I was born in 1966, and I don’t fit either. I was just after the Boomers, and before the typical X’er. I’m a Tweener.
X - Cause we’re X-treme!!
Y - Because no one can think of a name for the largely derivitive demographic group born after 1980.
Basically you are gen-x if you can relate to the following:
CURRENT AGE
-Mid twenties to early thirties
MUSIC
-1991 was the height of musical achievment with the release of Nevermind, Ten, BadMotorFinger, and Dirt
-80s music is largely irrelevant except as nostalgia of what you listend to before you “grew up” musically
-Pink Floyd and Led Zepelin are “classic”
-There’s nothing wrong with white suburban kids listening to Dr Dre or Snoop Dogg
STYLE/DRESS
-Nothing but plaid flannel shirts
-20 baseball hats that you would bury in the ground for a week to get that broken-in look
-A goatee or soul patch is not associated with homosexuality
RESUME
-1994-1996 - Clerk - The Java Hut Coffee Shop
-1996-1997 - Intern - Giant Bankcorp IT dept
-1998-2001 - VP of Synergy - Flashinthepan.com
-2001-2003 - Living at home with the folks
MOVIES
-You remember seeing a Star Wars that didn’t suck in the theater
-You remember Eddie Murphy when he wasn’t appropriate for children
-Animal House, Caddyshack, Fletch and Blues Brothers are classic comedy movies, never to be duplicated
VIDEOGAMES
-You remember Atari, Colecovision, Nintendo NES, Sega Geneisis, and the original Playstation
-Tecmo Superbowl was the best football game ever
Nah. Douglas Coupland and I share birthyear - 1961. We’re what came right after the babyboomers. Too young to participate in the crazy leftist years of the 60’s and 70’s. Too young for Vietnam draft (born '57 or earlier). Too old to be part of those priviliged kids born to the babyboomers. The 'tweeners are the generation-x. Generation Y, as in “why?” is also called ‘The ironic generation’. These are kids born from early/mid 70’s.
The kids of Gen-X, born from around 1982 and onwards don’t have a name yet. But as many of them are about to wear black turtlenecks, smoke pot, listen to the Doors and have angst about the future, there is no doubt a label will show up.
I was born in 1971, and definitely was/am Generation X. But it doesn’t refer to everyone born within a certain time period, of course; with America’s infinite mosaic of subcultures (I have no idea how much, if at all, this applies to other parts of the world), that would be impossible.
The term Generation X seems to describe a cultural trend from the early- to mid-90s: the jaded, ironic (pre-Alanis Morrisette), coffee-drinking hipster. I can think of many examples; for the fashion and attitude, look to Kurt Cobain. For the lifestyle, listen to the lyrics to “Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground (“Hangin’ round, downtown by myself, and I had too much caffeine… And I was thinkin’ about myself and there she was…” That still cracks me up.) For the best movie about it, see Half-Cocked if you can find it.
And yeah, I was definitely part of the movement back in 91-93 or so, when I was in college at UGA. I still get nostalgic for the days when “alternative” actually meant something when applied to music–or even before that when it was called “college rock.” And hmm, my winter wardrobe still seems to contain a lot of flannel…
Well, Generation-X was first published 1991. And if we’re talking ‘alternative’ I bought the 101’ers first single (one of the best titles ever): Five star Rock’n’Roll Petrol, when it first came out.
Dude, you don’t even know what alternative is.
Sigh. Doesn’t anyone remember Billy Idol and his late '70s band, Generation X? But the term was floating around before they pciked it up. It took Madison Ave. to link it to a particular marketing demographic.
It’s similar to how the term “alternative music” used to mean a musical alternative to mainstream pop before it was coopted for a specific format.
Having been born in 1984, I’m sorta in the middle. Too young for Gen X, but all the Gen Y marketing is targeted towards people approximately 4-8 years younger than us. I don’t think we’ll do the whole angst thing though – two or three generations have pretty much tapped that vein out.
oh yeah…under MOVIES
-films like Singles, Reality Bites, Slacker, Empire Records and a dozen other clones featuring hip 20 somthings finding themselves while working in dark coffee houses, playing in bands, all set to a soundtrack of 90s grunge and weepy Sarah Mclaughlan tunes
PLACES TO LIVE
-Seatle, WA
-Austin, TX
-New York City, NY (but only in places like SOHO or the East Village)
HOBBIES
-Skateboarding
-Music
-Web design
-Hanging out
Gen X’ers don’t really “do” anything. We just sit around in dark appartments wearing flannel, being ironic and listeing to Soundgarden.
Yeah… :rolleyes: [AIRQUOTE]Groovey…[/AIRQUOTE]
Instead of “Y,” the one I heard and like is the “Net Generation.” Generally described as one where computers are second nature. They’ve grown up with them and naturally think of them when solving problems.
The author who used this term put the age break between '77-'78. Born in 1979 and I would consider myself between generations.
No, you’re over 10 years too young.
I’d put the cut-off at around 75, 76 at the latest. After that, and it’s an entirely different set of memories, generation defining events, and demographic trends.
IIRC, the X was a ten not an ex.
I’d have to agree with Wolverine, as I to was born 1979. People born in the late 70’s are between generations, old enough to remember the 80’s, but not old enough to have done much. For example, I saw house Party, but I never went to one during the 80’s. So for people like me, you are moreso defined with the group you Identify with more, those younger, or those older.
Since i hate everybody, Guess where I fall
My understanding is that Gen X is the “echo boom”: children of boomers. There was a lot of marketing ink expended on what to call us (Boomers: what do you mean there’s no name! MY child MUST belong to a generation! Don’t you tell me they can’t have everything I did and more…) Gen Y are our younger brothers and sisters who don’t have anything in common with people born in 1970. The so-called “Tweens” didn’t have their own name because no one had realized the marketing gold in a name.
I was born in 1982, and I don’t feel like i’m in Generation X, but I don’t feel like I’m in Generation Y either. I relate more to 80s music than 90s, my favourite video games were our Atari 400 and the Turbo Grafix 16 (anyone else have one of those? Man, those rocked!), etc. I feel slightly more connected with “traditional” gen-X things and feel disconnected (even annoyed by) most things aimed at gen-Y people. So what does that make me?
Oooh, just thought of something though: I might connect more with Gen-X things because my brother (older than me by 6 years) and my aunt (who was in her early 20s when I was young) were big influences when I was little. So their Gen-X interests and whatnot impacted me, even though if I hadn’t had them around, I might identify more with Gen-Y. Or maybe I’m talking out of my ass.
If you are young enough to have played video games or used a computer before you graduated from high school, you are Generation X or younger. Anyone who went to high school in the 80s is Generation X. Anyone who watched music videos on MTV as a teenager is Generation X.
Echo Boomers were the late kids of younger boomers, born 1980 and later – a huge enormous cohort. They are younger than Xers. Xers where born during the so-called “Baby Bust” - a time when few babies were born, (MHO follows) because the US was so freaking f-ed up no one wanted to bring children into the world (Vietnam War, Watergate, Horrible Economy, Inflation above 15% etc.).
Another reason for the term Generation X (although it was first applied by Douglas Coupland) is that by some accounting Gen X is the 10th generation since the US was founded.
It is a characteristic of Xers that they hate being marketed to generationally (unlike both Boomers and Yers/Echo boomers, who delight in it). If they think something is being targeted at them, they will tend to reject it. Xers were born in a bad economy and gradutated college in a bad economy. They tend to save and be fiscally conservative. Yers were born in a strong economy and graduated college in a strong economy, and are more spendy in their habits. These are a couple of reasons that marketing and popular media have pretty much skimmed over Xers and moved on to more fertile territory.
I read American Demographics too dang much…
I read way too much wishful thinking in this thread: “Generation X-ers are cool slackers, and I think of myself as a cool slacker, so being born in [insert random year] must mean that is Generation X.”
One of the great things about getting older is:
- Gaining perspective on the foolishness of self.
- Not giving a damn about labels.
I love that I either am or am not part of Gen-X (I was born in 1961) - it so nicely fits my “maybe I’m here, maybe I’m not” philosphy…
Dude, they had that slogan when I was a kid in the '70s! NFW does it apply to current teenagers (even if they wanted it to, which I doubt).