Talkin' 'bout my generation

I'm gen X, I guess.

I remember wondering what we were going to be called, and Generation X started and we were all like no no that's not right that's stupid something else! But that's what stuck.

I just turned 34, I don't remember the parameters but I'm considered pure Gen X by most things I've seen.

I think one of the parameter for GenX must be that they skipped the whole 8 track tape thing.

Maybe more likely to learn to type on a computer than a typewriter.

I wonder what things they use to define each generation.....

And at what age do you get your generational moniker......

I think that they used to call my generation, "The silent generation". Not terribly flattering, but we managed to live and prosper despite it! :wink:

http://www.univcon.com/SGen/

I'm from the 'after-war-generation'.

Well, last part of that - I still can remember ruins and soldiers coming back from POW's camps.

I do think, however, that I belong to the 'famous' (German) '68 generation (those revoluzzers, you know).
Which actually isn't really true either, because I still atte´nded school then - and being a university student was the ticket for that.

So, might be that I'm a member of the Beatles generation - although I wasn't a Beatles fun that much.




Thinking a bit about it: I believe, all this is only due to the fact that I'm a poor Caesarean child: this sudden change from dark to flamboyant neon lights, from being happy as a clam inside to the ugly world outside ... - and now I even can't find a generation with fits to me

Re: Talkin' 'bout my generation

You were the cool generation! My sister's in that age group (tail end) and her older friends from when I was in high school were right in the middle of it. The postpunk generation. The goths and the squatters. The mass demos against nukes. Queen's Day riots. The Jam and P.I.L. and Kraftwerk. Before the 80s turned all stadium rock, boredom and yuppie vanity. The music was no-nonsense and authentic in the wake of punk, politics was vibrant, fashion was - OK, skip fashion, you cant have it all. I fell in love with a coupla of my sisters friends anyway, even tho I was 15 and they, like, 22 ...

Me, I fell right in between. Right in between the guts of the (post)punk generation and the hedonism of the club house generation. When I was 16 Kylie Minogue hit the top of the charts with I Should Be So Lucky and Thatcher won her third election victory. It was about the most inane, nothingish time in the 30 years around it. (Unlike Kylie, the "second summer of love" that went on in UK warehouses that year didnt get here till later ..).

Thank you for that link, Phoenix! Fascinating information there. I'm certain that I will be browsing there for a while.

I think it is really interesting that the generation that embraced the beatniks and began the civil rights movement would be called "silent".

Yes, yes, I need to read more.

Walter, I know how you feel and I thank you (and nimh) for adding an international flair to this discussion of generations.

The university years do seem to be the years that define each generation. They might already have a "name" (GenY, the Echo Boomers) but they really haven't developed their generational licks.

nimh, your post has really started my mind in on how my generation became who they are.

We were probably the first generation where everyone had television. We toddled about while the newscaters read the war dead each night. We saw the grief of Kennedy's assination, and King's and another Kennedy but we didn't really get what was going on.

We watched men walk on the moon and the world seemed full of possibility.

I think though that the defining moment might have been Watergate. I was in the 8th grade, the year Civics is introduced into the cirriculum. My Civics teacher was obsessed with Watergate and spent days and months talking about it.

Cynicism set in. It turned into kind of a slow rage against everything and nothing in particular.

By ' defination' and behavior I am Gen X. So is Mr wolf.
We are so gen X we own the X box and call it a miracle in home entertainment!!

My generation i think is defined by bright colored layerd clothing with pieces of each layer visable to the eye. Mulletts, jackets with the collars turned up, mohawks, Mr T and Night Rider.
Sort of post-punk but leaning more twords the heavy metal music version of gen - x.
My younger brother ( 10 year age diffrence ) is part of the Gen Y. i wonder what the next one will be called?

In American terms I am in the youngish part of the "Baby Boomers".

Here in Mexico we measure it differently. I am a member of the "Post-68" Generation (the so-called "younger brothers", not being old enough to really participate in the popular-democratic movement 1968) and definitively a member of the "Avándaro Generation" (in honor of a rock festival that took place in Avandaro in 1971).

Our generation was defined by hard rock, pot and radical politics. The 68'ers called us, derisively, "the first generation of Americans born in Mexico". We didn't care about revolutionary Nationalism, much less about the Soviet Union. We felt we had lots in common with Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan & John Dos Passos (to take a social side), not with old Brezhnev or Mao (though some of us carried the Little Red Book just to make our parents angry).
There was also some sort of sexual liberation: we understood the '68 movement not as much as setting the stage for a Socialist revolution but as getting off the family table and yelling to the nagging aunt: "We despise you, old hag!".

As time went by, my generation fought for democracy -specially from the left side of the political spectre- and found much more common ground with our elders than with those born in the early 60's (the youngh ones had seen how some of us had fallen from promising teenagers to premature losers: the long haired carpenter who can only mumble the equivalent of "far out, man").

Our older brothers wanted the Revolution. Our younger brothers danced disco muzak wearing their suits and vests, and thought it was important to get a decently paid job. We were somewhat in the middle.

Since I'm only slightly older ... funny, about the same 'problem' with the '68er in Mexico. (it even doesn't count that I was just hours after the shooting [incidently] at the place, where police killed a student [in 1967, in Berlin], which then became really '68' ).

I was born on 1985... that makes me a Gen Y, right?

I was also born in 1985, but I have no clue what generation I am!

OFF THE SUBLECT- My birthday is this Sunday (the 23rd) yippee for me

Found this:

http://www.laughnet.net/archive/misc/generat.htm

If you answer mostly A, you're a pre-boomer. If you answer mostly B, you're a Baby-Boomer. If you answer mostly C, you're in Generation X. If you answer mostly D, you're in Generation Y.


Who is the ideal figure of motherhood?
A - Eleanor Roosevelt
B - Donna Reed
C - Mrs. Brady
D - Roseanne


What did you want to be when you grew up?
A - Part of a nuclear family
B - Someone who makes lots of money
C - Living with your parents
D - Living with your parents


Music should be:
A - Melodic and romantic
B - Annoying to your parents
C - Annoying to your parents
D - Annoying to your parents


Sex is for:
A - Married couples who want to start families
B - Anybody who wants to start a party
C - Latex-clad partners in a labratory setting
D - Watching on TV


The scariest moment in film history was:
A - When the mummy rose from his tomb
B - When the Blob chased Steve McQueen
C - When the alien burst from the man's chest
D - When Freddy still would not die


The most inspiring American is:
A - John Wayne
B - John F. Kennedy
C - John F. Kennedy Jr
D - Beavis or Butthead


I expect my retirement to be:
A - The golden years when I can look back on a happy, fulfilling life
B - An opportunity to finally write my novel
C - An agonizing slide into abject poverty
D - A daily struggle to survive in a horribly polluted world


America is becoming:
A - More impersonal
B - More frightening
C - More expensive
D - More bogus


The American Dream is:
A - A house with a two-car garage
B - A healthy family
C - Winning the lottery
D - Touring with Metallica


My college major was:
A - Business
B - Liberal arts
C - Secondary to my bartending job
D - Something far, far away


A good meal would be:
A - Meat and potatoes
B - Vegetarian macrobiotic
C - From a drive-up window
D - Microwaveable


My favorite footwear is:
A - Sensible shoes
B - Earth shoes
C - Converse high-tops
D - Doc Martens


I learned to drive behind the wheel of a:
A - '53 Packard
B - '61 VW
C - '78 Pinto
D - Sega


The "woman":
A - Marilyn Monroe
B - Raquel Welch
C - Julia Roberts
D - Sheryl Crow


The "man":
A - Cary Grant
B - Paul McCartney
C - Eddie Vedder
D - Bart Simpson


Lost idol:
A - James Dean
B - Jim Morrison
C - Kurt Cobain
D - Mario Bros


My generation's most unhealthy habit:
A - Smoking
B - Smoking pot
C - Smoking crack
D - Moshing


Fashion accessory best forgotten:
A - Double knit
B - Bell bottoms
C - Skinny ties
D - Ridiculiously baggy pants


The best way to spend a weekend is:
A - Playing golf
B - Conciousness raising
C - Mountain biking
D - Internet surfing


I remember where I was when:
A - The Japanese surrendered
B - John F. Kennedy was shot
C - John Lennon was shot
D - O.J. took a drive


Life changing movie:
A - East of Eden
B - Easy Rider
C - Heathers
D - Home Alone


Life-changing novel:
A - Catcher in the Rye
B - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
C - Bright Lights Big City
D - TV Guide


Sports hero:
A - Mickey Mantle
B - O.J. Simpson
C - Michael Jordan
D - O.J. Simpson


Celebrity my generation would rather not claim:
A - Joe McCarthy
B - Barry Manilow
C - Vanilla Ice
D - Barney


Computers are:
A - Frightening and disconcerning
B - Complicated
C - Part of life
D - My only link to the outside world


The father is the one who:
A - Brings home the bacon
B - Is attuned to his sensitive side
C - Left years ago
D - Holds the remote control


My after-college plans:
A - Work hard to help build a strong America
B - Take my pick of many job opportunities
C - Take my pick of many low-paying temp services
D - Would you like fries with that?


My generation's most annoying fad is:
A - Nuclear testing
B - Hula hoops
C - Body piercing
D - Unemployment


The voice of my generation:
A - Walter Cronkite
B - Bob Dylan
C - Madonna
D - MTV VJ Kennedy


My generation's biggest fear is:
A - Heart disease
B - Getting older
C - Collection agencies

D - Things that suck

Didn't I read just somewhere, you were born in 1985? :wink:

Good definitions here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

I was born in 1970, Walter m'dear. :-) It looks like Gen X starts around 1964 and ends around 1980.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Boomers (1943-64)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y (1980-1999)

When looking for this stuff, looks like they're trying to call some group (seems more Y-ish) "The Millenials".

Re: Talkin' 'bout my generation
Talking about generation definations,
I got my issue of Time magazine today and on the cover was -Meet the Twixters- .





So.. in between-ers are twixters???

I have it boomer. Your generation is the Fleetwood Mack generation! I'm a GenXer, like sozobe, but I have two older sisters and a husband from the Fleetwood Mack generation.

Are the Gen-X'ers WHAM?