# Generation Xer with an embarassing question about Generation Y culture? Post it here **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 14, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007 "2005-11-14T16:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/21 "2005-11-14T19:29:16Z")
> [@Tarrsk](#): > > The stereotypical emo kid is a guy in tight jeans, crying softly as he plucks at his acoustic guitar. Don’t forget the black horn-rimmed glasses, and a thin, dark colored sweater worn over a collerd shirt, with the coller and shirt cuffs sticking out of the sweater. ---
**Author:** ![jkirkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/22 "2005-11-14T19:37:59Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Don’t forget the black horn-rimmed glasses, and a thin, dark colored sweater worn over a collerd shirt, with the coller and shirt cuffs sticking out of the sweater. So Harry Potter is emo? :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/23 "2005-11-14T19:38:36Z")
> [@jkirkman](#): > > So Harry Potter is emo? > > :eek: :eek: _Extremely_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/24 "2005-11-14T19:39:49Z")
I don’t get the whole manga thing. Why’s there a huge manga section in Barnes and Noble? Who buys this stuff? Doesn’t it drive you nuts to read it from left-to-right? ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/25 "2005-11-14T19:40:56Z")
Hmmmm I guess the moment I realized I wasn’t with it was the minute that I really didn’t care. Coincidentally it was also the minute I made the startling discovery that everyone under 30 is a fricken moron and that the philosophy Red from that 70’s show made perfect sense. You dumb asses! 😉 Before someone pownes, pawns or phones me (Or what ever the hell that is) I have the added self satisfaction of knowing my two kids will be laughing at Generation Y as a bunch of out of touch what ever slang they come up with in 10 years. Still I liked Napoleon Dynamite and knew what “vote for Pedro” meant. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/26 "2005-11-14T19:44:28Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Another rough guideline is if you were in high school at any time during the 80s makes you Gen X. Oh, no you don’t - you can’t make me a Gen X’er! I graduated high school in May 1981, but I insist that I’m a tail-end Baby Boomer. I never even liked Alanis or grunge, and am still waiting for this whole rap/hip-hop thing to blow over, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![St\_Ides](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@St\_Ides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St_Ides)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/27 "2005-11-14T19:49:21Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > As a 32-year old male, it took me forever to figure out exactly what the hell a “Hollaback Girl” (made famous by Gwen Stefani) was. > > And I’m still not 100% sure. If it makes you feel any better, I’m 21 and I have no idea either. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/28 "2005-11-14T19:51:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Where did the phrase “Grrrl power!” come from? Even I know this one: it’s the Spice Girls, no? ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/29 "2005-11-14T20:09:16Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Was it an extremely popular movie among the hipster/emo crowd? Well, I don’t know about that. My husband has a “Vote for Pedro” shirt and he definitely does not fit that mold. He has a liger shirt too. Now I suppose you’re going to want to know what a liger is. Gosh! ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/30 "2005-11-14T20:13:05Z")
I think gen-Xers like myself have become fond of being very cynical of everything. The Daily Show - cynical of politics Talk Soup- cynical of television The Showbiz Show - cynical of hollywood We’ve reached a point where we’ve been fed so much crap through the multi-media that we have some pretty good B.S. detectors that can filter out lying politicians, staged reality shows, hyped celebrities with no talent, etc. I think every generation goes through it. Once you get to the cynical stage of your life, the next generation has started. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/31 "2005-11-14T20:17:38Z")
> [@yellowval](#): > > Now I suppose you’re going to want to know what a liger is. Gosh! A liger is a combination between a lion and a tiger. I forget if it’s the result of a male tiger and a female lion, or a male lion and a female tiger (one of these is a liger, the other is a tigon). However, despite Napoleon Dynamite’s statement to the contrary, they are not generally bred for their skills in magic. > [@VC03](#): > > I don’t get the whole manga thing. Why’s there a huge manga section in Barnes and Noble? Who buys this stuff? Doesn’t it drive you nuts to read it from left-to-right? Japanese books have been printed in the opposite direction of Western books for years, I believe. I have seen some adaptations of manga in which the pictures are reversed (mostly children’s manga, such as _Pokemon_), but the pictures are kept in the proper direction in most American manga to provide the pictures as the artist intended. The manga magazine _Shonen Jump_ comments about this, stating that reversing the pictures sometimes leads to errors such as a girl wearing a shirt with the English word “MAY” instead wearing a shirt reading “YAM.” ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/32 "2005-11-14T20:21:04Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > However, despite Napoleon Dynamite’s statement to the contrary, they are not generally bred for their skills in magic. It’s still pretty much my favorite animal. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/33 "2005-11-14T20:21:11Z")
Oh yes- although it can be oriented to read from left-to-right, Japanese, like Arabic and Hebrew, is usually read from right-to-left. taht ekli kool dluow hsilgnE, ti ot desu ton er’ew ecniS ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/34 "2005-11-14T20:31:28Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > I don’t get the whole manga thing. Why’s there a huge manga section in Barnes and Noble? Who buys this stuff? Doesn’t it drive you nuts to read it from left-to-right? My wife reads it. It has become her hobby. She collects entire series, and has hundreds and hundreds of books, and DVDs and VCDs of manga made into TV shows in Japan that haven’t been released commerically in the West, with translations, without translations, you name it. And she gets these books from hardcore manga places in Japan, not just yer B&N store. I don’t get it, myself, but she likes it. A lot. I collect music from as far back as 60 years before she was born, and she doesn’t get _that_ much, either. But that’s OK, everybody has hobbies. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/35 "2005-11-14T20:32:59Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > I’m 34, and can clearly demarcate a specific point in time down to the month and year when my awareness of current pop culture began to atrophy. That was June 28, 1999. I think MTV’s _The Real World_ may be a good judge of the point that you start to feel disconnected with popular culture. For me, that would be 1995, when I was 29 years old. I could identify with members of the 1994 San Francisco Real World cast; it felt like they were a part of my generation. The next year was the awful season in London, with cast members that just didn’t connect with me. 1996 was Miami, which to me just seemed dominated by drunken hotties and studs with nothing to differentiate them; they really didn’t seem like me. Since Miami, every Real World cast has looked the same to me. I also returned to grad school then, and felt so much older than my younger classmates, who were still in their early 20s. Grunge peaked in the early 1990s, with Kurt Cobhain killing himself in 1994. It didn’t sound that alien to my years, and seemed like a natural progression of the hard rock I grew up with in high school and college. Most rock of the post-grunge era sounds the same to me, and I have a very difficult time telling the difference between one emo, nu-metal or indie band and another. I can tell the difference between Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but not Limp Bizkit and Korn, or Hawthorne Heights and Dashboard. 1994: connected to pop culture. 1995: old geezer. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/36 "2005-11-14T20:37:34Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I think gen-Xers like myself have become fond of being very cynical of everything. > > … > > We’ve reached a point where we’ve been fed so much crap through the multi-media that we have some pretty good B.S. detectors that can filter out lying politicians, staged reality shows, hyped celebrities with no talent, etc. If that’s the case, why was Bush re-elected (and–until recently–held in absolute awe by a significant block of Americans)? Why is Fox News so popular? Why does anybody still pay attention to what Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’ Reilly have to say? Why does _any_ reality show continue to garner ratings? Why is it possible for an artist lauched on “American Idol” to have fairly viable career? Why do these “hyped celebrities with no talent” (frequently from the world of pop music) continue to grab the media’s and public’s attention more than artists who are interesting and have talent? I think it would help if we got more cynical. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/37 "2005-11-14T20:39:44Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Up to now, I thought she was saying “I ain’t no Harlem black girl!” I could have written that same sentence! The first time I heard the song performed – I think it was a Saturday Night Life episode – I thought the same thing. “Well, no shit she’s not a Harlem black girl!” The song was performed with what looked like black college-style stepping, which only reinforced the misheard lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/38 "2005-11-14T20:40:57Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I think gen-Xers like myself have become fond of being very cynical of everything. Weren’t Gen-Xers _always_ cynical of everything? I thoguth that was their defining characteristic. Also, which generation am I? I was born in '81, graduated high school in '99. My older sister (class of '96) is definitely Gen X. My little sister (class of '03) is definitely Gen Y. I don’t seem to quite fit in either one. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/39 "2005-11-14T20:42:19Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > As a 32-year old male, it took me forever to figure out exactly what the hell a “Hollaback Girl” (made famous by Gwen Stefani) was. > > And I’m still not 100% sure. Even funnier when you consider that Stefani is 35 herself! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007/40 "2005-11-14T20:42:19Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Hmmmm I guess the moment I realized I wasn’t with it was the minute that I really didn’t care. Coincidentally it was also the minute I made the startling discovery that everyone under 30 is a fricken moron and that the philosophy Red from that 70’s show made perfect sense. You dumb asses! ;)/QUOTE] I’m with you on this. A defining moment for me was how I was treated socially by my older friends after I turned 30. When you tell people you’re 20-something, they look at you with a hint of disdain and remark “Aaah, yer just a wee lettle beebee, aren’t ye?” But now, that I’m 30, I get the wink and the nod of validation. I’m now recognized as a full-fledged adult. When life makes you cynical and crusty, you know you’re no longer “with it.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-xer-with-an-embarassing-question-about-generation-y-culture-post-it-here/331007.md?page=3)