Maybe I’m just pessimistic. In the first post of Gen-X Perspectives I wrote about when are we and is it more than just marketing. Through conversations since then my conclusion is its just marketing and we don’t really know when one generation begins or another ends. I heard answers such as Baby Boomers came after World War 2 ended and that Generation X was slackers in 90s and what the hell is Generation Y.
A conversation with a friend she didn’t release she was born smack dab in the middle of what is considered Generation X, 1961 – 1981 if you didn’t read the last article. She said she didn’t feel a part of the X group but I wondered what made one feel a part of it. Is it clothing, culture or your experiences, maybe little be of all. As I was sitting there in baggy jeans, an oversized Beastie Boys black t-shirt and Airwalks circa 1996. The funny thing is I hadn’t worn something like that in years but that day I did.
I do feel very much a part of Gen-X; at 32 years old and still trying to define myself and impact on the world around me. I struggle with relationships and making ends meet. I feel like the Baby Booms have left us a mess of a world to clean up and they’re selfish bastards for it. Corporate power, government power and greed has become overwhelming possible unstoppable. But we still try to stop them. I don’t think it to far-fetched that one day the United States will collapse under the weight of its shortsightedness. I hope I am wrong. It seems from everything I read about Gen-X that pessimism is an underlying theme.
From Wikipedia:
The perception of Generation X during the early 1990s was summarized in a featured article in Time Magazine:
. . .They possess only a hazy sense of their own identity but a monumental preoccupation with all the problems the preceding generation will leave for them to fix . . .This is the twentysomething generation, those 48 million young Americans ages 18 through 29 who fall between the famous baby boomers and the boomlet of children the baby boomers are producing. Since today’s young adults were born during a period when the U.S. birthrate decreased to half the level of its postwar peak, in the wake of the great baby boom, they are sometimes called the baby busters. By whatever name, so far they are an unsung generation, hardly recognized as a social force or even noticed much at all…By and large, the 18-to-29 group scornfully rejects the habits and values of the baby boomers, viewing that group as self-centered, fickle and impractical.While the baby boomers had a placid childhood in the 1950s, which helped inspire them to start their revolution, today’s twentysomething generation grew up in a time of drugs, divorce and economic strain. . .They feel paralyzed by the social problems they see as their inheritance: racial strife, homelessness, AIDS, fractured families and federal deficits.[1]
A fairly good description but is the consent bombardment that we’re the pessimistic generation make us that way or are they just reporting what they see. Kind of like the saying does TV reflect life or does life reflect TV?
- Baby Boomers 1949-1960(64ish)
- Generation X 1961(64ish)- 1980(81ish)
- Generation Y 1981 – 1999+
- Millennial Generation 2001+ (Could be considered part of Y)
These dates are debated with-in a few years so take it with a grain of salt just like anything online. Now knowing when the generations are does it change your perception of yourself? Did you know what generation you are grouped in? Are you curious of what is the name of the generation before Baby Boomers? Do a search and explore.
Next Gen-X Perspectives: We’re Not as Pessimistic as We Think
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