When you
think of Generation X, what do you see?
You probably
get a vision of a high-school or college student, full of knowledge but
low on common sense. He’s wearing extremely loose clothing, bell-bottoms
with a saggy waistband, and a T-shirt of some group to which you’ve never
listened.
Mr. X is very
computer-savvy and reads a lot, but he’s not interested in politics or
the world around him. He may think it’s a bad deal for people to be starving
around the world, but his own teeth are the product of suburban orthodontia.
He’s never voted, and only registered for the draft because it was required
for him to enter college. He’s changed his major twice, and doesn’t know
when he’ll graduate.
There, have I
hit every stereotype?
This is the attitude
I’m finding on a lot of lists to which I belong. This is their picture
of Generation X, which includes me and most of my friends, acquaintances
and colleagues.
It came to my
attention when the Blue Ear Forum was criticizing a Salon.com article about
Gen-Xers mourning lost dot-coms. The challenge went forth: Okay, Gen-X,
what web sites do you really miss?
I couldn’t help
responding, although I’m usually a lurker on the international think-tank
that comprises Blue Ear. I said that as a writer, I miss Inkspot, which
is in terminal stasis, and as a parent, I miss eToys, which died not long
after Christmas.
Then I pointed
out that Salon’s premise is not so silly. Generation X is no longer in
college, I said. We’re out in the world. We are marrying, starting families,
buying homes. We’re taking the same 9-to-5 jobs we swore we’d eschew, just
like our parents.
Stephen King
criticized his own generation, that of the baby boomers, in “Hearts in
Atlantis” and his autobiography, “On Writing.” He said the boomers had
a chance to change the world and opted for the Home Shopping Network instead.
Maybe every generation
has the chance to change the world, and each does in a small way.
This generation
gap also hit me when a poorly phrased comment of mine was misinterpreted
as a slam on senior citizens by a cranky reader on the Society of Professional
Journalists’ list. I apologized for the misinterpretation, but another
person leaped to my defense and said it was nastiness from seniors that
made it so hard for Gen X to do its work.
I personally
felt she was overreacting. But it highlighted the three generations currently
co-existing in America, and how silly it is for us to compartmentalize
them. The conflict between generations is one in which I struggle daily
in my work with the public as a reporter.
The so-called Greatest
Generation certainly went through rough times, with the Depression and
World War II. But it is also the generation most prone to racism, sexism
and any number of -isms following generations have fought tooth and nail.
And frankly,
it is the generation that is rudest to me as I work in the public service
of journalism. Baby boomers and fellow Xers will at least be polite before
they start yelling. No one is nastier to me than the older folks.
Boomers, now,
there are still a few of them in the working world. They’ve jettisoned
some of their parents’ prejudices, but they have little use for us Xers.
They rule the world by sheer numbers as they coast toward their retirement.
Then there’s
us. Whoever came up with the term Generation X needs to be shot for sheer
laziness. Many have said the term means my generation has no identity of
its own, that we have no direction.
This is not true.
It’s true that
Xers have few heroes. We don’t have the generals and grandfatherly leaders
of the Greatest Generation. We don’t have the Kennedy brothers or Martin
Luther King Jr., whom our parents followed. Instead, we inherited Madonna
and Michael Jordan.
So in lieu of
role models, we modeled ourselves. We are the most diverse generation in
American history, comprised of many races - and more mixed races - and
a cultural heritage unlike any since the melting pots of the 1800s.
The reason they
call us Generation X is because we are too diverse to pigeonhole into any
one generalization.
This isn’t to
say Mr. X, the slacker I described above, doesn’t exist. He does. I met
him in college, and he’s probably still there. But just like the hippies
of the 1960s, he’ll pass along into the real world eventually... or disappear.
But Generation
X isn’t going anywhere. We’re inheriting the earth, for better or for worse,
and the lessons we’ve learned from earlier generations tend to be more
disdain from our ancestors than wise guidance.
(My parents and
grandparents are going to get me for this column, by the way. I’ll be defending
it for months. Let me state for the record that my own family has always
been a source of inspiration and support, much as any loving family will
be. The generalizations I am making in this column refer to my ongoing
exposure to previous generations in my work with the public. Disclaimer
ends.)
At any rate,
I hope Generation X has learned more about relating to younger generations
than we learned from the generations that sneer at us. See, you may not
have noticed, but Generation Y is on its way.
And from all
respects, it looks like Generation Y is going to outnumber even the baby
boomers. So we’d better be nice to them. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |