Legit I know some of you darlings on here are young, but if you ever refer to my 30 year old ass as “baby boomer” again I will not be held responsible for my actions.
So like a baby boomer, but without the financial stability or racism.
Gen X…we’re fucking invisible…
40 and counting!“The lost generation.”
Y’all think it’s shit not having financial stability at 20, well I’m afraid we got some bad news for you.
Okay, kids, generation lesson, if we’re going to keep using these divisions. Baby Boomers are technically those born between 1946 (after the end of WW2, when the soldiers came home – thus, a “baby boom,” as husbands and wives were reunited after several years apart) and 1964. That makes Baby Boomers between 53-71 in 2017. And there are a variety of theories on where this generation ends – depending on what definition you’re working under, 50-53 year olds could be the beginning of Gen X.
Gen X is between 36-50 this year, give or take a couple of years. We’re a smaller generation, defined mostly by coming of age between 1980-ish and the early to mid 90s – after cable TV, but before the internet, the “latchkey kid” generation.
The oldest Millennials are 35-ish this year. So a 30 year old is most definitely not a Boomer, by any stretch of the imagination. (There’s a school of thought that puts the older members of this age range in their own small generation, “Generation Y,” but most have just decided to define Millennials as people born between approximately 1982-2004.)
So there. Know your generations, so you’re sure you’re hating on the right people, y’all.
The best/worst part of being Gen X at the moment* is that the gutting of unions and the social safety net means the Boomers are failing to retire while the Millennials are coming up and we’re basically in one hell of an awkward mid-career pinch while our bodies are starting to fall apart and our children are growing up.
(Gen X has been hit extra-hard at critical life points by recessions.)
(Also, I swear when I was a younger Gen Xer the cutoff was more like 1977.)
*Previous best/worsts include hitting puberty in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, growing up at the end of the Cold War while our media was producing story after story about nuclear annihilation, the aforementioned critical moments recessions, and thinking acid-washed denim was a great idea.
Gen Xer here, too.
We not solely defined by our times of birth. But a lot of us do find ourselves in difficult situations these days, in part because of the lack of a historical understanding of society in the United States and the tendency to think of everything in two simple extremes – Boomers versus Millennials, in this case. The purposeful dismantling of structural solidarity in the US affects Gen Xers too, only at a less flexible stage in our lives. The ones among us commenting here are, of course, media-savvy and probably younger at heart.
But, not in body. These things are frail, and fail.
Yes – I’ve actually called Gen X a Lost Generation, too, especially when conversing with Gen X friends.
Gen X was that grew up just as processed food was becoming the norm and when lots of chemicals flooded veggies and fruits. Also – a lot of us were were formula babies instead of breast fed [Note: Not trying to shame parents that can’t breast feed, but there are some definite health benefits to breast milk if it is feasible.] I know far too many Gen Xers with chronic illnesses.
While working there was definitely a squeeze and a dislike from both surrounding generations. Boomers like to lump Gen X with the Millennial and call us irresponsible, even though we are so much less likely to make more money than our Boomer parents. Millennials lump Gen X in with the Boomers and think we are old and out of touch. Or yeah, Boomers and Millennials forget about Gen X entirely and just complain about each others’ generations.
Obviously not all Boomers and Millennials. I have friends and family from both generations. But the generalizations exist.
Of course, at this point, we are all in danger of becoming a lost generation. I just love the fact that our current politicians want the cold war and the aids crisis and a bunch of new crises back (heavy sarcasm). Thanks much – says my anxiety. Of course, there have been plenty of scary-ass events during the formative years of the Boomers and Millennials. So basically – were all messed up, we are all screwed, and were are all getting more screwed on a daily basis by all the horrors happening to all of us in the world right now.
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Mooncustafer 