Generation X: Check in here

[2muchcoffeeman]

The Managing Generation Y-ine thread got me thinking.

How's it going Gen X? We were marked as a cynical, non-breeding bunch. We shunned managerial posts, pushed the button on the eight-hour work week, watched as technology has grown.

We're approaching or in our 40s. Where are we now?

I found this on workopolis:

http://www.workopolis.com/work.aspx?action=Transfer&View=Content/Common/ArticlesDetailView&articleId=brent20080617File1Article1&lang=EN&articleSource=Brent

It seems that, sadly, we're growing up. We've become more conservative. Even I, a terminal procrastinator, have my on management. And luckily, I live in an economy that will allow me ...

How's you?

Skeptical, progressive and (so far) non-breeding.

 

[crimsonace]

I'm a GenXer.

We were branded as slackers when we were going through college.

I think, as most of us exit our 20s and enter our 30s, the youthful idealism turns into realism for just about every generation, X, Y, Z, Baby Boom, whomever (my dad -- a hard-core evangelical family values guy/union president who walked the fence politically, said in the 80s "today's yuppies are the same people who were the hippies of 10-15 years ago").

When it all comes down to it, we learn how to do our jobs, what works, what doesn't, et al. We tend to think more about the cycle of life -- work, pay the bills, keep a roof over the head, keep food on the table, have a little left over for some nice luxuries. Even the "non-breeders" of the 20s often settle down and have 2.5 kids in their 30s.

We're more technologically-savvy than our elders, but maybe not as technologically-savvy as those coming behind us.

For me? 1 kid, intending to have another. I've changed careers once, own my own side business and find time to freelance. Politically conservative, but I was a right-wing firebrand in high school & college, too. Have oddball musical tastes, but generally don't listen to any band that came out after 1980 (Bruce Hornsby the big exception).

 

[writing irish]

As far as the band goes, just about everything off the first album is great...especially "Promises, Promises" which pretty much served as an epitaph for the original spirit of punk...and a foreshadowing of Idol's regrettable career as a corporate rock star.

I'm about Ragu's age and am true to the generational stereotype in many ways. Single, never married, no kids. Took me forever to find a career I liked. Started out to be an academic, abandoned that with no Plan B and basically dithered around in the human services and health fields for a decade and a half before finally discovering journalism in my mid 30s.

Politically, my view of the world has remained about the same since my youth. But my view of what constitutes effective political action has changed dramatically. I've gone from being a radical to being a boring, work-within-the-system kind of guy. That was inevitable, I suppose. Even when I was at my worst as an early-20s, left-wing know-it-all, a kernel of rationality inside my brain always held that practical concerns should always trump ideology.

One thing about the Gen X stereotype never resonated with me and that was the "slacker" ethic. Even when I was farting around and doing nothing career-wise, I was very busy outside of work with political activism, travel, performing arts and other interests. True, there were some days when I waked-n-baked and spent the day at a coffeehouse, but I was always a bit embarrassed to be so useless and could never make a lifestyle out of that.

Finally, I should mention that the whole "alt rock" fad of the mid 90s pretty much cured me of being a hipster. Thomas Frank's "The Conquest of Cool" articulated my objections perfectly. I saw Austin go from being a laid-back, bohemian town to a self-conscious hipster town in just a few years. Watching the idiocy of 90s hipsterism consume Austin was like watching a beloved ex-girlfriend become a crack *****.

 

[KG]

I just turned 40. I have no kids, but I love kids. To have kids, I'd have to have a woman who wants to birth them with me and that hasn't happened.

You can be my baby daddy.

 

[pallister]

I'm 36, unemployed and have no purpose in life. Otherwise, things are going OK.

 

[BYH]

I'm 36, unemployed and have no purpose in life. Otherwise, things are going OK.

****ing Repubilcans.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Well I guess I'm ****ing 40
I can't say that I'm thrilled
I never dated Winona Ryder
And I probably never will
Well I guess I'm ****ing 40
Ah but I'm better off than some
Well I may be ****ing 40
But you're ****ing 41

Well I guess I'm ****ing 40
Well gettin' older really sucks
I went to see The Spy Who Shagged Me
They said, "One senior: that'll be four bucks."
I guess I'm ****ing 40
But I'm better off than you
Well I might be ****ing 40
But you're ****ing 42

Well I guess I'm ****ing 40
Well I'm a petered-out Peter Pan
Well sometimes I feel foolish
I make my livin' singin' in this band
I guess I'm ****ing 40
Well that's what my mama said,
But Bruce Springsteen's ****ing 53*
And The Stones are almost dead

Well I guess I'm ****ing 40
I can't say that I'm thrilled
I never dated Winona Ryder
I'm guessin' I never will
I guess I'm ****ing 40
Ah now poor poor pitiful me
Well I might be ****ing 40

Hell, I'm lyin'
I'm 43.

 

[pallister]

Kennedy liberal.

John or Ted?

 

[writing irish]

Pallister, you can always go hang out at Wrigley if you've got afternoons free.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Ted.

 

[pallister]

Pallister, you can always go hang out at Wrigley if you've got afternoons free.

That won't cheer me up this year.

 

[BYH]

Class of 1991. Like Mystery Meat, I'm far more jaded and cynical than I was back then. I was just starting to stir, politically, during my senior year of HS. I was passionate during my first two years of college...campaigned for local Democrat candidates in the summer of '92 and adorned my car and my room with Clinton/Gore signs.

Now? I'm consumed by contempt and cynicism. I'll vote Obama, but I have no real faith in him and his ability to change anything.

And the whole Gen X is lazy thing that was perpetuated by old farts in the '90s...I like to think the last decade-plus has proven them completely full of ****. We work harder and longer for less. We've learned our efforts do not matter to the Powers That Be. We have zero job security (which contributes to the overall contempt and cynicism)...I've had more jobs since 2000 than my parents have had since 1970. My parents have never been fired/laid off/pick your euphanism. It's happened to me four times. It doesn't stop some idiots from still griping about the damn young kids, but they're morans.

Of course, I also see myself picking up some old fart habits. I have XM and keep it on the decades stations as well as the Boneyard. Damn hippies with their pants pulled down low, their new music sucks!

And even though I'm only 34, I already feel old in this business...that my time may have passed b/c I'm 34 and invested in this career and not some 22-year-old kid fresh out of college who can be exploited at a menial wage for a couple years until he finds a better career. And there are many times, especially lately, where I catch myself cursing those youngsters out and painting them with a broad brush. Damn kids with their facebooks!

Of course, I worked in those jobs when I was 22. And look where it got me. Right here.

 

[User 1019]

I'm so cynical it hurts most of the time.

 

[pallister]

I live a simple life
but I'm not a simple guy
And who I am is what I'll be
long as time don't pass me by
You see, I'm not down on my luck
I just gave up on givin' a ****

 

[zeke12]

Class of 1991. Like Mystery Meat, I'm far more jaded and cynical than I was back then. I was just starting to stir, politically, during my senior year of HS. I was passionate during my first two years of college...campaigned for local Democrat candidates in the summer of '92 and adorned my car and my room with Clinton/Gore signs.

Now? I'm consumed by contempt and cynicism. I'll vote Obama, but I have no real faith in him and his ability to change anything.

And the whole Gen X is lazy thing that was perpetuated by old farts in the '90s...I like to think the last decade-plus has proven them completely full of ****. We work harder and longer for less. We've learned our efforts do not matter to the Powers That Be. We have zero job security (which contributes to the overall contempt and cynicism)...I've had more jobs since 2000 than my parents have had since 1970. My parents have never been fired/laid off/pick your euphanism. It's happened to me four times. It doesn't stop some idiots from still griping about the damn young kids, but they're morans.

Of course, I also see myself picking up some old fart habits. I have XM and keep it on the decades stations as well as the Boneyard. Damn hippies with their pants pulled down low, their new music sucks!

And even though I'm only 34, I already feel old in this business...that my time may have passed b/c I'm 34 and invested in this career and not some 22-year-old kid fresh out of college who can be exploited at a menial wage for a couple years until he finds a better career. And there are many times, especially lately, where I catch myself cursing those youngsters out and painting them with a broad brush. Damn kids with their facebooks!

Of course, I worked in those jobs when I was 22. And look where it got me. Right here.

****ing looser.

 

[JayFarrar]

I'm 38, no wife, no kids.
Still pretty much live like I did 10 years ago.
Very liberal and have gotten more so over the years.
Don't much care for the younger generation, don't much care for the boomer generation either.

 

[pallister]

But do you care much about history? Or biology? Or the French you took?

 

[dooley_womack1]

*trying to tune out the Art Garfunkel version*

 

[writing irish]

I didn't even know there was an Art Garfunkel version. Holy ambulatory penis with a gold-fringed head, Batman!

 

[forever_town]

****ing looser.

Says the guy who claims to have ****ed a hobo.