I was in 7th or 8th grade when Cobain died, so I’d be right at where you mention. Cobain’s death was huge in my class, absolutely goddamned huge. Everyone I saw in class listened to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, etc.
I guess those born right in the transition are in a weird neither/nor grey area. Like I said, I feel more leanings towards Gen X, but I did have a brother 6 years older than me. But even then, one of my best friends (born the same year I was) feels the same as I do but she’s an only child, so…
This thread has been very illuminating for me (born 1966 and waaaay more X than Boomer). This explains the ubiquitious cellphones. It has truly escaped me why anyone would want to be in touch with ANYONE 24-7. I have a cellphone - I even turn it on once in a while. I always thought my extreme independence was just my own personality; I didn’t realize it was a generational trend. Are the Gen M’s more interdependent because of things like growing up in a crowded, global community where fear-mongering was the norm?
As overshadowed by Boomers as us X’ers have been, I think our generational song must be “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds.
“We’re The Kids in America” by Kim Wylde
“I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones
“We’re on the Road to Nowhere” by The Talking Heads
“Institutionalized” by Suicidal Tendencies
“All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me!”
I work with a couple of Gen-Yers. They strike me as being very close to their parents, extremely wired and gadget-conscious (Ipods galore), and very sociable. When everyone in the lab is working, they’ll be sitting at the computers instant-messaging people and updating their myspace profiles (and doing it blatantly too). They aren’t music snobs (the Gen-Xers in my workplace–myself included–seem to have more discriminating tastes…and we tend to know a lot about the history of the stuff we listen to). They aren’t too keen on politics.
But I don’t feel comfortable attributing any of these things to their “generation”. They’re young guys in their early 20s. Of course they aren’t going to have a political ideology. Of course they’re going to be close to their parents. I think the Gen-Yers are wayyy too young for us to fairly compare them to Gen-Xers. I don’t think comparisons between generations are fair until most of the cohorts from each group reaches adulthood and has kids.
The “wired” thing, however, is something I think will distinguish Gen-Xers from Gen-Yers. I didn’t know anything about the internet until I got to college; before then, a computer was just a fancy word processor. These kids grew up viewing a computer as a way to connect to other people and information. In high school, I remember saving my money so I could buy cassette tapes from the used music store. Gen-Yers grew up downloading music, movies, and TV shows within a matter of minutes…for FREE. I don’t think the different experiences are trivial in the long run.
It also occurs to me that Gen-Yers aren’t dealing with a lot of the racial baggage that Gen-Xers had to face. Late Baby Boomers and early Gen-Xers were the ones who were experimented on with forced bussing programs and the like. My siblings and I were voluntarily bussed to schools under a special program, and I recently found out that it doesn’t exist anymore. Gen-Xers remember when Michael Jackson was the only black performer on MTV and when Top 40 was more racially homogenous. They remember when we didn’t have a Martin Luther King Day and when we didn’t have black people in the White House. They also have more vivid memories of the Rodney King stuff and OJ Simpson trial than Gen-Yers, most of whom were still in elementary school when both things were going on. Gen Yers don’t have all the hangups that their predeccesors had. Just as Gen-Xers are better than their parents when it comes to racial tolerance, I think Gen-Yers will show all of us up.
Yes I know. They’re probably more popular than ever.
IMHO
Life of a Gen-Xer in movies:
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (HS)
PCU (College)
Reality Bites (Transition to adulthood)
Singles (20s)
Office Space (20s)
High Fidelity (20s/30s)
Fight Club (30s)
Life of a Gen-Yer in movies:
Can’t Hardly Wait (HS)
American Pie (HS)
American Pie 2 (College)
American Weding (Transition to adulthood)
Harold & Khumar go to Whitecastle (20s)
One of my Gen-X cohorts and I had to explain to some of the kids at work today what exactly the Legion of Doom (Superfriends) was.
It was very similar, but the one I was referring to was in HR Magazine, the magazine of the Society for HR Management. It could have been the same info repackaged in some way.
I say let the Y’s have Cobain and Nirvana. They hit the scene during the X’ers time, and had an affect on other music X’ers listened to afterward, but by the time he killed himself Nirvana’s fanbase was mostly tween Millennials that were led to the band by media outlets like MTV and commercial radio.
Seems to me that more Millennials were moved by his passing than X’ers. We’d seen early ends come to iconic figures in our lifetime and already had the fleece of cynicism pulled over our eyes, but to the M’s, who were just starting to formulate their own identities, it was a big deal.
My take on the differences between the two generations is very broad: it comes down to a perception of the future.
When I was growing up I distinctly remember the ever-present threat of nuclear war, horrifically detailed imagery of what a nuclear winter would be like, media saturation coverage of global warming and the growing hole in the ozone layer, the spread and subsequent hysteria of AIDS, glam metal, and a show I saw when I was five years old that scientifically explained how our sun was going to burn out in the year 2000.
All of those things, combined with other things like rising rates of violent crimes, the destruction of the Challenger and all that stood for, the knowledge that a college education didn’t equate to above average pay and job security anymore, and continually shrinking estimates of when Social Security would run out had a way of forcing us (by us, of course, I mean me and my small circle of friends. I by no means suggest I speak for an entire generation of people; merely try to paint a generalized picture based on personal experiences I suspect all within the generation also experienced to varying degrees) to come to terms early on in life that we didn’t have a whole lot to look forward to.
I’m just flat out going to admit this thread has annoyed the living heck out of me. I’m a 21 year old Mil-Genner and I just don’t see quite the same thing you all do (who’s suprised by that?). I think, for one, we’re a lot more cynical than things might seem at first blush. The difference between X and us in that? We realize that doesn’t make us special, that being rebels means absolutely nothing in the long run, so it’s better to get ahead as well as you can. A Gen-Xer might say “the world sucks, so why bother?” A Gen-Yer might say “the world sucks, but let me get the most out of it that I can.”
Why bother whining at authority figures? It’s not likely to change anything. Just buckle down and work with what’s around.
I will agree that plenty of us do have trouble with constructive criticism, but I’d make two points. First, are you sure you’re actually being constructive for us? As others have said, different ages communicate in different ways. Second, we’re most of us still growing up! Things like a thick skin don’t just appear over night. Get back to me in a decade and see where we stand.
I’m not sure how you got that out of what I wrote. There are positives and negatives with every behavior. Gen-Y might be less independent, but they are more collaborative. They value working in groups while Gen-X tend to like doing things their own way. The extreme form of that behavior manifesting itself as being difficult to work with.
I see this in my office. The younger coworkers try and get the entire office to go to lunch in one big group of 20 people while guys my age would rather go in a group of 3-4 or simply eat at our desks so we can get home earlier.
Watching Harold & Khumar again, I get the impression that Millennials tend to think of Gen-X as the X-treme meathead guys who were hastling Harold & Khumar everywhere they went.
I got that impression from the OP too. Your later comments suggested that you didn’t actually think that, but I can see where someone might dismiss you as a “kids these days” type from your first post here.
Will I get extra credit for answering this question? If I get it right, you’ll drop that test I missed, right? The one where my grandpa exploded and my leg was cut off in a freak bagel accident and my dog was coughing up blood?