Well, today I learned I’m GenX. I honestly never gave it much thought, but it’s good to know which group I belong to! :)
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
The proper response is: “I’m Gen X? <scoff> Whatever.”
“Goodness Gracious, we came in at the end.
No sex that isn’t dangerous, no money left to spend.
We’re the cleanup crew for parties we were too young too attend”
Gen X theme song, yo.
Most members of Generation X were vanilla boring normal ride-alongs, like most members of every fucking other generation. And the most prominent member of Generation X still resides right here between my thighs. “PLAY LOUD AND KILL YOURSELF THANX TO NO FUCKEN BODY BUT ME” — GG Allin
Yeah, the aftermath of 9/11 was pretty stifling. I was just becoming an adult, looking at the possibilities to come. Then it happened, and it felt like the Pentagon stole and ran off with my future.
OTOH, I think if GenX weren’t so distracted by digital doodads they might have joined together and grabbed back the reins to some degree. If there was a “GenX Revolution” it was in computers and digital media. Manufacturing “stuff” that everyone forgets about after a few years. They’re not lost in the digital world like Millennials, but they still spend to much time messing with it at the expense of other things.
Meh.
GenX was outvoted by their parents and grandparents. By the time their grandparents were dying off, they were outvoted by their parents and children.
The apathy didn’t help, but it also partially came from knowing they couldn’t really change anything.
Also 1984. The Internet wasn’t commercialized until 1995. Didn’t get a home computer until 1996 close to entering middle-school. An early analog childhood coupled with the latchkey nature of my adolescent makes me relate more with late period Gen X’ers to be honest. I didn’t even get a cell phone until 2005 post high-school.
All of those things are true for me (actually almost down to the exact years you wrote except birth, as mine was in 86) and I strongly identify with millennial culture regardless. I kinda view hopping that tech transition in your nascent teen years as sort of intrinsic to our generation, but YMMV.