Generation X

For other uses, see Generation X (disambiguation).

Generation X is a term used to describe generations in many countries around the world born during the 1960s and 1970s, although the exact demographic boundaries of Generation X are not well defined. The term has become used in demography, the social sciences, and marketing, though it is most often used in popular culture.

Some of the defining factors used in descripting Generation X stem from social transitions resulting from the decline of colonial imperialism to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Another more prevalent factor is a bell curve bottoming out in American births from 1960 through 1980, after the American baby boom from 1946 to 1964. A small, often "invisible generation" in the wake of the socially-reconstructing baby boomers, those born in the U.S. between 1964 (often cited as 1961: see Coupland and Strauss and Howe, below) and 1980 received the "X" tag for lack of a defining social identity.

As young adults, Generation X drew media attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s, gaining a stereotypical reputation as apathetic, cynical, disaffected, streetwise loners and slackers, though this reputation only describes a portion of the generation itself.

In addition, Generation X is noted as one of the most entrepreneurial and tech-friendly generations in American history , as they've driven a majority of the Internet's growth and ingenuity from day one. Google, Yahoo!, MySpace, Dell, YouTube, and other billion-dollar tech companies were founded by people in the Generation X demographic.

Origins

In the U.S. Gen X was originally referred as the "baby bust" generation due to the small number of births following the baby boom. But describing a generation of people as a "bust" was not going to be accepted. The not so creative researchers came up with Generation X and it stuck.

In the UK the term was first used in a 1964 study of British youth by Jane Deverson. Deverson was asked by the editor of the magazine "Woman's Own" to conduct a series of interviews with teenagers of the time. The study revealed a generation of teenagers who "sleep together before they are married, don't believe in God, dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents," which was deemed unsuitable for the magazine because it was a new phenomenon. Deverson, in an attempt to save her research, worked with Hollywood correspondent Charles Hamblett to create a book about the study. Hamblett decided to name it Generation X.

Popularization

The term was first used in popular culture in the late 1970s by UK punk rock band Generation X led by Billy Idol. It was later expanded on by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991), which describes the angst of those born between roughly 1960 and 1965, who felt no connection to the cultural icons of the baby boom generation. Coupland himself was born in 1961. In Coupland's usage, the X referred to the namelessness of a generation that was coming into an awareness of its existence as a separate group but feeling overshadowed by the boomer generation of which it was ostensibly a part. Coupland took the X from Paul Fussell's 1983 book Class, where the term "Category X" designated a region of America's social hierarchy, rather than a generation. However, this term has transcended its roots in that country and expanded into other areas of the West. Coupland first wrote of Generation X in September 1987 (Vancouver magazine, "Generation X," pp. 164-169, 194), which was a precursor to the novel and slightly preceded the term "twentysomething". Coupland referred to those born from 1958 to 1966 in Canada or from 1958 to 1964 in the United States (see trailing edge boomer). As Coupland explained in a 1995 interview, "In his final chapter, Fussell named an 'X' category of people who wanted to hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and social climbing that so often frames modern existence." As the term Generation X later became somewhat interchangeable with twenty something, he later revised his notion of Generation X to include anyone considered twenty something in the years 1987 to 1991. In fact, while the book is often seen as being an accurate description of the generation, Coupland maintains that the book was meant to show the lack of a single description for it. In the US, at times the term "baby busters" is used interchangeably with "Generation X," Reagan Generation and MTV Generation can typically denote those born starting in 1965, with various dates offered for its ending year. In this sense, 1975 may be an appropriate cut-off year as the "echo boomer" cohort (recognized by the Census Bureau and other demographers) started in 1976 as birth rates began to rise.

13th generation

In the 1991 book Generations, William Strauss and Neil Howe called this generation the "13th Generation" because it's the 13th to know the flag of the United States (counting back to the peers of Benjamin Franklin). Strauss and Howe defined the birth years of the 13th Generation as 1961 to 1981 based on examining peaks and troughs in cultural trends rather than simply looking at birth rates. Howe and Strauss speak of influences that they believe have shaped Generation 13. These influences are as follows:

• Increase in divorce
• Increase in mothers in the workplace
• The zero population growth movement
• Availability of pills you took to avoid having children
• "Devil-child films"
• Increase in educational variance
• Decrease in educational funding and loan availability (simultaneous with increase in advertising for military service)
• Inception of the Internet
• The end of the Cold War

Generation X in the United States

Generation X was generally marked early on by its lack of optimism for the future, nihilism, cynicism, skepticism, alienation and distrust in traditional values and institutions. Following the publication of Coupland's book (and the subsequent popularity of grunge music) the term stretched to include more people, being appropriated as the generation that succeeded the Baby Boomers, and used by the media and the general public to denote people who were in their twenties.

For some of this generation, Generation X thinking has significant overtones of cynicism against things held dear to the previous generations, mainly the Baby Boomers. Some of those in Generation X tend to be very "consumer" driven and media savvy. Another cultural hallmark of Generation X was grunge music, which grew out of the frustrations and disenchantment of some teenagers and young adults. The fashion of grunge music was exemplified by the bands Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana. The grunge of the 1990s was influenced by punk and heavy metal of the 1970s and 1980s.

The attitude of Generation X towards religion is more complex than other cultural norms of this highly diverse generation. Many Xers believe in God or at least "a higher power" and are accepting of the plurality of world religions. Other Generation Xers are indifferent or hostile toward religion. Generation Xers are influential in the emerging church and other movements aimed at deconstructing and re-evaluating the religion of their parents (much as many American Post World War II Baby Boomers had done in the 1960s and 1970s). One commonality of Generation X's religious perspective is a lack of dogmatism.

Generation X, or the "Reagan Generation" as some have termed it, grew up during the end of the Cold War and the Ronald Reagan eras. As the first of their cohort reached adulthood, they experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union and the United States of America's emergence as the world's lone superpower. Generation X has been the largest generational military service block in American history and the most educated military force fielded by the United States with more enlisted and officer ranked persons holding Bachelor and Master's degrees than their World War II grandfathers. Generation X doesn't suffer the "Vietnam complex" fatigue of its parents and is more likely to identify themselves with their World War II grandparents in values, morals and practical living skills.

The employment of Generation X is volatile. Generation Xers grew up in a rapidly deindustrializing Western world, experienced the economic recession of the early 1990s and 2000s, saw traditional permanent job contracts being supplanted with unsecured short-term contracts, experienced offshoring and outsourcing and often experienced years of unemployment or underemployment at typical jobs, such as McJobs in their young adulthood. Many found themselves overeducated and underemployed, leaving a deep sense of insecurity in Generation Xers, whose usual attitude to work is Take the money and run. They no longer take any employment for granted, as their baby boomer parents did, nor do they consider unemployment a stigmatizing catastrophe.

The perception of Generation X during the early 1990s was summarized in a featured article in Time Magazine:

. . .They possess only a hazy sense of their own identity but a monumental preoccupation with all the problems the preceding generation will leave for them to fix . . .This is the twenty-something generation, those 48 million young Americans ages 18 through 29 who fall between the famous baby boomers and the boomlet of children the baby boomers are producing. Since today's young adults were born during a period when the U.S. birthrate decreased to half the level of its postwar peak, in the wake of the great baby boom, they are sometimes called the baby busters. By whatever name, so far they are an unsung generation, hardly recognized as a social force or even noticed much at all...By and large, the 18-to-29 group scornfully rejects the habits and values of the baby boomers, viewing that group as self-centered, fickle and impractical. While the baby boomers had a placid childhood in the 1950s, which helped inspire them to start their revolution, today's twenty-something generation grew up in a time of drugs, divorce and economic strain. . .They feel influenced and changed by the social problems they see as their inheritance: racial strife, homelessness, AIDS, fractured families and federal deficits.[4]

In economics, a study was done (by Pew Charitable Trusts, the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Urban Institute) that challenges the notion that each generation will be better off than the one that preceded it. The study, 'Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?" focuses on the income of males 30-39 in 2004 (those born April, 1964 – March, 1974) and is based on Census/BLS CPS March supplement data.

The study, which made national headline news on May 25, 2007, emphasizes that in real dollars, that cohort made less (by 12%) than their fathers at the same age in 1974, thus reversing a historic trend. The study also suggests that per year increases in father/son family household income has slowed (from 0.9% to 0.3% average), barely keeping pace with inflation, though progressively higher each year due to more women entering the workplace contributing to family household income.

According to the US Census Bureau, from 1993 to 2006, males grossed less than their fathers (defined as the cohort 30-years prior, about the average age of fatherhood) at the same age, using combined real median income and based on the following criteria:

• At ages 25-34, those born from about 1965-1981
• At ages 30-39, those born from about 1963-1976
• At ages 25-39, those born from about 1964-1981

International factors defining Generation X

In continental Europe, the generation is often known as Generation E, or simply known as the Nineties Generation, along the lines of such other European generation names as "Generation of 1968" and "Generation of 1914." In France, the term Génération Bof is in use, with "bof" being a French word for "whatever," considered by some French people to be the defining Generation-X saying. In Iran, they are called the Burnt Generation. In some Latin American countries the name "Crisis Generation" is sometimes used due to the recurring financial crisis in the region during those years. In the Communist bloc, these Generation-Xers are often known to show a deeper dislike of the Communist system than their parents because they grew up in an era of political and economic stagnation, and were among the first to embrace the ideals of Glasnost and Perestroika, which is why they tend to be called the Glasnost-Perestroika Generation. In USSR, in particular, they were often called "a generation of stokers and watchmen", referring to their tendency to take non-challenging jobs leaving them with plenty of free time, similar to Coupland's Xers. In Finland, the X-sukupolvi is sometimes derogatorily called pullamössösukupolvi (bun mash generation) by the Baby Boomers, saying "those whiners have never experienced any difficulties in their lives" (the recession of the early 1990s hit the Xers hardest--it hit just when they were about to join the work force), while the Xers call the Boomers kolesterolisukupolvi (cholesterol generation) due to their often unhealthy dietary habits. Japan has a generation with characteristics similar to those of Generation X, shin jin rui.

Developing countries, too, have a Generation X, but it differs from that in the West, due to poor education and little disposable income. The version of Generation X that the developing nations experience essentially came out of the end of World War II and the subsequent decline of colonial occupation, the changes demanded on social hierarchy that it accompanied among the second generation born since the Second World War, and the duality of democratic transition amid increasing information blockade and ever-increasing numbers of people seeking urban life over an agrarian economy.

The alleged version of Generation X in the developing world is the following:

• its need to redefine social norms to newer socio-economic systems
• the sheer pace at which they need to adapt to new social influences along with the need to integrate them into their native, cultural context
• the constant aspiration for a more egalitarian society in cultures that were long colonized and have an even longer history of hierarchical social structure.

The aspects that bind Generation X across economic levels and cultures are the defining points of the 1970s: the Bretton Woods system and its subsequent failure, the impact of the first oral contraceptive pills on social-interaction dynamics, and the oil shock of 1973.

Other common international influences defining Generation X across the world include: increasingly flexible and varied gender roles for women contrasted with even more rigid gender roles for men, the unprecedented socio-economic impact of an ever increasing number of women entering the non-agrarian economic workforce, and the sweeping cultural-religious impact of the Iranian revolution towards the end of the 1970s in 1979.

The international experience of a cultural transition like Generation X, although in various forms, revealed the inter-dependence of economies since World War II in 1945, and showed the huge impact of American economic policies on the world.

Generation X references

The section below is an attempt to compare differing concepts of Generation X birth years.

Best-selling authors

• Cheung, Edward "Baby Boomers, Generation X and Social Cycles" "The Ultimate Generation X book"
• Zemke, Ron & Raines, Claire & Filipczak, Bob "Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace" American Management Association, 2000, ISBN 0814404804.
  • 1960-1980
• Ritchie, Karen "Marketing to Generation X" Free Press, 2002, ISBN 0743236580.
  • 1961-1981
• Strauss, William & Howe, Neil "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069" HarperCollins, 1992, ISBN 0688119123.
  • 1961-1981 (13th Generation)
• Tulgan, Bruce "RainmakerThinking, Inc" "Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent" Capstone Ltd, 2003, ISBN 1900961091. Interviewing thousands of Xers, his definition has undergone modification:
  • 1963-1981, with 1961 & 1962 as "cuspers" (1995), based on Strauss & Howe
  • 1963-1977, with 1961 & 1962 as cuspers (1996-2000)
  • 1965-1977, with 1963 & 1964 as cuspers (2001)
  • 1965-1977, with 1960-1964 as cuspers (2002-2006) but usually only referred to as Baby Boomers (1946-1964) in company newsletters
  • 1965-1977 (2007) those born 1946-1953 referred to as "older boomers", 1954-1964 as "younger boomers"
• Foot, David "Footwork Consulting Inc." "Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift" Saint Anthony Messenger Press and Franciscan, 1997, ISBN 0921912978.
  • Generation X are post-birth-peak Boomers, 1960-1966 (Canada), 1958-1964 (US). Statistics Canada (US Census Bureau equivalent) also observes this demographic based on Foot's research.
• Smith, J Walker & Clurman, Ann S "Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing" Collins; Reprint edition, 1998, ISBN 0887309003.
  • Yankelovich Partners, One of the largest consumer research organizations in the US maintains the years 1965-1978. Trailing Boomers, 1960-1964, are referred to as the bridge between generations. The main distinction between bridgers and Xers is a brief economic boom for the former in the mid-eighties, whereas the latter generational cohort has never been able to presume economic success. "Trailing Boomers thus bridge generations - the last Boomers expecting perpetual abundance and the first Xers faced with breakdown and uncertainty." (p. 81)

Contemporary references and definitions

• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000)
  • The generation following the post-World War II baby boom, especially people born in the United States and Canada from the early 1960s to the late 1970s.
• Compact Oxford English Dictionary (2006)
  • The generation born between the mid 1960s and the mid 1970s, perceived as being disaffected and without direction.
• Link Magazine: "Marketing Madness: A Postmortem for Generation X" (1997)
  • Examines the divergent age groups ascribed to the Generation X generational cohort by various media and demographers.
• US Census Bureau "Census 2000 Ethnographic Study" (June 17, 2003)
  • "For the purpose of this study, Generation X is defined as people aged 21 to 32, that is, respondents born during the years 1968-1979. Various studies define Generation X differently by age, with some analysis' categorizing people born in 1961 as the cohort's oldest members, while others use a younger upper boundary to demarcate the age group (Craig and Earl Bennett, 1997). Only in hindsight will the boundaries for this cohort become clearer."
  • Craig, SC & Bennett, SE “After the Boom: The Politics of Generation X” Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc (1997), ISBN 0847683605. Gen-X starting age break by chapter/author(s): chpt 2 1965, chpt 3 1961, chpt 4 1963, chpt 5 1965, chpt 6 1964, chpt 8 1972 (Canada).[5]
• Statistics Canada "Census Consultation Guide - Age, Sex, and Marital/Common-law Status" (1996/2001)
  • "Generation X. Generation Xers, the back-end boomers [1960-1966], entered the labor market in the early 1980s, when jobs were scarce. Since then, this generation has struggled to gain employment due to a weak economy and the bulk of the jobs being filled by the baby boomers. How will these people cope until the baby boomers begin to retire early in the next century? Are they more inclined to work at two or three jobs or seasonally?"

Periodicals

• Time Magazine "Twentysomething" (cover story - July 16, 1990)
  • 18-29 year-olds (1961-1972) "Members of the tail end of the boom generation, now ages 26 through 29, often feel alienated from the larger group, like kid brothers and sisters who disdain the paths their siblings chose." (p. 57)
• Time Magazine "Great X-pectations" (cover story - June 9, 1997) Three sets appeared in the story:
  • 1965-1977 (p. 58)
  • "If twentysomethings entered the decade floundering in the job market, did they deserve to be labeled dazed and confused?" [1961-1972] (p. 60)
  • 1965-1976 (p. 62)
• New York Times "Yes, the Screen Is Tiny, but the Plans Are Big" (June 17, 2007)
  • Chart refers to Generation X as "Ages 27-40", indicating those born 1967-1980

Influential film and television

• The Breakfast Club (1985) and other films directed by John Hughes, especially those featuring the members of the "Brat Pack" such as Molly Ringwald.
• Clerks (film) (1994). The story of two Generation X'ers working deadend jobs, struggling to find meaning in their relationships and their work. Filled with pop culture references, the movie is filled with rapid fire dialogue and offers a humorous portrait of Generation Xers emphasis on relationships over career. Kevin Smith's first movie.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off (film) (1986). Teen slacker movie. The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who, one spring day, decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago with his friends. Quintessentially X, when times were good in the 80s before the recession.
• Fight Club (Film) (1999) based on the novel Fight Club (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) and his own personal experiences. Producer David Fincher (b. 1962) said about the novel, it is “… a seminal coming of age for people who are coming of age in their 30s instead of their late teens or early 20s.” [6]
• Kicking and Screaming (1995)
• The show Friends (1994) is often known as a Generation X portrait. The characters were teenagers during the 1980s and have the typical attitude and lifestyle of their generation, especially in the employment and relationships subjects.
• The television shows Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), Melrose Place (1992), The Simpsons (1989), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992 film, 1997 series) are other programs closely associated with the Gen Xers.
• Heathers (1989) Influential dark comedy featuring Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater. Ryder's character typified the ironic, disaffected, and pessimistic view of the generation.
• Pump Up The Volume (1990) Features Christian Slater as a radio deejay.
• Reality Bites (film) (1994) written by Helen Childress. An aspiring videographer working on a documentary called Reality Bites about the disenfranchised lives of her friends and roommates. Their challenges, both documented and not, exemplify the career and other lifestyle choices and issues faced by their generation.
• Rent (1996) A Broadway show that features characters dealing with AIDS, sexual identity, drug addiction, and technology. The rock score is influenced by the Gen X sound. Later filmed in 2005. Rent is relative to Gen Xers as Hair is to Baby Boomers.
• Singles (film) (1992). A group of twenty-something friends, most of whom live in the same apartment complex, search for love and success in grunge-era Seattle. The soundtrack billed as the "music of a generation searching for itself" (Warner home video).
• Slacker (1991). Much of the cast was born in the early 1960s, with others in the late 1950s and late 1960s, spanning the "Baby Bust" years.

Famous and successful Gen X People (1961-1981)

Arts/Entertainment

• Jennifer Aniston, actress
• Naomi Campbell, model
• Leonardo DiCaprio, actor
• Chris Farley (d. 1997), comedian and actor
• Tina Fey, actress and writer
• Jamie Foxx, actor
• Ethan Hawke, actor and author
• Angelina Jolie, actress and humanitarian
• Kate Moss, model
• River Phoenix (d. 1993), actor
• Brad Pitt, actor
• Julia Roberts, actress
• Winona Ryder, actress
• Brooke Shields, actress
• Anna Nicole Smith (d. 2007), model and television personality
• Chris Tucker, comedian and actor

Broadcasting

• Maria Bartiromo, journalist
• Carson Daly, talk show host
• Soledad O'Brian, tv journalist
• Rachael Ray, chef and talk show host

Music

• Billy Corgan, singer and guitarist
• Chris Cornell, singer and musician
• Kurt Cobain (d. 1994) & Courtney Love, musicians
• Sean Combs rapper and entrepreneur
• Dave Grohl, musician
• Queen Latifah, rapper and actress
• Ricky Martin, singer
• Trent Reznor, musician
• Selena (d. 1995), singer
• Layne Staley (d. 2002), musician
• Eddie Vedder, musician
• Scott Weiland, musician

Politics

• Bobby Jindal, governor
• Monica Lewinsky, White House intern and presidential mistress
• Barack Obama, senator and presidential candidate
• Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, political blogger

Sports

• Andre Agassi, tennis player
• Lance Armstrong, cyclist
• Bonnie Blair, speed skater
• Tom Brady, football player
• Kobe Bryant, basketball player
• Brett Favre, football player
• Tony Hawk, skateboarder
• Peyton Manning, football player
• Tiger Woods, golfer
• Kristi Yamaguchi, figure skater

Technology/Science

• Tom Anderson, founder MySpace
• Chad Hurley, founder YouTube
• Larry Page, founder Google
• Ryan White (d. 1990), AIDS activist

In addition, the bands the Pixies, Radiohead, Korn, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Green Day either were representative of the Grunge music sound associated with this generation or later became notable as members of Gen X.

See also

• Baby Boomer
• Generation Jones
• Generation Y
• Generation Z
• MTV Generation

External links

• Early Xer: Things that early Gen Xers grew up with
• CBC Digital Archives – Generation X: Lives on Hold
• Bicentennial Baby: Musings on Generation X and Y
• New Learning Strategies for Generation X - from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education.