Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Generation X
Generation X, often shortened to Gen X, is the demographic cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as its ending birth years, with the generation generally defined as people born from 1965 to 1980. By this definition and U.S. census data, there are 65.2 million Gen Xers in the United States as of 2019. Most Gen Xers are the children of the Silent Generation and older Baby Boomers, and many are the parents of Generation Z.
As children in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, a time of shifting societal values, Gen Xers were sometimes called the "Latchkey Generation", a reference to their returning as children from school to an empty home and using a key to let themselves in. This was a result of what is now called free-range parenting, increasing divorce rates, and increased maternal participation in the workforce before widespread availability of childcare options outside the home.
As adolescents and young adults in the 1980s and 1990s, Xers were dubbed the "MTV Generation" (a reference to the music video channel) and sometimes characterized as slackers, cynical, and disaffected. Some of the many cultural influences on Gen X youth included a proliferation of musical genres with strong social-tribal identity, such as dance-pop, punk rock, hip-hop, heavy metal, alternative rock, rave, and grunge. Film was also a notable cultural influence, via both the birth of franchise mega-sequels and a proliferation of independent film (enabled in part by video). Video games, in both amusement parlors and devices in Western homes, were also a major part of juvenile entertainment for the first time. Politically, Generation X experienced the last days of communism in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe, witnessing the transition to capitalism in these regions during their youth. In much of the Western world, a similar time period was defined by a dominance of conservatism and free market economics.
In their midlife during the early 21st century, research describes Gen Xers as active, happy, and achieving a work–life balance. The cohort has also been more broadly described as entrepreneurial and productive in the workplace.
The term Generation X has been used at various times to describe alienated youth. In the early 1950s, Hungarian photographer Robert Capa first used Generation X as the title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately after World War II (later called the Silent Generation). The term first appeared in print in a December 1952 issue of Holiday magazine announcing its upcoming publication of Capa's photo-essay. In 1964, Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett published the book Generation X, about British youth (who were older baby boomers at the time) and their culture. From 1976 to 1981, English musician Billy Idol (himself a younger boomer) used the term as the name of his punk rock band, as his mother had owned a copy of the 1964 book. These uses of the term appear to have no connection to Capa's photo-essay.
The term gained a modern application after the release of Canadian author Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. The characters in the novel were born in the late 1950s and early 1960s, ironically making them younger baby boomers, or Generation Jones. In 1999, Coupland described his book as being about "the fringe of Generation Jones which became the mainstream of Generation X". In 1987, he had written a piece in Vancouver Magazine titled "Generation X" that was "the seed of what went on to become the book". Coupland initially claimed the term was derived from Billy Idol's band, but in 1995 he denied this connection, saying:
The book's title came not from Billy Idol's band, as many supposed, but from the final chapter of a funny sociological book on American class structure titled Class, by Paul Fussell. 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.
Author William Strauss noted that around the time Coupland's novel was published the symbol "X" was prominent in popular culture, as the film Malcolm X was released in 1992, and that the name "Generation X" stuck. The "X" refers to an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined. Strauss's coauthor Neil Howe noted the delay in naming this demographic cohort: "Over 30 years after their birthday, they didn't have a name. I think that's germane." Previously, the cohort had been called post-Boomers, Baby Busters (which refers to the drop in birth rates after the baby boom in the western world, particularly in the U.S.[where?]), the New Lost Generation, latchkey kids, the MTV Generation, and the 13th Generation (the 13th generation since American independence).
Hub AI
Generation X AI simulator
(@Generation X_simulator)
Generation X
Generation X, often shortened to Gen X, is the demographic cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as its ending birth years, with the generation generally defined as people born from 1965 to 1980. By this definition and U.S. census data, there are 65.2 million Gen Xers in the United States as of 2019. Most Gen Xers are the children of the Silent Generation and older Baby Boomers, and many are the parents of Generation Z.
As children in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, a time of shifting societal values, Gen Xers were sometimes called the "Latchkey Generation", a reference to their returning as children from school to an empty home and using a key to let themselves in. This was a result of what is now called free-range parenting, increasing divorce rates, and increased maternal participation in the workforce before widespread availability of childcare options outside the home.
As adolescents and young adults in the 1980s and 1990s, Xers were dubbed the "MTV Generation" (a reference to the music video channel) and sometimes characterized as slackers, cynical, and disaffected. Some of the many cultural influences on Gen X youth included a proliferation of musical genres with strong social-tribal identity, such as dance-pop, punk rock, hip-hop, heavy metal, alternative rock, rave, and grunge. Film was also a notable cultural influence, via both the birth of franchise mega-sequels and a proliferation of independent film (enabled in part by video). Video games, in both amusement parlors and devices in Western homes, were also a major part of juvenile entertainment for the first time. Politically, Generation X experienced the last days of communism in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe, witnessing the transition to capitalism in these regions during their youth. In much of the Western world, a similar time period was defined by a dominance of conservatism and free market economics.
In their midlife during the early 21st century, research describes Gen Xers as active, happy, and achieving a work–life balance. The cohort has also been more broadly described as entrepreneurial and productive in the workplace.
The term Generation X has been used at various times to describe alienated youth. In the early 1950s, Hungarian photographer Robert Capa first used Generation X as the title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately after World War II (later called the Silent Generation). The term first appeared in print in a December 1952 issue of Holiday magazine announcing its upcoming publication of Capa's photo-essay. In 1964, Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett published the book Generation X, about British youth (who were older baby boomers at the time) and their culture. From 1976 to 1981, English musician Billy Idol (himself a younger boomer) used the term as the name of his punk rock band, as his mother had owned a copy of the 1964 book. These uses of the term appear to have no connection to Capa's photo-essay.
The term gained a modern application after the release of Canadian author Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. The characters in the novel were born in the late 1950s and early 1960s, ironically making them younger baby boomers, or Generation Jones. In 1999, Coupland described his book as being about "the fringe of Generation Jones which became the mainstream of Generation X". In 1987, he had written a piece in Vancouver Magazine titled "Generation X" that was "the seed of what went on to become the book". Coupland initially claimed the term was derived from Billy Idol's band, but in 1995 he denied this connection, saying:
The book's title came not from Billy Idol's band, as many supposed, but from the final chapter of a funny sociological book on American class structure titled Class, by Paul Fussell. 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.
Author William Strauss noted that around the time Coupland's novel was published the symbol "X" was prominent in popular culture, as the film Malcolm X was released in 1992, and that the name "Generation X" stuck. The "X" refers to an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined. Strauss's coauthor Neil Howe noted the delay in naming this demographic cohort: "Over 30 years after their birthday, they didn't have a name. I think that's germane." Previously, the cohort had been called post-Boomers, Baby Busters (which refers to the drop in birth rates after the baby boom in the western world, particularly in the U.S.[where?]), the New Lost Generation, latchkey kids, the MTV Generation, and the 13th Generation (the 13th generation since American independence).