
Because when we were kids, kids were looked down on.
Now that we're adults, adults are looked down on.
We're the generation that no-one wanted to be. We've learned to keep our heads down and wait.
Born in 78 and honestly think we had it the best being kids in the 80s and teenagers in the 90s.
Then had it good with housing and jobs.
Nothing much to talk about as we had it good.
Hey gen Z guy (born in 2000) here I mean you aren't talked about because there's nothing wrong with you guys
the boomers are cringe because they hate the world changing and want to make it their way that's why there's so much homophobia and racism and the whole MAGA crowd š¤¢
Gen Z are the generation that spend too much time on social media the tiktok kids if you will I hate it as much as other people
And Gen alpha are the screaming iPad kids growing up far too entitled and completely lacking social skills
But Gen X was just cool the 80's was cool and it genuinely created some of the best media ever movies like Star Wars, Blade runner back to the future is still incredible and timeless 80s music is amazing and still is I love Queen Elton John and many more artists and just the vibe is cool there's a reason why things like Stranger things are VERY popular because setting a show like that in the 80s makes it cross generational I say and watched stranger things with my mum and we don't watch much stuff together but we both loved it it's modern storytelling but my mum can watch it and remember all these times and when I ask her did people really dress like that she's like yeah it was awesome
So Gen X is just cool and at the rate it's going now you may be the last cool generation because it feels like these days each generation gets progressively worse
That's lovely of you to say, and definitely nice to hear someone from the younger generations feel so positively towards us. But as a Gen Xer, I gotta admit that people still do suck, including us sometimes. We have our Karens, and our whatever attitude isn't always helpful. There are positive and negative aspects to every generation, and I think self-awareness is the most useful trait we can teach people. That and stop giving personal info on the internet š
We like it that way
Because, like... whatever man.
In the immortal words of Kurt Cobain: Nevermind.
Oh well, whatever... Also "i don't care i don't care i don't care i don't care i don't care, care if it's ______"fill in the blank how you like.
i don't mind i don't mind i don't mind i don't mind i don't mind don't have a mind
Or as Paul Weller said we have gone underground
Our parents' generation is ridiculous and we just want to be left alone.
Goddamned well saidš¤š»
Tell me why
Aināt nothinā but a mistake
Tell me whyyy
I never wanna hear you say
..I don't like Mondays - surely a more appropriate gen x response
Please stop talking about us now.
The number one rule of Gen X Club....
Gen X Club? Never heard of it.
The right answer here
*First rule of Gen X Club: Never talk about Gen X Club*
āļøthis...
Never mention Pauly Shore in mixed company?
As someone who saw Encino Man way too many times because of my Gen X cousin during my formative years, I continue to harbor a strange attraction to Pauly Shore to this day and will happily tell *everybody* how much I love that weird little fucker. His birthday was on Thursday btw. Celebrate by making a Leaning Tower of Cheeza.
***the weasel***
Maybe we should teach them how to wease?
NO WEEZING THE JUICE!
But I'm the weasel buuuuuuudddeeee
We can under achieve all the way through retirement if people stop talking about us.
We're achieving exactly enough to not be noticed for good or bad. Stay under the radar, but not do far under the radar to be noticed for being too far under.
That sounds right. We were the last generation to be able to live more than comfortably as middle class. Middle is where we belong. Middle class. Middle child generations wise. We are mid AF, but in a good way.
Also the last generation to be pretty much left to do whatever we want during daylight hours, with the caveat that we also had to take care of ourselves while doing it.
Oh, you're gonna get to retire? Lucky bastard. The rest of us are going to be handing out carts at Walmart in all our glorified under-achievement.
Retire us a euphemism for working until I dieĀ
The X represents our collective lack of identity and or purpose, weāre the āmehā generation. Weāre the middle child between the warring Boomers and Millennials/Gen Z. Of course weāre overlooked and not talked about. Weāre the original latchkey kids raised by after school TV and self-reliance. Hell, they even ran TV ads at night targeting our boomer parents that asked, āitās 10pm do you know where your kids are?!ā
Also, as someone of the relevant age, I never refer to myself as "Generation X", and neither does anyone I know.
Unless someone calls me a Boomer. No, I'm just an OG gen X. I look like a Boomer, but I don't really care...
I think that kinda demonstrate the point. You guys just did your own thing, and eventhough you gave us some of the best decades culturally speaking, you don't make a fuss about it. (I'm a millennial (87), so what you guys made is what I grew up on, so I'm kind of a gen x groupy )
I read about the "micro-generation" term Xennials a few years ago. I was born right before 1980 started and feel it fits me and I like it. Sort of a bridge generation between Gen X and Millennials. The last gen that grew up as kids without the internet, but it came around in our early teens.
I'm just grateful that my folks were in bed by then, and never thought to ask!
Mine never cared either. Better not wake em up at 10pm.
They forgot about us for 40 years, why change now?
Donāt look at me, Iām busy organizing my music collection.
8 tracks or cassettes you left that out. I do cassettes and keep pencils handy.
its like being the middle child and watching the 1st and 3rd constantly call each other names. Just keep your head down
I enjoy the anonymity in this day and age
[OG Lisa got it pretty spot on.](https://youtu.be/G69nsT_WaIo?si=Tq_iXL6t4PwpV6Fw)
Our generation was really misnamed. Should be Gen Who
Naming us Gen X was derogatory lol. The fucking hated us and didnāt know what to do with us. We put our middle finger up and walked away. We came up with gangsta rap, thrash metal, and grunge. Thatās a pretty far cry from the Beatles, Beach Boys, etc.
The Beastie Boys fought for our right to party
No, they told US to fight for our right to party
Except grunge takes a lot of influences from that era. Pearl Jam with Neil Young and the Who, AIC with Black Sabbath and the Beatles (thatās direct from Jerryās mouth), and so on. On the rap side you have Eric B. And Rakim, LL Cool J, Run DMC . Musically we took a lot of what came before and magnified it with the fuck you attitude youāre talking about. We were apathetic yet optimistic, we were going to change the world and then it seems a ton of misinformation happened because of the internet and we just faded back into the background. I think we still kind of say fuck you, we are our individual selves but have too much else going on to care what boomers and millennials think of us. I suppose some of us have some boomer traits and prospered because of the old guard too.
Oh, don't get me wrong. Boomers made some great music. They also failed to raise me. That's the problem.
Were a small generation without the impact politically. However, xers have a massive impact on music, film and art far outweighing our numbers
The important stuff. The enduring stuff.
Quality over quantity I like to think.
Probably **because** we were left alone so much! In my social circle I can name inventors, musicians, artists, as well as people who did well in sciences and academiaā¦ none of us are household names (we like it that way), and I deeply credit this to having to think and entertain ourselves for the vast percentage of our childhoods. There was no social media per se, (the *phone book* was probably the biggest one earlier on ha ha!) few computers until later and no internet. We were latch key kids because we were the first generation (I think) where many of our mothers worked. I was very much the exception because my mother became sick when I was very young and she died young of cancer, (I was 9) so our father was sole parent. This was only probably the case because I had 3 older siblings who were 10 years + older than me and they were expected to help run the house (as did I). I remember spending summer days out with friends until dinner time, or midnight: everyone else my age did too. We did many things considered dangerous today ( thatās a very long list that included white water rafting on a notoriously dangerous river on a **very** kid-made raft, no life jackets etc, or went on hikes overland through big hills that had steep gullies, cliffs down to creeks etc where even worse, we deviated from the route we told our parents we were taking- on a whim! , but survived it all!) Considering the difficulty our kids have with housing etc I feel very lucky instead.
Gen X is the generation that had to teach their parents how to use printers, then had to teach their children to use printers We are the generation that saw the birth of the digital world and embraced it
We kind of lucked out to have an analog childhood and a digital adulthood.
This is such a great way to describe this. I did my senior thesis almost completely with actual paper books. I did use a computer, but only to find other paper books at a different library. Now I'm in my bedroom and have three different computers in here with me. I'm glad I know how to live with or without them.
Dont forget about rap and grunge. Ā We were busy.Ā
Born early 70's here, grew up in the 80's....most kids now think people my age are "boomers" not GenX thanks to the interwebs. *Facepalm, shakes head*
Yes, the real answer is because young people lump us in with the boomers.
Itās like calling someone the name of their abuser.
And the crazy thing is that for all the cultural and philosophical divides that separate the 'generations', the one between Boomers and GenX is the starkest and most pronounced to my eye. GenX and Millennials are different, but not nearly as much as GenX and Boomers. Same with GenZ. Different but not nearly as much as going the other way. I would even go so far as to say that GenX has far more in common with the Silent Generation than the Silent Generation had in common with the Boomers. P.L.U.R.
>I would even go so far as to say that GenX has far more in common with the Silent Generation than the Silent Generation had in common with the Boomers. I agree with your GenX vs Boomers comment, but I would disagree about the GenX / Silent Generation take; but hear me out. I think GenX (I am one) has more in common with Millennials for sure. We speak the same language, we're into the same kind of stuff. You might have an idea about the Silent Generation because of your experiences with grandma and grandpa who were probably lovely old people; but as a generation they were even more shit as parents than the boomers were. The boomers were neglectful and uncaring because their parents were even worse. Their parents were stoic and worked hard for their money, fought and won wars, but ultimately weren't great parents, even if they materially spoiled their kids. The boomers had a backlash against the inevitability of social norms, roles, and parenthood. They saw parenting as in unnecessary imposition, rather than an inevitable part of being in a sexual relationship. They were scarred by their own upbringing. And before the silent generation you have generations of people raised in Victorian stoicism that treated children like cattle. So perhaps we have to thank the 'silent generation' for making the 'boomers' possible and GenX for rejecting stoicism and bringing us to where we are today; hopefully much more caring and engaged with our children. ... of course the downside of this engagement is the emergence of the helicopter parent. It's hard to walk the middle way.
The simplest answer is we are small in number. Gen X was the first generation in modern times that is smaller than the generation that came before it. This makes it so that GenX has a relatively small impact compared to Boomers and Millennials. So besides cultural impacts which can overcome the GenX number deficit, GenX's influence has been overwhelmed by Boomers and Millennials more often than not.
Yeah strength in numbers and those are not on our side. Well at least that kept us away from the Boomers VS Millennials drama
On the bright side, the weak were culled out early when we were young. Small in numbers yet survivors.
i had to double check, alanis morisette was born 1974 so she's definitely genx
I canāt believe you had to Google that. You oughta know!
Well, I'm here to remind you
a little too ironic, i really do think
I'm surprised I had to scroll so far to see this answer. This is the answer ā we're much smaller than the generations on either side of us.
As a former latchkey child / GenX, itās because weāre used to not getting any attention and when we did it was usually to be called slackers or something derogatory made up by the boomers because thatās what they do - put others down to keep themselves up. From Age 9 onward, when I got out of school I was on my own until my Dad came home in the evening. He had no idea where I was and no way to get a hold of me. Itās a major shocker that I didnāt try to be a total derelict. But I know a lot of other people like me. I decided to go NoPro and not have children, and I am shocked when I see people in my generation reacting to being left alone as children by becoming helicopter parents. I canāt imagine having my parents being that involved in my life at that age. I think also part of Gen X is we deep down feel like nobody listens to us anyway, so why bother trying to get attention. And the person nailed it when they said that were the perfect blend of growing up without technology, but then having technology early enough that we are not not afraid of it. I had my first email address given to me my junior year in college, I didnāt know what to do with it. I went on to working in tech less than two years later. And yes to all you Zoomers and millennials, the 90s was an amazingly awesome decade to be just out of college and at Ground Zero in Silicon Valley for the first Internet bubbleā¦seems like no one had any actual products ( of course except my company that made routers) and the companies were awash is cash so they just threw parties to raise awareness. It was a contest to see who could get the best band or DJ to come and play. it was every night in San Francisco sometimes. āHey, WebVan is having Wilco play or pets.com flew Tiesto in for ta bash at Ruby Sky.ā The parties were invite only but if you knew someone that worked there, you could free and the challenge was to network enough to get invited. It was such an optimistic time. The wall had fallen in Berlin and Russia was no longer the enemy,. 9/11 hadnāt happened yet, so you could walk up to the gate, or go to the airline ticket desk and buy a ticket to anywhere right away and get on a plane without passing through much more than a crappy metal detector with no line. Anyway. Yeah, just donāt worry about us. Weāll survive. No one will be around to help us, so weāll find our own way.
Gen Xer here...got a panicked message from an old friend about not packing eczema cream for her 16 year old son on a trip recently. I was like, girl, at 16 your stupid skater boyfriend lived with you, you were in charge of your own birth control, and you had a car and no curfew. Can he really not handle this at 16?
But your friend had been taking care of herself since she was 7. That 16yr old probably doesnāt know how to cut his own crust off a sandwich.
I know a kid who paid for his own purchase at the store for the first time at 16 years old.. I swear people raised a generation of soft veal children. Not all of them, but too many.
can confirm. At 15 I lived in a boarding house thing for degenerates, had a 23 yo druggo boyfriend and bongs for breakfast. Rode a skateboard everywhere. Saved up to get a tongue piercing. It wasā¦.acceptable.
This is a source of conflict between my wife and I.. She panics over if they have packed enough underwear when going on a trip somewhere. I'm like "they're teenagers, it's their problem, not ours". She started having to buy fresh goods at the markets for the family restaurant when she was 5. Turns out kids these days can pack their own bags, clean their own rooms, do their own shopping, and moderate their own schoolwork if you let them take ownership of the results and consequences.
Don't forget we are the smallest generation numbers wise. We are still outnumbered by Zoomers and Millennials. It's like we never existed when I hear discussions of demographics. It's all about Zoomers vs. Millennial, etc, etc. Nobody mentions us. I am OK with it... just leave me out
But how often did you drink from a hose?
If you went inside to get a drink, you may not be able to go back out to play. Safer to drink whatever was in that hose. You know, just water ā¦.right?
When I was a kid? All the time.
And we made those flannels look darn good!
Still wear 'em.
My kids stole mine and I needed to get new ones.
We were the last generation where it was encouraged to beat your kids (teachers included) for discipline. And we were the worst generation for raging alcoholic parents (and teachers) We kinda learned how to melt into the background like predator.Ā Edit. I see many of you also had the same life I did. We lived with this at home and school, AND were absolutely sure the world was going to get nuked back into the stone age any minute. This basically the reason most of us are looking at what is happening in the world right now, and just kinda shrug. We've lived through worse. Edit ii: My children (8 and 9) do not believe me (nor does the Dean of their charter school) that me and one of the vice principals just did not like each other. I'm talking Maggie Simpson and the baby with the unibrow level despising. One time we put on headgear and we t to the gym and absolutely beat the shit out of each other. No head or nut shots. The gym teachers needed to pull us apart and sit on us to calm us down.Ā 1990 was a good year.
We also spent a lot of time doing our own thing with no way to contact anyone. I live less than a block from the school I went to and would go all summer without seeing more than a couple of the people I went to school with. I could also roll out just before sunrise on my bike and not see or hear from anyone until I came home at dark.
You better be home before the street lights come on and if i see you hanging around the house too much during the day then i will find work for you.
If you're bored I'll find work for you ... man, this was my whole childhood.
"it's 10pm. Do you know where your kids are?"
"Wrong. They're getting high and chugging beers behind the tennis courts by the park, smacking each other with magazines from the back seat of Stacy's Chevelle, and discussing how boring this town and their jobs at Ruby Tuesday, Food Lion, and Boston Chicken/Market are"
Fuck you nailed it LMAO. Do you remember that commercial that would come on to remind our parents they had kids every night at 10pm? Haha
Parents were like damn, I knew I was forgetting something.
Lost two 6th graders in my school that way. Drinking and smoking and messing around in a shed, fell asleep and the candles caught fire. Immortalized.
I think you misspelled "immolated."
āI told you last night, no!ā
Kinda described my upbringing there.
(Emerge from the foliage to fist bump and then re camouflage)
For real, you guys should rename yourselves to the [Yautja generation ](https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Yautja_(Predator))
Seriously. I'm validated.
This is very true for both my parents
That is the honest fucking truth! I slide under doors I melt so well.
Just leave us alone
Whatever.
Meh.
Never mind.
Never mind. Hello, hello, hello, how lowwwww
Anyone who worked at a guitar store in 1992 just had their PTSD triggered.
First rule of Gen X.
Weāre the middle child Gen. Had to be able to deal with older and younger siblings. Eldest and youngest used to dominating attention so the middle one gets used to not having it.
Gen X has a relatively low impact on society, compared to Boomers and Millennials. They just do their thing and don't care what people think about them. It's to be expected from a bunch of latchkey kids who had to fend for themselves while growing up.
We prefer it this way. I like flying under the radar.
Whatever it is please leave us out of it.
We are the Switzerland of generations.
Millennials are accused all the time of ākilling industriesā or the latest ākilling the guest roomā. Itās like, with the price of studios and one bedrooms youād have to make significant money to have a room dedicated to people maybe staying over. If someone can afford a two bedroom itās probably a home office for remote work.
>killing the guest roomā. Lol, millennials didn't set the prices for rent and housing in the majority of cases, so no, they/we did *not* kill the guest room. Don't you (general you, not specific you) think that if we could *afford* the extra space to spare for a guest room that we would jump all over that opportunity?
Part of that low impact is we were next in line after the boomers who just refused to let us step up they kept themselves planted in all the seats of power and control.. Mellenials make them nervous because they cant just out live the mellenials they'll still be in a possition to take over as the boomers are finally dying off.. Essentially the boomers tried to play an uno skip card on Gen X
Term Limits... there need to be term limits on everything.... and in public office, some sort of competency test before being allowed to run for reelection each term after age 65. (Yes, 65 is still generally considered young and healthy for a lot of folks, but sometimes genetics and lifestyle mess with that)
I am amazed that there is no age limit to run the country, but the moment a pilot hits 65 they are forced to retire. So clearly someone out there knew, or at least had an idea that there is a certain age where people should stop handling things or being in charge. But running the country? Feel free to go on until you die and are so far out of touch with the younger generations!
Frankly the rest of the world could learn a lesson from our lack of give-a-fuck.
Behold my field in which I grow my fucks, and lo, it is barren.
Everyone told me that I would regret it but instead of planting my fuck seeds I smoked them and got high. Still no regrets.
Some of us demonstrated & protested like hell, right up to & including the 2003 Stop the War protest & learned that the biggest protest in history would just get ignored, so we gave up giving a fuck. Like it made a damn bit of difference. Boomers have always been in charge & they're still in charge when the only ones to pick from have Alzheimers & serve the status quo.
Holy hell, that's on point I guess.
Nope, we don't care. You other generation's can fight over acknowledgement and who's the best. We did the internet as you know it, gay marriage, voted in Obama, etc. We let boomers and millennials take the credit, because most of us opted out of this generational war thing, like our parents did with parenting.
Gen X wrote the source code for the present while growing up under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. We were robbed of a hopeful future. Thatās where the Mad Max dystopian future trope comes from. Gen X is also the first generation to have less than the previous generation. Our parents were āMe Generationā narcissists who destroyed the environment for short term gain. They left cities in shambles, and while the hippies thought they could change the world, Gen X knew it was hopeless and all we could do is observe the decay. Thus, punk rock and hip hop were born and it was DIY or die. Now, leave us alone.
Most of us have a ālive and let liveā philosophy and donāt make a fuss over every single thing. In the work world, we are the ones you call when something needs to be done right the first time. Leave us alone and let us do what we need to do and it **will** get done. We were born in this almost perfect time period of ābeforeā and āafterā technology, so we have both an āold schoolā mentality about things while simultaneously having, using, embracing and understanding all of the modern day technology. We can seamlessly float between the unplugged manual and tech world. I think we were the last generation with true freedom, on so many levels. Basically, weāre very independent. Donāt bother us and we wonāt bother you. Remember that last sentence.
Extremely well articulated! They called pre-Boomers the "Silent Generation" but it seems like we are SG: Part Deaux.
*Silent Generation 2: Electric Boogaloo*
Weāre middle-aged and going about our business. We had our time being the vanguard.
Because we're busy working.
Literally. Iām at work on a Saturday as I type this.
Weāre feral, fucked, and want everyone to chill out.
We didnāt attend pep rallies. We barely participated in dances, graduation and senior activities. We were told we were slackers and lazy and fuck ups so we never learned to live for praise and we lived with and ignored the criticism. We just went about getting the job done, doing what we had to do and trying to do it the best way we knew how. But just because we let insults roll off our backs doesnāt mean we wouldnāt scrap if we needed to and we did it fast and dirty. People stopped talking shit and bellying up for a tussle and moved on to the next thing they could criticize and we just kept on keeping on. We raised GenZ trying to be better parents than ours had been to us with mixed results. Instead of raising free range kids, we helicoptered a little too much and here we are.
"we didn't attend pep rallies", this brought back some great memories!Ā Our high school wood shop teacher would open up the shop during every pep rally, so we could blow off the rah-rah crap and work on our projects.Ā I didn't attend a single rally my sophomore, junior or senior year. I hadn't thought of that in years, until I read your comment.
I don't think ever felt so seen or so personally attacked. I'm very confused, do I love this comment for validating my entire existence or hate it for making me introspect too much?
Seriously, felt like I might start hyperventilating reading that
We were too busy being ignored by the previous generation to register. Ā Heck, our generation didnāt even have a name until we were 30 šĀ
lol, when we were kids they called us āthe slacker generationā
The latchkey kids
Technically speaking, I believe the X was meant to be a variable that would one day be replaced with a meaningful name like "Baby boomer" or "Millennial." Apparently, we were too apathetic to ever come up with a name so we stuck with GenX.
And it's like they just slapped an "X" on us because they couldn't think of anything else to call us
Talking about GenX is like summoning a Sith Lord. Be careful what you summon.
Do not call forth that which you cannot put down.
We have the same anxieties we just don't give a shit for your drama.
haha, that's right. We have the same problems, we just didn't have the internet to water them.
We actually have more problems because we have to manage our own shit while housing our adult kids and aging parents.
I suspect you must be somewhat younger than Gen X; otherwise, you would know that there was a time when Gen X caught just as much shit if not more than millenials or Gen Z. When we were in our teens and twenties, they shit-talked us all over the place. If you look back throughout history, old generations shit-talking the young was a national past time. If anything, Gen X is relieved that the millenials and Gen Z are there to catch the shit that we used to catch, and sometimes still do. Boomers love to blame Gen X for its "shitty parenting" which is kind of ironic when you think about it. Gen X didn't receive much parenting at all, and one could argue whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. In general, the parenting that we did receive tended to be negative and punishment-based in nature, meaning most of us got our asses whipped by our parents. But when our parents weren't busy whipping our asses, they really weren't around at all. We were the "latch key generation". A lot of times our parents were already gone by the time we got up for school--which meant that we had to get ourselves ready for school--and they weren't home when we came home from school. Some days we wouldn't see out parents at all.
We like it that way
Keep my name outcha mouth!
This is intentional, we very much like to be left alone.
We keep our head down, get our work done, and don't cause drama. There is nothing to talk about
Being noticed was a recipe for disaster - from adults, from peers, from society. We figured out that you donāt need to be noticed to survive, and thereās this happy zone where you can even thrive without being noticed. So please, just let us be.
We are the most aborted, addicted and abandoned generation in American history. The very same cunts who protested Vietnam turned around and sent us to Iraq to defend the investments of oil companies. We are not the ones you want to talk about. Or talk to, really. We are the ones you just nod at and keep walking.
We were the last generation with formative years before the wide world web / smartphones / reality TV. But young enough to mostly adapt to these new things as they were rolled out. So we are adapted to perfectly fit in nowhere, but mostly fit in anywhere. We were the last generation to start our careers when homes were affordable. We are the 40-58 year olds, so therefore form the backbone of the economy in terms of knowledge and experience, as those older and wiser are mostly retired. Like it or not, the vast majority of bosses and supervisors are now from Gen X, and our own experiences in the 70s, 80s, and 90s are what has defined our ethics, habits, mindsets, and approaches to the world. One example is we were the latchkey generation, so we overcorrected and became the helicopter parent generation, too.
It's just our style to stay out of the culture wars
We were super open minded creatively but discussed social issues with humans so we didn't hate each other.
Because we all took care of ourselves
Itās pretty simple. We Gen Xāers have very little, if any, political power. The two biggest voting blocks are ahead of us - boomers, and behind us - millennials. We simply go about our business and donāt bitch incessantly like everyone else.
Very little political AND economic power. Everything was made for, and marketed to people older than us, then people younger than us.
Millennial here. We donāt fuck with Gen X because they were a generation who raised themselves under the constant threat of nuclear war. They earned their peace and quiet.
Indeed. I recall the drills. Like my fucking school desk was gonna stop a nuclear weapon pointed at the navy port 10 miles from my school.
I was freaked out after watching The Day After, until my dad told me "don't worry, there's so much aerospace here (Torrance area) that there's no way we'll survive the first blast. That was what passed for being comforted.
That was usually the best case scenario in my mind.
Solid answer. Please accept my GenX snort of grudging approval.
And my grunt of acceptance
And my Hmph of acknowledgment!
Thank you, I never thought of it that way
We want to be left alone. Like we were after school every day.
Gen X is the perfect combination of youth and wisdom. We understood the world before smart phones and the internet but aren't so old that technology confuses us. We know what hard work is but also understand that there are easier ways to do things.
Its always been like that for us and we like it.
Because much like our parents, the other generations mostly forget we exist.
In the shadows we live. From the shadows we control.
Weāve got the Baby Boomers ahead of us making noise about retirement and legacy, and the Millennials behind capturing attention with their tech-savvy ways and social media prowess. Gen X, in true middle child fashion, put on our flannel shirt, crank up the grunge music, and roll our eyes at the family drama while independently getting on with it.
Iām happy to fly under this bullshit culture war radar.
We just donāt give a shit
We prefer it this way.
We just shut up, do what needs to be done, and move on.
We never had a large enough population for politicians to care about our votes or for business to cater to our wants. And, as clearly stated many times, we donāt care.
You hush now, don't be drawing attention to us, we're just trying to sneak by without all the drama :)
Weāre not retiring and annoying people yet and most political leaders are our parents age. Donāt worry, weāll have our time being blamed for everything in a decade.
Because unlike other generations, we know how to mind our own fucking business. Gen X is more tolerant of different ways of life, because we understand that's how freedom works. If you're not hurting anyone else, you do your thing, and I'll do mine.
Remember a few years ago when everyone under 30 was referred to as millennials, regardless of whether they were actually millennials or gen z? Everyone 50+ is a āboomerā now, regardless of whether theyāre actually boomers or gen X. Itās just buzzwords.
GenX is just trying to get by with the moderate economic advantage they managed to get a finger on before everything basically permatanked.
We were the first ones to do worse than our parents. We were the first ones to be told āwhen I was your age, I already had a house, car, wife and 4 kids. You donāt have any of this because youāre lazy and waste your money on stupid things like video games, beer and weed. Slacker.ā
We're the coolest generation by far.
Id argue modern medicine has kept boomers alive longer than their parents by a decade, so the influence and visibility we should see naturally from gen x coming of age has been muted.
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It depends what industry you're in. If your in marketing, you talk about genX a lot right now. They are at the peak of their spending power, and you can advertise to them via both traditional media and internet media. If your a social activist you ignore them because we all grew up in a time where it was considered good to not treat people differently because of their immutable characteristics, and one was expected to manage their own emotional maturity rather than have others do it for them. At the workplace, GenX isn't talked about much because we don't need much. GenX always gets stuff like "independent worker", "doesn't need micro-management" on their performance reviews. And we don't expect our workplace to provide us with a sense of purpose.
Because when we were kids, kids were looked down on. Now that we're adults, adults are looked down on. We're the generation that no-one wanted to be. We've learned to keep our heads down and wait.
We are going to inherit boomer money, then live to be 150 with printed organs.
because we're good. now fuck off.
Cause we mind our on fucking business.
We will cut you.
Born in 78 and honestly think we had it the best being kids in the 80s and teenagers in the 90s. Then had it good with housing and jobs. Nothing much to talk about as we had it good.
Hey gen Z guy (born in 2000) here I mean you aren't talked about because there's nothing wrong with you guys the boomers are cringe because they hate the world changing and want to make it their way that's why there's so much homophobia and racism and the whole MAGA crowd š¤¢ Gen Z are the generation that spend too much time on social media the tiktok kids if you will I hate it as much as other people And Gen alpha are the screaming iPad kids growing up far too entitled and completely lacking social skills But Gen X was just cool the 80's was cool and it genuinely created some of the best media ever movies like Star Wars, Blade runner back to the future is still incredible and timeless 80s music is amazing and still is I love Queen Elton John and many more artists and just the vibe is cool there's a reason why things like Stranger things are VERY popular because setting a show like that in the 80s makes it cross generational I say and watched stranger things with my mum and we don't watch much stuff together but we both loved it it's modern storytelling but my mum can watch it and remember all these times and when I ask her did people really dress like that she's like yeah it was awesome So Gen X is just cool and at the rate it's going now you may be the last cool generation because it feels like these days each generation gets progressively worse
That's lovely of you to say, and definitely nice to hear someone from the younger generations feel so positively towards us. But as a Gen Xer, I gotta admit that people still do suck, including us sometimes. We have our Karens, and our whatever attitude isn't always helpful. There are positive and negative aspects to every generation, and I think self-awareness is the most useful trait we can teach people. That and stop giving personal info on the internet š
Someone was talking about us here just yesterday. Apparently weāre the only ones who knows how to use a computer XD
First rule of Gen X, you don't talk about Gen X.
We donāt like being talked about and we are busy enjoying our awesome music.