Generation-X, Baby Boomer, who makes this crap up?

Factual Questions
21

There are no hard and fast dates for defining “Generation X” – or any other generation, for that matter. The authors of the abovementioned 13th Gen suggested birthyears 1961 to 1981, but admitted that future events might divide the generations in a different place. A better way to seperate the generations might be something like “If you were too young to remember A but old enough to remember B, you’re a member of generation C”, but I don’t know how you would decide what events to use.

BTW, Douglas Coupland did not coin the term “Generation X”, although his book does appear to be responsible for its modern usage. There was another book of the same title published back in 1964. I don’t know much about it, but I think it was about the young people of that generation – the Baby Boomers born just after WWII. I have heard that Billy Idol named his mid-70’s band (and album) Generation X after that book.

22

On Friday’s (or maybe it was earlier in the week) episode of Jeopardy! one of the answers was something along the lines of this:

“The LA Times says that the X in Generation X stands for this number of generations since the American Revolution.”

I figured the question “What is 13?”, as the 13th Gen guys claim, but apparently according to Jeopardy! & the LA Times the number is 10.

Huh?

Hmm…either the 13th Gen guys went back beyond the American Revolution (maybe picking the starting point of around the time that Ben Franklin was born) or they used a totally different number of years to define the length of a generation.

There are no easy answers to this problem it would seem. :slight_smile:

23

That’s odd, Guinistasia, that you would consider yourself GenX based on that. Most of my peers (born about 1975-1980) use those experiences as proof that we’re NOT Generation X-- We’re the generation that everyone except ourselves usually calls “Generation Y”.

24

I’m not sure you can define a generation based on the years they were born specifically. It has a little more to do with the general feeling of the people of that generation. Baby boomers were born into a post-ware boom. They had job security, it was easy to make money, etc etc.

Generation X folks came along after that generation. They experienced a downturn in the economy, baby-boomers held all the top jobs so it was difficult to get ahead. There wasn’t much of a outlook for this generation and they generally became distrustful of the “system”.

After this came my generation, Gen Y. We are experiencing a resurgence of the economy, there are large portions of the job market that are open to only us (Technology is a great example of this). Baby-boomers are retiring so we can zip straight to the top, gen-y folks don’t rely on the “system”. Company loyalty doesn’t really exist, because we know it isn’t a two way street. We’re a little more self-centered, more materialistic, and suprisingly enough and weird piercings to the contrary, I’d say we’re much more conservitive that Generation X.

I’m not sure what to call all the irritating “homies” and “gangsta” kids that are walking around now, though… I usually just call them idiots. I’ll leave it to the next generation to name them.

Anyway, this is simply how I percieve the generation splits, and it also explains why one generation may have a hard time understanding the next one. We’ve come into existance with such radically different worlds to deal with. Not having been alive for the previous two generations, I can’t really say the points above actually hold up, but it makes me content to have something I can belive anyway.

To sum up:
-If you lived in a post-war boom, you’re a boomer.

-If you are distrustful of the system and feel opressed, and didn’t grow up feeling you could do anything and go anywhere, you’re gen-xer.

-If you say screw the system and have grown up in an environment which lets you belive the world is your oyster, you’re gen-yer…

All regardless of the year you were born.

my 2c

-nigel