Friday, April 27, 2012

Generation Gap

For the A-Z Blog challenge, I will be addressing some of life's big questions. Perhaps together we can find the answers to many heretofore unsolvable mysteries.


is for Generation X


I believe the term Generation X can be applied to anyone born from around the early 1960s through the late '70s or early '80s. 

So yes. Let me date myself. That means me.

Those of us born after the World War II baby boom. Those of us that lived through the oil crisis, the energy crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War.



We've helped usher in the home computer, cellular phones, video gaming, and the internet.

Our lives have been marked by constant change. According to author John Ulrich, 
"Generation X" has always signified a group of young people, seemingly without identity, who face an uncertain, ill-defined (and perhaps hostile) future.
Have we reached that future?

What about our children? The ones they call the MTV Generation or Generation Y? What kind of future is in store for them?


Tomorrow's Question:
Y not?

10 comments:

  1. Well that's a depressing morning wake-up call, is this my hostile future? I straddle boomer and X according to which source you look at. I guess the classic Gen X movie was Reality Bites. But don't you think that disenchantment with the world is classic teen in general?

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    1. Sorry. I don't mean to be depressing so early in the morning. Especially since I'm a fairly happy and up-beat person. I agree that it does describe teens in general.

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  2. Wow!! I am in store for even MORE hostility and unknownness in the future?! Yipee!! I kind of agree with Jay Robin Brown that some of the traits attributed to us Gen Xers are really more for young people of any other label as well - at least those in the US.

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  3. Once a guy who studies the generations in America gave a forum at BYU. The whole thing was about how generation X was lost, and how generation Y was spoiled, and how that's leading to a certain world war that we're going to lose because we're so lost and spoiled. It was kind of interesting, except the war part, which was tangential. And the whole thing was depressing.

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  4. The world is only hostile if you believe it is. But the rest of it is true. The world has rapidly changed around us gen x-ers since we were born. And as working adults now, we're the ones who have to keep adjusting our expectations so we don't get lost or left behind. It's way different than what our parents went through, and it's very different than what our kids will go through, since this is all they've known.(And Brooke, I read that BYU forum, it was interesting!)

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  5. I am Generation W, I guess, just before X. Part of the Baby Boomers. I am truly scared for our generation. Sorry, Gen X, that there aren't enough of you to pay the debts, we were told we shouldn't have more than 2 kids. I just pray that as older people become a "burden on society" it doesn't become acceptable to euthanize. Now there's a downer ... sorry, but it is a concern.

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  6. Don't forget microwaves and VCRs.
    I do worry about the future for young people now. My husband has even mentioned that our daughter may live with us for a very long time.
    There is just so much greed and anger out there. It's not good.

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  7. I am a generation xer and I honestly believe that after things get worse for a while longer, we will be forced to find our selves a way out of this mess and then things are bound to get better. At least I hope so.
    -Debbie

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  8. Julie, here's the link to the reviewers site I promised http://thechrysanthemumconnection.blogspot.co.uk/
    cheers, Sherry

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