Generation X Today
Current BOOKS, Articles, Reports, and Insights
CLASH OF GENERATIONS
GEneration x all grown up |
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articleS
Forbes, by Angela Woo, published on Nov. 14, 2018
EXTRACT :
"Many of us are homeowners and have families of our own. So, here we sit in this powerful time with money, resources and influence, and we still aren’t in the mainstream conversation. We’ve watched the culture interest shift from boomers to millennials like we're a flyover state.
...
Gen Xers also have a lot of influence on other generations, which makes them powerful. Roughly half of Gen Xers are financially supporting both a parent and a child at the same time, making financial decisions that can affect all three generations. And as reported by Business Insider, Gen Xers make significantly more money each year than their younger counterparts. In my home state of California, Gen X workers take in a whopping $18,000 more annually on average. Not surprisingly, they spend more too, averaging 11% more than baby boomers and 33% more than millennials.
Additionally, our generation is poised to become the dominant group running businesses and politics. So, why do we still feel like Ducky at the prom from the 80s cult classic Pretty In Pink? Savvy marketers would do well to remember Gen Xers, not only as a spending powerhouse but also as a strong influence on the other generations.
Please go to the source to read the entire article.
EXTRACT :
"Many of us are homeowners and have families of our own. So, here we sit in this powerful time with money, resources and influence, and we still aren’t in the mainstream conversation. We’ve watched the culture interest shift from boomers to millennials like we're a flyover state.
...
Gen Xers also have a lot of influence on other generations, which makes them powerful. Roughly half of Gen Xers are financially supporting both a parent and a child at the same time, making financial decisions that can affect all three generations. And as reported by Business Insider, Gen Xers make significantly more money each year than their younger counterparts. In my home state of California, Gen X workers take in a whopping $18,000 more annually on average. Not surprisingly, they spend more too, averaging 11% more than baby boomers and 33% more than millennials.
Additionally, our generation is poised to become the dominant group running businesses and politics. So, why do we still feel like Ducky at the prom from the 80s cult classic Pretty In Pink? Savvy marketers would do well to remember Gen Xers, not only as a spending powerhouse but also as a strong influence on the other generations.
Please go to the source to read the entire article.
"6 Ways Gen X Shaped Our World Today"
ExtraMile
by Allie Johnson
July, 2016
"Generation X has been called “the ignored generation,” wedged between the louder Boomers and the flashier Millennials, but its trailblazers shaped and continue to influence our world today. Who are Gen Xers? The definition varies depending on who you ask, but the Pew Research Center categorizes members of this generation as those born between 1965 and 1980, now numbering over 65 million in the United States. And although Gen Xers are often overlooked by marketers and the media, they’ve led the charge on many of the society-reshaping changes of the last five decades.
“Gen Xers laid the political, intellectual, social, creative and personal ground upon which the Millennials today walk, talk and text,” writes Christine Henseler, a professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and editor of “Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion.”
For the entire article, go here.
Why GenX Might Be Our Last , Best Hope" by Rich Cohen
Sept, 2017
Vanity Fair
"Though much derided, members of my generation turn out to be something like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca—we’ve seen everything and grown tired of history and all the fighting and so have opened our own little joint at the edge of the desert, the last outpost in a world gone mad, the last light in the last saloon on the darkest night of the year. It’s not those who stormed the beaches and won the war, nor the hula-hooped millions who followed, nor what we have coming out of the colleges now—it’s Generation X that will be called the greatest."
Read more here.
Sept, 2017
Vanity Fair
"Though much derided, members of my generation turn out to be something like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca—we’ve seen everything and grown tired of history and all the fighting and so have opened our own little joint at the edge of the desert, the last outpost in a world gone mad, the last light in the last saloon on the darkest night of the year. It’s not those who stormed the beaches and won the war, nor the hula-hooped millions who followed, nor what we have coming out of the colleges now—it’s Generation X that will be called the greatest."
Read more here.
"Are Your GenX Nurses Satisfied?"
by Sybele Anne Christpher, Donna Waters, and Mary Chiarella.
by Sybele Anne Christpher, Donna Waters, and Mary Chiarella.
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Factors influencing turnover in GenX nurses: Results of an Australian survey
Sybèle Anne Christopher ∗, Judith Fethney, Mary Chiarella, Donna Waters Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Sydney Nursing School, The University of Sydney, Australia http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2017.06.003 Background: The retirement transition phase for the estimated 80,000–100,000 Australian Generation X nurses is due to begin in 2025, the year by which it is estimated that at least 110,000 nurses are required for the viability of the Australian health workforce. The need to evaluate their intention to turnover will inform part of the solution to a potential nationwide workforce crisis. Objectives: To evaluate the factors contributing to job satisfaction and their influence on the turnover intention of Australian Generation X nurses. |
"The Boomer Election: Lost Generation X"
by Melissa Clouthier
The American Spectator, Aug. 5th, 2016
Extract from Introduction:
"Caught between Boomers and Millennials, it’s paying a huge price.We have three Boomer Presidential choices in November: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Gary Johnson. The average age of U.S. Presidents: 54 years 11 months. The average age of Trump and Hillary: 69. Throw in Gary Johnson and he pulls down the average age this election to a youthful 67.
Something banal occurred to me about being a Generation X-er: There’s too few of them/us. Usually, the voters are mostly comprised of the working population and those who are older, but Generation X is small, even though they’re at peak working age, and smushed between the aging Boomers and the Millennials. Half the Boomers pine for the halcyon days of their drug and sex fueled youth and the other half are nostalgic for the days of Leave It to Beaver. Gary Johnson’s voters are some of both."
For more reading, go here.
From the Pew Research Center June, 2014
"Generation X: America’s neglected ‘middle child’"
Extract from Introduction:
Generation X has a gripe with pulse takers, zeitgeist keepers and population counters. We keep squeezing them out of the frame.
This overlooked generation currently ranges in age from 34 to 49, which may be one reason they’re so often missing from stories about demographic, social and political change. They’re smack in the middle innings of life, which tend to be short on drama and scant of theme.
But there are other explanations that have nothing to do with their stage of the life cycle.
Gen Xers are bookended by two much larger generations – the Baby Boomers ahead and the Millennials behind – that are strikingly different from one another. And in most of the ways we take stock of generations – their racial and ethnic makeup; their political, social and religious values; their economic and educational circumstances; their technology usage – Gen Xers are a low-slung, straight-line bridge between two noisy behemoths.
The charts below tell the tale."
For more reading, go here.
"Generation X: America’s neglected ‘middle child’"
Extract from Introduction:
Generation X has a gripe with pulse takers, zeitgeist keepers and population counters. We keep squeezing them out of the frame.
This overlooked generation currently ranges in age from 34 to 49, which may be one reason they’re so often missing from stories about demographic, social and political change. They’re smack in the middle innings of life, which tend to be short on drama and scant of theme.
But there are other explanations that have nothing to do with their stage of the life cycle.
Gen Xers are bookended by two much larger generations – the Baby Boomers ahead and the Millennials behind – that are strikingly different from one another. And in most of the ways we take stock of generations – their racial and ethnic makeup; their political, social and religious values; their economic and educational circumstances; their technology usage – Gen Xers are a low-slung, straight-line bridge between two noisy behemoths.
The charts below tell the tale."
For more reading, go here.
"6 Ways Gen X Shaped Our World Today"
ExtraMile
by Allie Johnson
July, 2016
"Generation X has been called “the ignored generation,” wedged between the louder Boomers and the flashier Millennials, but its trailblazers shaped and continue to influence our world today. Who are Gen Xers? The definition varies depending on who you ask, but the Pew Research Center categorizes members of this generation as those born between 1965 and 1980, now numbering over 65 million in the United States. And although Gen Xers are often overlooked by marketers and the media, they’ve led the charge on many of the society-reshaping changes of the last five decades.
“Gen Xers laid the political, intellectual, social, creative and personal ground upon which the Millennials today walk, talk and text,” writes Christine Henseler, a professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and editor of “Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion.”
For the entire article, go here.
ExtraMile
by Allie Johnson
July, 2016
"Generation X has been called “the ignored generation,” wedged between the louder Boomers and the flashier Millennials, but its trailblazers shaped and continue to influence our world today. Who are Gen Xers? The definition varies depending on who you ask, but the Pew Research Center categorizes members of this generation as those born between 1965 and 1980, now numbering over 65 million in the United States. And although Gen Xers are often overlooked by marketers and the media, they’ve led the charge on many of the society-reshaping changes of the last five decades.
“Gen Xers laid the political, intellectual, social, creative and personal ground upon which the Millennials today walk, talk and text,” writes Christine Henseler, a professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and editor of “Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion.”
For the entire article, go here.
Not My Generation by Jeffrey Williams
March 31st, 2014
"One of my colleagues went to Woodstock and another lived in Haight-Ashbury in 1969. While they’ve cut their hair since, they’re obviously baby boomers, and they sometimes tell me stories about protesting the Vietnam War, smuggling dope, and seeing Bob Dylan in concert. The strange thing is that I’m supposedly a baby boomer, since I was born in December 1958, but their stories recount a distant world. I only vaguely remember Vietnam on the news, have no memory of JFK, and find Bob Dylan grating. The events that made an impression on me were the Watergate hearings, stagflation, and the Carter and Reagan presidencies. Our music was different, too—OK, let’s forget Journey, but in our early 20s, we raised our lighters to some remarkable bands, like U2, the Cure, and, born in my year, Prince and Madonna."
For the entire article, please go here.
March 31st, 2014
"One of my colleagues went to Woodstock and another lived in Haight-Ashbury in 1969. While they’ve cut their hair since, they’re obviously baby boomers, and they sometimes tell me stories about protesting the Vietnam War, smuggling dope, and seeing Bob Dylan in concert. The strange thing is that I’m supposedly a baby boomer, since I was born in December 1958, but their stories recount a distant world. I only vaguely remember Vietnam on the news, have no memory of JFK, and find Bob Dylan grating. The events that made an impression on me were the Watergate hearings, stagflation, and the Carter and Reagan presidencies. Our music was different, too—OK, let’s forget Journey, but in our early 20s, we raised our lighters to some remarkable bands, like U2, the Cure, and, born in my year, Prince and Madonna."
For the entire article, please go here.
Don't Write Off Generation X
Ozy.com
March 22nd, 2015
Ozy.com
March 22nd, 2015
Published in BBC Capital
July 13, 2013
by Rondals Alsop
Why can’t Generation X get ahead at work?
Extract:
" Lauren Leader-Chivée knew it would probably take years to reach a senior position at her employer Credit Suisse — or at any major company for that matter.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to wait. So as her 30th birthday approached, Leader-Chivée jumped ship and joined other Generation X refugees from big corporations at the outsourcing firm OfficeTiger. She became OfficeTiger’s human-resources leader, working extensively in India and travelling the world.
Gen Xers ... are a technology savvy, self-reliant group that doesn’t require the constant guidance. “When I have chosen to go with smaller employers, it’s because I knew I would get to lead and assume more responsibility,” said 37-year-old Leader-Chivée, who is now senior vice president at the Center for Talent Innovation, a research organization, as well as a partner at the consultancy Hewlett Chivée Partners.
Increasingly, she sees other Gen Xers following her path — or at least wishing they could.
“Virtually every one of my friends is doing something entrepreneurial,” either starting a business or going to work for a start-up, she said. “Xers are drawn to flatter, less-hierarchical firms. They want to take their destinies into their own hands.”
For more, please go to the source.
July 13, 2013
by Rondals Alsop
Why can’t Generation X get ahead at work?
Extract:
" Lauren Leader-Chivée knew it would probably take years to reach a senior position at her employer Credit Suisse — or at any major company for that matter.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to wait. So as her 30th birthday approached, Leader-Chivée jumped ship and joined other Generation X refugees from big corporations at the outsourcing firm OfficeTiger. She became OfficeTiger’s human-resources leader, working extensively in India and travelling the world.
Gen Xers ... are a technology savvy, self-reliant group that doesn’t require the constant guidance. “When I have chosen to go with smaller employers, it’s because I knew I would get to lead and assume more responsibility,” said 37-year-old Leader-Chivée, who is now senior vice president at the Center for Talent Innovation, a research organization, as well as a partner at the consultancy Hewlett Chivée Partners.
Increasingly, she sees other Gen Xers following her path — or at least wishing they could.
“Virtually every one of my friends is doing something entrepreneurial,” either starting a business or going to work for a start-up, she said. “Xers are drawn to flatter, less-hierarchical firms. They want to take their destinies into their own hands.”
For more, please go to the source.
Published in Salon
Tuesday, Oct 1, 2013 05:25 PM EDT
Generation X’s journey from jaded to sated Boomers cry "More, more, more!" and Millennials whine “Me, me, me!” But Gen Xers know when to say "Meh"
Extract:
"IF YOU CAN remember what life was like before R.E.M.—and can identify a Care Bear but sure as hell never went to bed with one—consider yourself an inducted member of Generation X. Our generation is one that’s always been defined by the best and worst of culture, with MTV, Star Trek, and the Apple II on one end of the spectrum and rampant divorce, nukes, and AIDS on the other. As kids, we were left to play independently while marriages crumbled in the background. As teens, we were unimpressed by, but close friends with, the REAL real world. And now as grown-ups, most of us have broken through the other side of angst, like Dee Snider through a dining room door, and are, simply and deservedly, downright content.
There’s always speculation about why certain generations are happier than others. And while it might have something to do with the lack of boy bands in your particular age range, how contentment came to pass for those born roughly between 1962 and 1977 is no accident. It’s the reward for hard-working indifference. It’s what happens when resentment turns into resilience and you step out into adulthood with no one really watching. And it’s a nice landing spot, this hammock of “good enough” that’s sandwiched between the Boomers’ “More, more, more!” and the Millennials’ “Me, me, me!”
(Perhaps you could think of our rally cry as “Meh, meh, meh.”)
Generation Xers have always suspected, and now know for sure, that there’s only so much you can expect out of life before you fall prey to chronic dissatisfaction. Not to mention, when you’ve grown up knowing there’s a big red button that can be pushed to end the world (and all of your toys were choking hazards), you tend approach things with equal parts bitterness and ballsiness. The love child of which is blitheness.
So. How did Gen X end up so Zen? Allow me to paint in broad strokes and offer up these five theories:"
For more, go here.
Gen X Has a Midlife Crisis
Published in the New York Times
May 7th, 2010
Extract:
"We did what we could: the slogan of the underachiever, the excuse maker, the loser. What they did, at least on the evidence of Milo’s testimony, was smoke weed, argue about Theory, sleep with one another’s girlfriends and boyfriends and wonder what was going to happen next.
What happened next is what always happens: these kids — slackers, Gen-Xers, take your pick of cringe-inducing monikers — grew up. Milo is in his early 40s, or so one surmises from his pop-cultural references and from the fact that the author, Sam Lipsyte, was born in 1968. He’s not a kid anymore: he’s a man of a certain age. And “The Ask” is, at least so far, the definitive literary treatment of a hugely important social phenomenon. Mr. Lipsyte, through the shambling, highly articulate and pathetic persona of Milo Burke, has announced the onset of the Generation X midlife crisis.
The Gen X what? I wish I could inflect those paired pop-sociological clichés with the requisite irony, but my air-quote fingers are afflicted with incipient arthritis. The ridiculousness of the phrase is telling, though, since it registers the sense of absurdity, the innate nonseriousness, that has been this generation’s burden ever since the Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland christened us in his 1991 novel, “Generation X,” the title of which was inspired by the second-rate punk band that gave the world Billy Idol."
For more, go here.
Published in the New York Times
May 7th, 2010
Extract:
"We did what we could: the slogan of the underachiever, the excuse maker, the loser. What they did, at least on the evidence of Milo’s testimony, was smoke weed, argue about Theory, sleep with one another’s girlfriends and boyfriends and wonder what was going to happen next.
What happened next is what always happens: these kids — slackers, Gen-Xers, take your pick of cringe-inducing monikers — grew up. Milo is in his early 40s, or so one surmises from his pop-cultural references and from the fact that the author, Sam Lipsyte, was born in 1968. He’s not a kid anymore: he’s a man of a certain age. And “The Ask” is, at least so far, the definitive literary treatment of a hugely important social phenomenon. Mr. Lipsyte, through the shambling, highly articulate and pathetic persona of Milo Burke, has announced the onset of the Generation X midlife crisis.
The Gen X what? I wish I could inflect those paired pop-sociological clichés with the requisite irony, but my air-quote fingers are afflicted with incipient arthritis. The ridiculousness of the phrase is telling, though, since it registers the sense of absurdity, the innate nonseriousness, that has been this generation’s burden ever since the Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland christened us in his 1991 novel, “Generation X,” the title of which was inspired by the second-rate punk band that gave the world Billy Idol."
For more, go here.
"Parenting as a Gen Xer: We’re the first generation of parents in the age of iEverything"
by Alison Slater Tate
The Washington Post, Sept. 29th, 2014
Go here to read the entire article.
"It struck me recently, after one of my quiet carpool rides, that my generation of parents – we of the soon-to-be or recently 40 year old Gen X variety, the former latchkey children of the Cold War and an MTV that actually played videos, former Atari-owners who were raised by the the Cosby Show and John Hughes, graduated high school with the kids from 90210, then lumbered through our 20s with Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, and Joey and flip phones – is perhaps the last to straddle a life experience both with and without the Internet and all its social media marvels. After all, I didn’t even learn to use e-mail until I was 19 and a sophomore in college in 1993, and only for a slightly cringe-worthy reason: a cute boy at another college asked me to e-mail him.
My generation, it seems, had the last of the truly low-tech childhoods, and now we are among the first of the truly high-tech parents."
by Alison Slater Tate
The Washington Post, Sept. 29th, 2014
Go here to read the entire article.
"It struck me recently, after one of my quiet carpool rides, that my generation of parents – we of the soon-to-be or recently 40 year old Gen X variety, the former latchkey children of the Cold War and an MTV that actually played videos, former Atari-owners who were raised by the the Cosby Show and John Hughes, graduated high school with the kids from 90210, then lumbered through our 20s with Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, and Joey and flip phones – is perhaps the last to straddle a life experience both with and without the Internet and all its social media marvels. After all, I didn’t even learn to use e-mail until I was 19 and a sophomore in college in 1993, and only for a slightly cringe-worthy reason: a cute boy at another college asked me to e-mail him.
My generation, it seems, had the last of the truly low-tech childhoods, and now we are among the first of the truly high-tech parents."
"Millennials and Boomers: Don't Forget Generation X"
(Post originally published in The Huffington Post)
Raise your hand if you can identify anything about Generation X. So many books and articles published in recent years tend to mention Gen X only in passing as a small, insignificant, "in-between" cohort leaving few lasting impressions. Instead, we hear about the Millennial state of mind, and how the Millennial-Baby Boomer relationship appears to be flourishing and providing all the nourishment the current generational identity checks seem to need.
As someone who has researched Generation X around the globe for years, I know that the Millennials and their younger "Generation Z" siblings owe a great deal of their generational identity to Generation X. Born between 1960 and 1980 in the United States -- now between the ages of 34 and 54-years-old -- Gen Xers laid the political, intellectual, social, creative and personal ground upon which the Millennials today walk, talk and text.
The transitional and transformational time when Generation Xers grew up, as well as their current impact and influence at the height of professional careers, should not be ignored or erased. To understand how the Millennials think and act today and might change the world tomorrow, the cloak of invisibility must be lifted.
Let's start with the numbers. The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown is a recently-published book based on data collected by the Pew Research Center. While Paul Taylor's project provides valuable insight into the world and mind of the Millennials, I was struck by how an entire generational identity could be determined by scientific data sets based on a subjective selection of birth dates.
Chapter two starts with the claim that, "Millennials and Boomers are the lead characters in the looming generational showdown by dint of their vast number and strategic location in the life cycle." My first reaction was, Where did the Xers go? Taylor considers Baby Boomer birth dates to range from 1946-1964, Generation X birth dates from 1965-1980, and the Millennials to begin in 1980, with no end date in sight. A closer look at these dates, which each researcher can determine as he or she chooses, uncovers that the supposedly "vast numbers" attributed to the Boomers and Millennials are based on dates that have reduced Xers' existence to a mere 14 years, compared to 18 and 20 years in the other two cohorts. Indeed, this way, the booming sound of the two demographics does become quite loud, leaving that mysterious Generation X to fend for itself, lost in the middle.
Most troubling is any thinking that Boomers and Millennials are "also each other's children and parents, bound together in an intricate web of love, support, anxiety, resentment, and interdependence." While some certainly are each other's parents and children, what happened to the Generation X parents who between the ages of 20 and 40 have given birth to many Millennials born between 1980 and 2000? Was the legalization of the birth control pill in 1961 so powerful?
Why has parental status and impact been thwarted when the Millennial psychology has in fact been heavily influenced by GenX life experiences and beliefs related to politics, family, class, religion, culture, technology and sexuality, among many other subjects?
The Pew study is no exception of the degree to which Generation X's impact is minimized in studies concerning the Millennials. In a book titled, Generation We: How Millennial Youth are Taking Over America and Changing Our World Forever, authors Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber reduce Generation X birthdates to such a degree -- to a mere 13 years -- so as to argue that, "sheer numbers mean that Generation We is going to have a gigantic impact on American society, and in turn, on the world." Their approach undermines the gigantic impact of a supposedly inclusive "We" generation by both excluding worldwide perspectives from their research and squeezing Gen Xers out of the equation.
Proclamations about how U.S. Millennials will rule or change the world seem to include little to no understanding of the historical, political, social and personal factors that have shaped the lives of their peers around the globe. Particularly ironic is to talk about the impact, reach and global connectivity of a generation when applying a microcosmic and U.S.-centered vision alone, as over 35 international contributors will tell you in Generation X Goes Global.
A more comprehensive approach teaches us that cohort birth dates vary by country and experience, that generational engagements can be complex and contradictory, and that cultural influences shift and change as people move from city to city, leaving bits and bytes to be remixed across nations and people. For instance, current political activism has strong roots in Generation X's punk and DIY culture. The U.S.-born underground feminist punk movement of the 1990s known as the riot grrrls, whose goal was to bring issues of rape, abuse or racism to light, has moved through time and space to inspire a group of young Russian protesters (ranging from ages 20 to 33) calling themselves Pussy Riot and challenging Vladimir Putin's politics through guerrilla performances posted to the Internet.
To engage with the Millennials means paying tribute to a past generational worldview with a long and strong history and a spirit that has gone viral. Let's not forget about the contributions from Generation X when we talk about the Millennials. We are not going away anytime soon.
Short-Changed: In Defense of Generation X
by Christine Henseler
When Barack Obama became President Elect on November 4th, 2008, we watched a man win a campaign on change. Yes we can, he proclaimed. Yes we can, we chanted. Yes we can, said the world as they watched change take place. On November 4th, a Generation Xer stepped into the limelight of the world stage. He was not wearing Doc Martens, listening to the Sex Pistols or running high on Nevermind.
No, here was a man drunk on the rift between political and personal discourses, on the divide between commercial materiality and the material needs of every day life, on the knowledge that true family values are defined by alternative family lifestyles, on the many colors of Americas faces and belief systems, on the benefits of living and thinking multi-culturally and globally, with technology at his fingertips. On November 4th, 2008, a Generation Xer set foot onto the world stage. Like many of us, he was the product of divorced parents, a global cultural economy, of a society more interested in material goods than the good of society, of politicians more in tune with themselves than the people they serve, and of an environment disrespected by large corporations and governments. Obama is a GenXer whose life and lingo is centered on change. Think Jon Stewart, MTV, Wikipedia, MySpace, and Amazon.com. Obama and the rest of us Xers may be termed the in-between generation, born between the looming 80 million Baby Boomers and 78 million Millennials (vs. 46 million GenXers in the US), but we are, still, thankfully, the generation of change. Despite Obama's campaign motto, change is often attributed to the younger generation, the Millennials, also known as the Net Generation, Generation Y, or Generation M (for multimedia and multitasking). They are called the most tech savvy individuals ever to walk this earth. Their most ardent supporters marvel at the speed of their fingertips on tiny keyboards, their hand-eye coordination while playing a video game, and their multitasking capabilities. On the other hand, their critics shake their heads, wondering what will become of this illiterate and unfocused generation, wondering how their changes will uproot old traditions. While the young, or at least those with enough money and access, may be growing up in a constantly accelerating media environment, their elders are often more critically aware of the changes that affect contemporary society. While the technological habits of the Millennials may be changing the face of sociology, politics, or education, we should not underestimate the role of the older generations, Generation Xers in particular, in making sense of these changes, and in making change happen. Not only are many parents of Millennial children at the center of innovative technological developments, but most importantly, age group is also critically evaluating the effects of these technologies. My intention in this essay is not to undermine the permeating role of technology on contemporary youth, but to remind ourselves of the influence of Generation X in determining the technological shift and in developing a critical base from which hardware and software has been and is being translated into new ways of thinking and acting. Ask a college student about his or her tech habits, and the most frequent answer you will get is Facebook (e-mail is outdated), instant and text messaging. Use a Wiki? What for? A game for social change? No fun. Find a romantic partner through the Internet? No way! Social networking for political action? Never. Despite the reality of their tech uses, this generations immersion in multiple-player virtual spaces, micro-blogging sites, or social networking systems do not usually translate into awareness of cultural, educational, or economic applications of hardware and software in business, politics, ethics, sociology, psychology, aesthetics, or languages. Exceptions, of course, always exist. Yes, Millennials may be the first generation to be fully immersed in the Net age, but it is their elders who are critically evaluating the effect of this digital era and making the necessary changes in everyday life. In the year 2010, Generation Xers, born between 1961/64 and 1980/81 are turning between 30 and 50 years of age. Millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, are now between 10 and 30 years old and, they are, for the most part, just entering the job market. As a demographic, Millennials are considered to have high self-esteem, to be tech savvy, to have close relationships with their parents, and to be indifferent to traditional hierarchical models. A quick Web search shows that dozens of books have already been written about the Millennials, claiming to know their essential personality traits, knowledge needed for todays marketers, educators, and CEOs. An understanding of Generation Xers, on the other hand, is marred by misunderstandings and contradictions. Books about this generation are scarce, and the X seems to mark no definable spot on the map. The media hype of the early 1990s, as determined by Douglas Couplands novel Generation X: Tales of An Accelerated Culture, the cult film Slacker by Richard Linklater, and the grunge music of Nirvana, helped propel the image of Xers as punksters or slackers. These aesthetically and media-produced stereotypes starkly contrast a demographic that identifies itself as hard-working and focused, cautious, questioning, marred by divorce and difficult economic situations, disenchanted with politics and highly aware of technological changes. In truth, they cautiously created their own families, they were more open to diversity, and they maintained a higher standard of living, owning more houses than their Baby Boomer parents before them. In addition, their anti-establishment attitudes did not freeze in time, as so many critics did when evaluating the meaning of Generation X. In 1991, the noisy bunch of kids that belted out Nevermind and displayed attitudes that made their parents turn green and eat holes into youngsters jeans, became the quiet and thoughtful social changers as well as the yuppy, upwardly mobile group of individuals who bought their grunge wear in expensive designer stores that charged hundreds of dollars for tailored holes. The characteristics that define Generation X as a demographic and an aesthetic (its manifestation in literature, film, art, and music), have clearly shaped todays Millennials. Xers cynicism and rejection of social conventions and mores translated into the more critical and anti-hierarchical positions taken by our children and the self-confidence that a questioning of authority envelops. Our close relationship with our kids is determined by the emotional effects of broken families, more open-minded approaches to life and happiness, and our heightened awareness of close-encounters with global terrorism and individual pathologies. If there is one element that most defines Xers lives, as the subtitle of Couplands novel suggests, it is an awareness of the accelerating role of technology in everyday life. While young, Xers were one of the first to witness the 1969 landing on the moon, the first ever event globally broadcast. We, or our parents, were the first to buy video recorders that allowed us to freeze images and replay Madonnas Like a Virgin music video clip for the utmost time. We were one of the first generations, in a counter-evolutionary stance, to walk to the TV set and change the channel, then sit or lounge on the couch and use nothing but a finger to zap commercials. We isolated ourselves from the outside world and listened to music on our walkman. We watched tape decks, then CD players shrink in size, digitize and turn into mini I-pods. We were the first to unplug our home telephones, to go cordless, to carry cell phones in our pockets that could turn into cameras, music and movie players, video games, and entire Internet systems. While we may not have been looking at computer screens and texting to our friends in diapers, we were the first to type on a Mac Classic, we are responsible for placing computers into the cribs of our children and connecting the young with evens and people taking place in the entire globe. It is well known that Generation Xers were among the first to grow up with television. But what is discussed less, and provides a significant piece toward the Gen X puzzle, is that Xers were also one of the most critical and analytical of media viewers and users. We virulently rejected consumer excess and grand social narratives (family, religion, country) spun into tightly pre-packed promises by our Baby Boomer parents (and the political policies of the Reagan administration). Our many hours before the television set did not only turn us into passive couch-potatoes with a nevermind attitude, but it also made us aware of consumer capitalist constructions of fake stories and lives. In some cases, our cynical outlook escaped into slacker culture where we languidly denied our personal histories. But we also searched for alternative means of communication as rooted in our hyper-awareness of North Americas all-powerful propaganda machines. And although we rejected feeling sold out to mainstream culture (Kurt Cobain being a prime example), we embraced the popular as our youth cultural means of expression. We found rebellion through MTV, we found pleasure by zapping television ads, and we found authenticity in reality projects such as Big Brother. We became acutely aware of the changing interrelationship between media technology, society, and identity. So aware, in fact, that we are now in the best position to critical converge them all. "Gen X Hits Another Bump in the Road"
by Tammy Erickson | 1:30 PM April 23, 2012 "More than ever, X'ers are being challenged to invent their own path forward. As it has been before, that path will almost certainly be less guided by conventional rules and less dependent on traditional institutions, than by X'ers' own sense of self-reliance and quest for multiple options. I encourage X'ers to re-imagine the next 30-50 years of your life: most of you won't have the institutionally-funded retirement options that many Traditionalists have enjoyed or the housing-based nest egg that provides many Boomers with the flexibility to blend volunteer and paid work over the years ahead. But you have your own ingenuity and entrepreneurial skills with which to build a unique future. As I've written before, X'ers' past challenges have developed perspectives that I believe are well-suited to the needs and realities of today's world (see my blog "Why Gen X Has the Leaders We Need Now" or the HBR article "The Leaders We Need Now," May 2010). X'ers should avoid even trying to follow the Boomers' path and, instead, have confidence to bring your own pragmatic sensibility both to organizational leadership — and to the design of your own life plan." |
The true identity of Generation X has been lost between the loquacious Baby Boomers and the media-immersed Millennials. Both of these giants are made up of 30% of the population in the United States, compared to 25% of Generation Xers. We have been termed the in between generation and the after generation because we are not only forgotten between the two giants that really matter, but we lacked a cause to fight for. The womens movement, the civil rights movement had already passed. Man had landed on the moon, and there was no Vietnam to protest. That said, we did have something going for us. Our generation resisted being pinned-down, categorized, sold-out, packaged, and mass produced. Ask anybody: Who are we? What does our "X" stand for? You will not get a straight answer. That must be worth something. We were the generation of change, changing the dynamics between the self, society and technology, between the fixed and the fluid, the local and global as determined by the fall of walls (the Berlin Wall) and political powers (Communism), and the erasure of (technological) borders. We became some of the greatest agents of change on individual, cultural, social, political, and economic levels. We were at the center of the technological ®evolution.
Unsurprisingly, scholars and journalists often credit the Baby Boomers with the digital revolution, as always, passing over the Xers in swift strokes. Authors such as John Markoff and Fred Turner went so far as to juxtapose the history of the personal computer with the collaboratively driven and free counter cultural hippie movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. Yes, the computer revolution began during that time, supported by the government and the military, scientists such as Alan Turing, Norbert Wiener, Allan Kaprow, Douglas Engelbert, and Theodor Nelson, among others, laid the foundation of a cultural transformation centered on new media technologies. There is also no doubt that the subsequent generation of Boomers, such as Steve Jobs (b. 1955), founder of Apple, or Bill Gates (b. 1955), founder of Microsoft, helped jump-start the personal computing industry and continue to drive its growth. But, whilst forlorn, Generation Xers contribution should not be forgotten. I venture to claim that many Generation Xers, in all their rebellious DIY approach to life and art, have become the driving force behind software developments, and the more participatory, interactive, and open Internet software innovations. While Xers claim to fame is not exclusive, it warrants reminding readers of some of the most influential Xer entrepreneurs. Jeff Bezos, founder of the retail giant Amazon.com was born in 1964. YouTube was co-founded by three former Paypal employees, Chad Hurley, Steven Shih Chen, and Jawed Karim, born in 1976, 1978, and 1979 respectively. MySpace was first overseen by Brad Greenspan (b. 1975), Chris DeWolfe (b 1966), and Tom Anderson (b. 1970). The creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, was born in 1976; and Wikipedia, the first collaborative, multilingual online encyclopedia was the brainchild of Jimmy Wales (b. 1966) and Larry Sanger (b. 1968). Missing in this picture are not Generation Xers at large, but women in particular, therefore suggesting that the design and history of the personal computer and the Internet continues to demand a revision of a section of the population left out of its development (not to speak of class or race ). A picture of the relationship between GenX individuals life stories, their common group characteristics, and their influence on everything from business and education to entertainment and psychology, demands the space of an entire book. Here, I simply want to point out that the technology attribution given to the Millennials lacks perspective. Reports about the use of technology by Millennials usually center on their ownership and their use. For example, one article titled "Generation Y precedes GenX in Technology Alphabet," quotes that Millennials spend more time online than they do watching television and that, "Nine out of 10 Gen Yers own a PC, and 82 percent own a mobile phone, according to the study from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research."[1] Yes, but the bigger question is: "what do they do with this technology? Are they passive consumers or active producers? Are they prosumers? Or do they simply Facebook, text, and watch Youtube videos? In another essay titled "Access to Technology Defines Generation Y; Molds Outlook," the Editor in Chief, Airan Scruby, very simply states that, "Generation Y also watched the defining tragedy of their generation, the events of Sept. 11th, 2001, live on television."[2] Please. 9/11, terrorism, and the war on Iraq are undoubtedly the events that mark the historical presence of the Millennials, but on 9/11/2001, they were between the ages of 20 and 1. The global consciousness so often attributed to this event and to the rise of the Internet began much earlier, with the televised landing on the moon, the Vietnam War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. While there is no doubt that the World Wide Web heightened and facilitated global connections, and that Millennials have grown up in this connected environment, Generation Xers have already been defined as the first global nomads by sociologists (Michel Maffesoli) and magazine editors (Tyler Brule of Wallpaper) alike.[3] Xers physical and philosophical nomadism did not only consist of rejecting a collective consciousness, but they embraced a do-it-yourself individualism that has changed many parts of contemporary art and life. As Jeff Gordinier, author of X Saves the World, eloquently remarks: "technology [gave] Xers the chance to inhabit the I and we at the same time" (128). They changed the world by embracing a more participatory, DIY culture and language. Studies repeatedly call the Millennials, the most tech savvy of any generation, because of their habit-altering uses of cell phones and computers.[4] Yes, Millennials are using more technology than any other generation. Yes, their changing habits are redefining the way we do business, the way we educate, and the way we relate to one another. While many Millennials, now in their twenties, are contributing to the changing face of a tech-entrenched society, most of our understanding and translation of this technology into new models of meaning-making, was enabled and is still being led by Generation Xers and second generation Baby Boomers. We may not constitute the largest group of users of text messaging systems or social networking sites (although the numbers are rapidly increasing), but what is even more important, is that we more critically and creatively engage with the many interfaces of digital media technology. And this, my dear readers, is why we matter. [5] We are now in our 40s and 50s, we are slackers turned executives, we are punks turned yuppies, and we are still running high on teen spirit. We are often well-established in our professions, we have the schooling, thinking and writing skills needed to translate theory into practice, and we follow and analyze new technologies, for no other reason than to keep our businesses afloat or to supervise and monitor our children's activities. To the surprise of many, our Xer worldview, whether we know it or not, have expanded on Tim Berners-Lees philosophy of a free and open World Wide Web. We believe in open conversations, in access for all, in less hierarchical structures, and more innovation and freedom of thought. Yet, we Xers are often short-changed in this war of word crafts, short changed in a world of ever-changing technologies. But change is shorthand for Generation X, and as such we feel right at home in these multiple, fluid, and hybrid spaces of social rebellion.REFERENCES[1] Lisa van der Pool. Baltimore Business Journal. July 21, 2008 [2] Airan Scruby. Access to Technology Defines Generation Y; Molds Outlook, Graphic. December 8, 2009 [3] See the NY Times article Generation Wallpaper; A tribe of newly affluent global nomads has a magazine to tell them who they are by Julia Chaplin, from September 6, 1998.[4] Understanding Generation X and Y Demographics. Social Media OptimizationMerging of Traditional Media, SEM and Social Marketing. August 6, 2008.[5] For example, the age demographics of Twitterers show a dramatic shift. When the site became popular in early 2007, the majority of its visitors were 18-to-24-year-olds. Today the site's largest age demographic is 35-to-44-year-olds, who make up 25.9% of its users. Author Jeff Gordinier Discusses X Saves the World
"How Generation X Works"
Generation X Characteristics Jeff Gordinier, author of "X Saves the World," writes that Xers are "said to be the defiant demographic, dedicated to shredding whatever raiment the marketing apparatus tries to drape us in; because we'd prefer not to be categorized at all, thank you very much" [source: Gordinier]. Still, like other generations before them, Xers share a common past and certain characteristics. Here are just a few:
"Generation X a bunch of slackers? Not so, says new study"
By Michelle Healy, USA TODAY 10/25/2011 12:07 PM "Forget what you've heard about Generation X as a bunch of insecure, angst-ridden underachievers. Most of the once-nicknamed "slacker generation" are hardworking, family-oriented adults who lead "active, balanced and happy lives," suggests a 20-year study of 4,000 Xers out today" (for more information, please go the site directly). |
The 'X' in Apple and Obama
by Christine Henseler, June 30, 2011
On January 22, 1984, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, a disorienting commercial interrupted the usual football fever. With the sound of screeching metal, military footsteps, and an eerie voice-over announcing the celebration of “the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives,” viewers getting chips or beer from the kitchen, were sure to stop cold in their tracks. When they looked back at the screen, they saw two lines of figures marching toward a large auditorium along metal, tube-like passages. Like zombies, the masses were sitting in rows gazing at a Big Brother figure pontificating on a large screen before them. A glimmer of hope and color appears through the crowd: a female athlete in bright red shorts and shoes and a white shirt—on it, but barely discernible, a Picasso-like picture of Apple’s Macintosh computer. Closely followed by guards, she runs up to the screen, which is now displaying an uncomfortably close shot of the face ominously surveying the crowd through thick glasses. She stops, she swings the sledgehammer, and with a grunt, she throws it into the screen. At the moment of impact, just before the figure pronounces the words “we will prevail,” the light and force of the strike sweeps over the sitting audience like a strong wind. A voice announces: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
by Christine Henseler, June 30, 2011
On January 22, 1984, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, a disorienting commercial interrupted the usual football fever. With the sound of screeching metal, military footsteps, and an eerie voice-over announcing the celebration of “the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives,” viewers getting chips or beer from the kitchen, were sure to stop cold in their tracks. When they looked back at the screen, they saw two lines of figures marching toward a large auditorium along metal, tube-like passages. Like zombies, the masses were sitting in rows gazing at a Big Brother figure pontificating on a large screen before them. A glimmer of hope and color appears through the crowd: a female athlete in bright red shorts and shoes and a white shirt—on it, but barely discernible, a Picasso-like picture of Apple’s Macintosh computer. Closely followed by guards, she runs up to the screen, which is now displaying an uncomfortably close shot of the face ominously surveying the crowd through thick glasses. She stops, she swings the sledgehammer, and with a grunt, she throws it into the screen. At the moment of impact, just before the figure pronounces the words “we will prevail,” the light and force of the strike sweeps over the sitting audience like a strong wind. A voice announces: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
On a Sunday afternoon in March of 2007, the same ad appeared again, slightly changed: it used the image of Hillary Clinton speaking to the crowd below, and the female athlete’s shirt displayed the Obama campaign logo. Phil de Vellis, a.k.a. ParkRidge 47, had used his personal computer, a Mac, and Flash Video software to integrate a speech from Clinton into the well-known Apple commercial. He uploaded his work, titled "Vote Different," to YouTube and sent links around to blogs to distribute the new ad, which became an instant success. Vellis’s goal was to show that Barack Obama represented a new kind of politics, and that the old political machine, represented by Senator Hillary Clinton, was disingenuous and no longer held all the power. (Vellis)
Ted Friedman explains that, in 1984, this commercial enveloped the Apple computer in an aura of rebellion and empowerment. The same quality emanates in the ad from 2007, but with a different outcome: technology is now not the end of all rebellion, but it is the medium that allows for independent and individual political empowerment on a global level. The work of Vellis suggests a generational change defined by the relationship between “three concepts—media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence” (Jenkins 2). As fiction (George Orwell’s novel 1984), merges with allusions to film (Blade Runner) and television (Big Brother reality tv shows), the commercial becomes a powerful tool of political agency. Individuals from around the world could easily interpret the political meaning of the manipulated Apple ad, but they did not always apprehend the level of its generational critique. In this ad, Barack Obama, while never shown, came to embody a Generation Xer combating the conformity and power of a Baby Boomer past.
Much talk has arisen as to whether or not Obama, born in 1961, is a Baby Boomer or a Generation Xer. While critics differ as to the beginning of the GenX period (ranging between 1960 and 1964), Obama clearly displays a GenX worldview. Born the same year as Douglas Coupland, the man who brought the GenX label into the public limelight in 1991, Obama echoes many of Coupland’s characters’ concerns about living in a society more interested in material goods than the good of society, of politicians more in tune with themselves than the people they serve, of an environment disrespected by large corporations and governments. The product of divorced parents, Obama grew up smack in between an anthropologist mother who “embodied the restless drift and counter cultural curiosity of a baby boomer generation” (Avlon) and grandparents who struggled through the Great Depression, the Second World War, and voted for Nixon. Obama’s generational awareness has always been acute, the word “generation” appearing dozens of times in his talks. In fact, in his book The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that the back and forth of Clinton and Gingrich and the elections of 2000 and 2004 “felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation.” His antidote involved rhetorical post-partisanship, political pragmatism, and an ability to assess and synthesize both red and blue perspectives into new solutions, and come up with alternative, third ways of doing business. (Avlon).
The new progressive generation to which Obama belongs has become known for blending political resistance with commercial culture and technology. Whether Obama is standing before the image of Superman, playing off of the Jay-Z “Dirt Off your Shoulder” song during the primaries, or reaching youth through YouTube and Facebook, he speaks the language of contemporary culture and he looks like what comes next— “the first high-tech, hip-hop president” (Avlon). His emphasis on reaching back to the Baby Boomers and forward to the millennials, is born through a "in-between" GenX consciousness.
As seen in the work of Jerome Armstrong (b. 1964), the mastermind behind Howard Dean’s campaign, GenXers were involved in the creation and development of the web during the dot-com heyday and are indisputably its creators (Chaudhry). GenXers rethought pre-established ideas within the twenty-first century “as a fluid field of choice rather than a hard-and-fast test of ideological commitment" (Chaudhry)—of which the Apple ad is a perfect example. Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that years of listening, observing, and learning, or what in GenX lingo has been called “escapism, hedonism and cynicism,” has led to awareness and change. Just think Jon Stewart, MTV, Google, MySpace, and Amazon. GenXers may be the in-between generation, born between the looming 80 million Baby Boomers and 78 million Millennials (vs. 46 million GenXers in the US), but we are, as Obama’s campaign has “jingled,” the generation of change.
Works Cited
Avlon, John P. "A Generation Rises with Obama." NewGeography. Aug. 29, 2009. http://www.newgeography.com/content/00205-a-generation-rises-with-obama
Chaudhry K, Lakshmi. "Will the Real Generation Obama Please Stand up." Drum Major Institute For Public Policy. Dec. 3, 2007. http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=6646
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
More Reading
"Obama's Generation X Factor" by Lakshmi Chaudhry. The Nation November 20, 2007.
"Study Says Generation X is balanced and happy" by Alene Dawson. CNN Oct. 27, 2011.
"Generation X: The Slackers Who Changed the World" Feb.18, 2007.
"Paul Ryan and Generation X" by Tierney Seed. US News Aug. 27, 2012.
Much talk has arisen as to whether or not Obama, born in 1961, is a Baby Boomer or a Generation Xer. While critics differ as to the beginning of the GenX period (ranging between 1960 and 1964), Obama clearly displays a GenX worldview. Born the same year as Douglas Coupland, the man who brought the GenX label into the public limelight in 1991, Obama echoes many of Coupland’s characters’ concerns about living in a society more interested in material goods than the good of society, of politicians more in tune with themselves than the people they serve, of an environment disrespected by large corporations and governments. The product of divorced parents, Obama grew up smack in between an anthropologist mother who “embodied the restless drift and counter cultural curiosity of a baby boomer generation” (Avlon) and grandparents who struggled through the Great Depression, the Second World War, and voted for Nixon. Obama’s generational awareness has always been acute, the word “generation” appearing dozens of times in his talks. In fact, in his book The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that the back and forth of Clinton and Gingrich and the elections of 2000 and 2004 “felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation.” His antidote involved rhetorical post-partisanship, political pragmatism, and an ability to assess and synthesize both red and blue perspectives into new solutions, and come up with alternative, third ways of doing business. (Avlon).
The new progressive generation to which Obama belongs has become known for blending political resistance with commercial culture and technology. Whether Obama is standing before the image of Superman, playing off of the Jay-Z “Dirt Off your Shoulder” song during the primaries, or reaching youth through YouTube and Facebook, he speaks the language of contemporary culture and he looks like what comes next— “the first high-tech, hip-hop president” (Avlon). His emphasis on reaching back to the Baby Boomers and forward to the millennials, is born through a "in-between" GenX consciousness.
As seen in the work of Jerome Armstrong (b. 1964), the mastermind behind Howard Dean’s campaign, GenXers were involved in the creation and development of the web during the dot-com heyday and are indisputably its creators (Chaudhry). GenXers rethought pre-established ideas within the twenty-first century “as a fluid field of choice rather than a hard-and-fast test of ideological commitment" (Chaudhry)—of which the Apple ad is a perfect example. Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that years of listening, observing, and learning, or what in GenX lingo has been called “escapism, hedonism and cynicism,” has led to awareness and change. Just think Jon Stewart, MTV, Google, MySpace, and Amazon. GenXers may be the in-between generation, born between the looming 80 million Baby Boomers and 78 million Millennials (vs. 46 million GenXers in the US), but we are, as Obama’s campaign has “jingled,” the generation of change.
Works Cited
Avlon, John P. "A Generation Rises with Obama." NewGeography. Aug. 29, 2009. http://www.newgeography.com/content/00205-a-generation-rises-with-obama
Chaudhry K, Lakshmi. "Will the Real Generation Obama Please Stand up." Drum Major Institute For Public Policy. Dec. 3, 2007. http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=6646
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
More Reading
"Obama's Generation X Factor" by Lakshmi Chaudhry. The Nation November 20, 2007.
"Study Says Generation X is balanced and happy" by Alene Dawson. CNN Oct. 27, 2011.
"Generation X: The Slackers Who Changed the World" Feb.18, 2007.
"Paul Ryan and Generation X" by Tierney Seed. US News Aug. 27, 2012.
- Carlson, Peter. "Wild Generalization X." The Washington Post. April 11, 2006. (May 7, 2011)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001793.html
- Google.org. "Philanthropy @ Google." 2011. (May 14, 2011)http://www.google.org/googlers.html
- Gordineer, Jeff. "How Generation X Got the Shaft But Can Still Keep Everything From Sucking." Viking Press. 2008. (May 7, 2011)http://books.google.com/books?id=oERbuOnpmFMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=has+generation+x+already+peaked&hl=en&ei=BsTGTeqlH43rgQeZ_tjLBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=has%20generation%20x%20already%20peaked&f=false
- Rollingstone.com. "Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit." (May 7, 2011) http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/nirvana-smells-like-teen-spirit-19691231
- Stephay, M.J. "Gen-X: The Ignored Generation?" Time Magazine. April 16, 2008. (May 7, 2011)http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1731528,00.html
- Thielfoldt, Diane and Scheef, Devon. "Generation X and the Millennials: What You Need To Know About Mentoring The New Generations." Americanbar.org. November 2005. (May 7, 2011)http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mgt08044.html