April 16, 2024
Dear Friend and Family,
Segment 7 analyzes Generation X of the Millennial Cycle (1965 – 1981). Being the 2nd generation of the cycle, it is considered a Reactive Type. The following is the definition of the Reactive Type plus snippets of the four previous reactive generations. Generation X has the unprotected childhood, defiance and cynicism of the four previous types, but not the lawlessness. But they have not yet experienced the secular crisis of the cycle. Do you agree?
Definition: A recessive REACTIVE GENERATION grow up as under-protected youths and criticized youths during a spiritual awakening: matures into risk-taking, alienated adults; mellows into pragmatic midlife leaders during a secular crisis; and maintains respect (but less influence) as reclusive elders.
SNIPPETS: Cavalier: At their worst, the Cavaliers were an unlettered generation of little faith and crude ambition. At their best, the Cavaliers were a generation whose perverse defiance of moral authority gave America its first instinct for individual autonomy, for the “rights” of property and liberty – concepts utterly foreign to their Puritan elders. Cavaliers everywhere met life on similar terms: discarded in childhood, shamed while coming of age, and pushed into adulthood with few hopes other than climbing fast and avoiding judgment.
Liberty: The Liberty yearned to join the worthy causes led by their elders, holy reform, and the war for empire. Raised in an era of spiritual upheaval and economic dislocation, Liberty children hardly knew the care and protection of close family. Until their mid-forties, they cut an unparalleled swath of crime, riots and violence through American history. They mixed heroism and treachery. No other generation so eagerly gave their lives for the Declaration of Independence. When young, they felt the horrified dismay of elders who saw in them so few principles and so much disdain. The Liberty matured into a notorious generation of drinkers, thieves, and rioters.
Gilded: Hit by pain and hard luck the Gilded suffered from low collective self-esteem. They became skeptics, trusting principle less than instinct and experience. With traditional apprenticeships dwindling in an era of rapid industrialization and cheap immigration labor, many Gilded youth took to the streets and became the first generation of urban criminal gangs. Gilded leaders dismantled Reconstruction and left their southern black peers to fend for themselves.
Lost: The Great Depression dealt the Lost its cruelest blow, robbing them of what should have been their peak income years. In 1910, nearly one child in five between the ages of 10 and 14 (three in five between 15 and 19) was gainfully employed. America’s homicide rate rose by 700%, just before it peaked in the early 1930s. Lost street hoodlums matured into America’s biggest ever crime kingpins.
Happy Learning,
Harley
Dear Friend and Family,
Segment 7 analyzes Generation X of the Millennial Cycle (1965 – 1981). Being the 2nd generation of the cycle, it is considered a Reactive Type. The following is the definition of the Reactive Type plus snippets of the four previous reactive generations. Generation X has the unprotected childhood, defiance and cynicism of the four previous types, but not the lawlessness. But they have not yet experienced the secular crisis of the cycle. Do you agree?
Definition: A recessive REACTIVE GENERATION grow up as under-protected youths and criticized youths during a spiritual awakening: matures into risk-taking, alienated adults; mellows into pragmatic midlife leaders during a secular crisis; and maintains respect (but less influence) as reclusive elders.
SNIPPETS: Cavalier: At their worst, the Cavaliers were an unlettered generation of little faith and crude ambition. At their best, the Cavaliers were a generation whose perverse defiance of moral authority gave America its first instinct for individual autonomy, for the “rights” of property and liberty – concepts utterly foreign to their Puritan elders. Cavaliers everywhere met life on similar terms: discarded in childhood, shamed while coming of age, and pushed into adulthood with few hopes other than climbing fast and avoiding judgment.
Liberty: The Liberty yearned to join the worthy causes led by their elders, holy reform, and the war for empire. Raised in an era of spiritual upheaval and economic dislocation, Liberty children hardly knew the care and protection of close family. Until their mid-forties, they cut an unparalleled swath of crime, riots and violence through American history. They mixed heroism and treachery. No other generation so eagerly gave their lives for the Declaration of Independence. When young, they felt the horrified dismay of elders who saw in them so few principles and so much disdain. The Liberty matured into a notorious generation of drinkers, thieves, and rioters.
Gilded: Hit by pain and hard luck the Gilded suffered from low collective self-esteem. They became skeptics, trusting principle less than instinct and experience. With traditional apprenticeships dwindling in an era of rapid industrialization and cheap immigration labor, many Gilded youth took to the streets and became the first generation of urban criminal gangs. Gilded leaders dismantled Reconstruction and left their southern black peers to fend for themselves.
Lost: The Great Depression dealt the Lost its cruelest blow, robbing them of what should have been their peak income years. In 1910, nearly one child in five between the ages of 10 and 14 (three in five between 15 and 19) was gainfully employed. America’s homicide rate rose by 700%, just before it peaked in the early 1930s. Lost street hoodlums matured into America’s biggest ever crime kingpins.
Happy Learning,
Harley
THE STUDY OF AMERICAN GENERATIONS – SEGMENT 7
THE MILLENNIAL CYCLE – GENERATION X – EXCERPTS
GENERATION X
Born: 1965 – 1981 Type: Reactive: Percent Immigrant 11%; Breakdown: White 62.7%; Black 12.8%; Hispanic 16.6%; Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander 6.7%; Native American 1.2%.
Gen Xers look upon themselves as pragmatic, quick, sharp-eyed, able to step outside themselves to understand the game of life as it really gets played. And whatever they are, Gen Xers see no welcome mat on their economic future: Since the mid-1970s, while the costs of setting out in life (college tuitions and housing) have raced ahead of inflation, the rewards (salaries and fringe benefits for young workers) have steadily fallen behind. Money isn’t everything – but Gen Xers find themselves both unprepared for and uninvited to most other avenues of social approval. Money means survival, and for a generation whose earliest life experiences have taught them not to trust others, survival must come first.
The Gen Xer lifecycle experience has, so far, been the direct inverse of the Silent. Where the Silent passed through childhood in an era of parental suffocation and entered young adulthood just as barriers to youth freedom began to loosen Gen Xers have faced exactly the opposite trend. Where the Silent grew up with a childlike awe of powerful elders, Gen Xers have acquired an adultlike fatalism about the weakness and uncertainty of elders – and question their ability to protect the young from future danger When the first Silent were children America was in the skids of depression, but by the 20th, public confidence was vast and rising. When the first Gen Xers were born, America was riding high and G.I. leaders seemed to be achieving everything at once – but then, as they reached adolescence, the nation mired itself in doubt. The Silent emerged from their storybook childhood hoping to add some nuance and subtlety to a culture they found oversimple. Gen Xers by contrast are growing up in what is described as “a world of information overload.” Gen Xers struggle to filter out noise, cut through rhetoric, and isolate the handful of practical truths that really matter. Also, unlike the homogeneous young Silent, Gen Xers are coming of age with sharply diverging personal circumstances in education, family economics, and career opportunities. Where their parents once struggled to break free from a tight generational center of gravity Gen Xers wonder if they will ever be able to find one.
Confronted with these facts of life, Gen Xers have built a powerful survival instinct, wrapped around an ethos of personal determinism. In their world what a person is, what he looks like, and whether or not he succeeds depend less on what a person is inside than on how he behaves. Gen Xers are constantly told that whatever bad things strike people of their age – from AIDS to drug addiction, from suicides to homicides – are mainly their own fault. No other generation in living memory has come of age with such a sense of social distance – of adults doing so little for them and expecting so little from them. Lacking the ego strength to set agendas for others, Gen Xers instead react to the world as they find it.
Source: Generations: The History of America’s Future by William Strauss and Neil Howe
GENERATION X
Generation X is often referred to as the “forgotten” generation, as they came of age during a period of relative calm between two major events: the Vietnam war and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This generation was born roughly between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, and they grew up in a time of economic uncertainty, political disillusionment, and social change. During the 1970s and 1980s, America experienced a shift away from traditional values and social structures. This was the era of the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, and the feminist movement, and it had a profound impact on Generation X. Many of them grew up in broken homes with divorced or single parents, and they were often left to fend for themselves.
The economic conditions of the time were also challenging, with the high inflation and unemployment rates. Many Gen Xers entered the workforce during a time of recession, which made it difficult for them to establish themselves in stable careers. This led to a sense of independence and self-reliance, as they were forced to find creative ways to support themselves. One defining characteristic of Generation X also showed a strong entrepreneurial spirit, with many of them starting their own businesses or pursuing nontraditional career paths. This was partly due to the influence of the Silicon Valley tech boom, which provided new opportunities for innovation and disruption. In terms of family and relationships, Generation X is often seen as more independent and less traditional than previous generations. They are more likely to delay marriage and child-rearing, and they place a high value on work-life balance and personal fulfillment.
Overall, Generation X is a complex and multifaceted generation, shaped by the social, economic, and political forces of their time. Their attitudes toward work, family, and politics reflect their experiences of growing up in a period of great change and uncertainty, and they will continue to shape America’s future in unique and unexpected ways. Here are some of the ways in which they contributed to social and cultural evolution.
GENERATION X
Gen Xers landed right in the middle of the influence of technology, individualism, and the slow-life strategy. Their life trajectory was a mix: Gen Xers came into adolescence early and hardened, thus experiencing a shortened childhood and a fast-life strategy early in life, but later living the slow life as they extended adolescence and young adulthood far beyond other generations’ limits. That slower life trajectory has continued into middle age as they hold on to their ironic T-shirts, worn jeans, and sneakers, well past 40.
The swift pace of technological change during Gen Xers lifetimes created crisp generational divides almost as soon as each device or app was introduced. Computers and email cleaved Gen X from Boomers, texting Millennials from Gen X; and Tik Tok Gen Z from Millennials. For the last ten years of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st, your generation often dictated how you communicated: Silents and Boomers wanted to see you in person or call you on the phone, Gen Xers wanted to email you, Millennials wanted to text you, and Gen Z wanted to send you their resume as a TikTok Video. Nearly every Gen Xer has a story of arguing with a Boomer over why something can be done on a computer instead of on paper.
The Rise and Fall of the Latchkey Kid: If you were a kid in the 1970s or 1980s who returned to an empty house after school, you’d let yourself in and a parentless late afternoon would stretch before you. A pack of cookies and several episodes of Happy Days and Mork and Mindy reruns later, your parent or parents would get home. adulthood. One Gen Xer wrote, “We just figured things out. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, the total freedom we had, and the absolute vulnerability we weren’t aware of. This lack of supervision, combined with being the last generation with a foot firmly in the physical world, made Gen X what it is today – tough and resilient. Of course, even as they glorify their independent childhoods, many Gen Xers are also now the parents who protect – and sometimes overprotect – their kids.
Marriage, Sex, and Children: Not Necessarily in the Order: Three points about Gen X’s adult lives.
Self-Esteem: Since they were small children, Gen X learned from their Silent and Boomer parents that self came first. Gen Xers didn’t have to march in a protest or attend a group session to realize that their own needs and desires were paramount. They just knew it. This is one of the key differences between Boomers and Gen X: Gen Xers came of age after the culture had decided to leave behind the old, collectivistic rules and embrace individualism. Gen Xers viewed themselves in more positive terms than Boomers did, displaying brash self-confidence. While only 4 in 10 early Boomer students thought they were above average in their leadership ability, 6 in 10 did by the later college years of Gen X.
Music: The ‘90s also saw another significant pop culture shift as rap and hip-hop spread from the Black community to become popular across racial lines. White teens were still playing “You’re the inspiration” at the school dance in the 80’s when Black teens were discovering an entirely new musical genre with rap, which had developed in the 1970s when DJs began rhyming lyrics to beats at block parties. Rap courted controversy from the beginning, with gangsta rap acts exploring crime, violence, and drugs. The first half of Gen X was the last cohort of White teens who didn’t listen to rap or hip-hop en masse. Within a few years White kids were listening to gangsta rap.
Trust No One – Cynicism: Gen Xers were saying they personally didn’t trust others, and that you have to be very careful when dealing with other people. Everyone is out for themselves, they agreed, so you have to protect yourself. Gen Xers were also less likely to believe that most people were fair and helpful. And unlike many negative trends in the early 1990s, this one did not go away after the economy improved – Millennials and Gen Zers were also less trusting as high school seniors. Young Gen Xers began a trend toward cynicism and mistrust that refused to fade.
Social relationships, whether with friends, family, or coworkers, flow best when they are based on mutual trust. The social fabric breaks down when people can’t trust each other. Distrust creates a society in which everyone is a potential foe. In addition, trust is the cornerstone of the economy. Economic transactions grind to a halt without trust. Even if individual people don’t trust each other, a society can still function reasonably well if the government steps in with laws and regulations to prevent people from taking advantage of each other and to help those who can’t help themselves. But what if people don’t trust the government? That’s exactly what’s happened. Among high school seniors, trust in government was high and steady from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s – but then it went into decline and, outside of a brief post-9/11 bump, it never returned to its previous heights.
Race: Young Gen Xers picked up on the racial tension. During the 1990s, the number of high school seniors who said Black-White race relations were getting worse skyrocketed, as did the number who said they worried about race relations. College students believed it was more important than ever to promote racial understanding. Individualism has gone a long way toward promoting racial equality, but the revolution was incomplete. Raised to believe in equality, many Gen Xers realized that the fight for racial equality was not over. Then things seemed to work themselves out in the 2000s, kind of. The attacks of 9/11 united the nation, and race seemingly receded into the background. Obama’s election meant “perhaps we can put to rest the myth of racism as a barrier to achievement in this splendid country.”
Even though most people didn’t agree that Obama’s election put an end to racism, the 2000s and early 2010s were still a quieter period for race relations with less than 1 out of 5 high school seniors worried about Black-White race relations and less than 1 out of 10 believing race relations had gotten worse. After Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, racial tensions would rise again.
Every Day is Earth Day: There is one political and social cause Gen X was passionate about even when they were young: the environment. Earth Day, a holiday inaugurated in 1970, had long been languishing for 20 years when Gen Xers and other organizers revived it for its 20th anniversary in 1990. What followed was a huge amount of interest in environmental issues among young people who came to agree that people would have to change their way of life to help the environment, and that government should help the cause as well. This was one area where Gen X was willing to set individualism aside for the greater good.
LGBT People: Although same-sex marriage will likely have a larger impact on the lives of Millennials and Gen Z, Gen Xers were at the forefront of the legal and political fight to get it legalized – and witnessed firsthand the entire arc of attitudes toward LGBT people, from disdain (if not violence) to acceptance to celebration. Beliefs around homosexual sex and marriage show larger generational difference than any other attitude. From those born at the beginning of the 20th century to the end of it, the number who approved of homosexuality went from nearly zero to more than 3 in 4, increasing more than 10 times over. Gen X was the first generation in which more than 50% supported same-sex sexuality and marriage throughout their adult years – and then Millennials and eventually Gen Z took those attitudes to the next level and made them mainstream similar to how the Silents fought for the equal rights that Boomers then fully lived it.
Prediction: If Millennials jump the leadership line, Matthew Hennessey sees Gen X as the last bastion of moderation against a Millennial wave set to take over just as Boomers are ceding the stage. “If Generation X doesn’t get its act together … we will have the rug pulled out from under us just as we’re on the verge of reaching our potential” he writes. “If you don’t want behemoth tech firms spying on you in your home and your car … if open debate is important to you and the chill winds of speech codes and political correctness on our college campuses have already sent a shiver up your spine … if drone deliveries and sex robots give you the creeps … then this is the time to make a stand … Soon, it will be party over. Whoops! Out of time.”
Source: Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents – and What They Mean for America’s Futures by Jean M. Twenge, PhD (2023)
GENERATION X, 1965 – 1980
What the Xers are known for: The X generation had one thing in common. Something that we all shared even if you were born in the farthest corner of the earth. We were the generation that sat right on the line between how the world was operating since the dawn of time and how the world would from then on. The Xers had a front row seat at this new world and especially to the revolution of the information age. Humans had the ability now to augment their intellectual capabilities with the assistance of machines, which could store and process more information than ever before in the history of humankind. Going from a world where information was dispersed, to one where whatever you want to know is in the palm of your hand, was a rollercoaster ride. New companies within decades overtook century old ones, in the top spots of capitalization and wealth, and created new business models and markets unimagined just a few years before.
The X Generation were born and grew up in a time when Civil Rights were the main agenda, to be established and secured around the world as a reality for millions of oppressed, even if it will take years more to pass from legislation to normality. Massive changes challenged the status quo of ruthless regimes and gave the world a glimpse of what it would look like, if we just worked together. Rights that were denied for hundreds of years became a reality and part of the modern world. Nations that were enslaved were freed and minorities that were oppressed were liberated. For the Xers it was a time of learning that every human being is the same and that racism and segregation does not lead to anything. Of course, many things were left undone, but the Xers experienced that change is doable. We saw it as kids in the countries that grew or from the discussions that their elders were having. Anything was possible and that would be a trait that Xers would forever have embedded in their character. It was also a time when Xers saw that words are not enough by themselves. Dictatorships around the globe and inequality in wealth and health, made it truly clear that this world is not a utopia, but far from it. We became skeptical about the changes that were happening around us and challenged those that sold us promises and a beautiful future.
Seeing our parents work hard gave us understanding of what our work ethic should be all about, but we also saw them lose connection to their families and spouses. Our parents led an all-time high in divorces and we found ourselves alone to cope with their mess. We also saw what it means for women to be truly liberated. For the first time in history, we saw our mothers being able to provide for themselves and not to depend on their husbands for their financial well-being. We saw them slowly but steadily climbing the corporate ladder and taking part in political life, not only as constituents but as leaders. This gave us hope that we could forget the gender discrimination of the past, but we also experienced that this would not be a road paved with roses and would need a constant struggle, till we would be truly equal in opportunities.
Xers faced economic disasters and recessions, not for a few years, but for the entire span of their adulthood. We Xers experienced more financial rises than any other generation. One every ten years since the ‘80s. The 1987 Wall Street Crash, the Dot Com Busts of 2000, the housing bubble of 2007, the Great Recession of 2008, the EU fiscal crisis of 2010, and the Covid economy crash of 2020. We have gone through it all, and we had to learn how to cope and succeed. That is why Xers are the first true entrepreneurs. We are entrepreneurs because we believe in creative destruction. We challenge everything and take nothing for granted. We discover new ways to solve problems and innovative ideas to make our life better. As the first generation in the new tech explosion, we have legs in both worlds, pre and post digital, that of down to earth thinking and that of innovation. The X generation can be proud of some of its members who not only became successful entrepreneurs but created companies that became the largest ones to ever exist and changed the landscape of business. Born in 1971, Elon Musk is a star example of what one can achieve if they put their mind to it. Larry Page, born in 1973, and Sergey Brin, born in 1979 were PhD students in Stanford University when they started their company, Google. Michael Dell, born in 1965, founded Dell Technologies. Sara Blakely, born in 1971, founded Spanx undergarments. This is a generation of doers, or fixers, of discovery and change in every sphere of life, in a re-invented society and of boldly going where no-one else had gone before.
Source: The History of Generation X by Athanasios Vamvakas (2022)
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
THE MILLENNIAL CYCLE – GENERATION X – EXCERPTS
GENERATION X
Born: 1965 – 1981 Type: Reactive: Percent Immigrant 11%; Breakdown: White 62.7%; Black 12.8%; Hispanic 16.6%; Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander 6.7%; Native American 1.2%.
Gen Xers look upon themselves as pragmatic, quick, sharp-eyed, able to step outside themselves to understand the game of life as it really gets played. And whatever they are, Gen Xers see no welcome mat on their economic future: Since the mid-1970s, while the costs of setting out in life (college tuitions and housing) have raced ahead of inflation, the rewards (salaries and fringe benefits for young workers) have steadily fallen behind. Money isn’t everything – but Gen Xers find themselves both unprepared for and uninvited to most other avenues of social approval. Money means survival, and for a generation whose earliest life experiences have taught them not to trust others, survival must come first.
The Gen Xer lifecycle experience has, so far, been the direct inverse of the Silent. Where the Silent passed through childhood in an era of parental suffocation and entered young adulthood just as barriers to youth freedom began to loosen Gen Xers have faced exactly the opposite trend. Where the Silent grew up with a childlike awe of powerful elders, Gen Xers have acquired an adultlike fatalism about the weakness and uncertainty of elders – and question their ability to protect the young from future danger When the first Silent were children America was in the skids of depression, but by the 20th, public confidence was vast and rising. When the first Gen Xers were born, America was riding high and G.I. leaders seemed to be achieving everything at once – but then, as they reached adolescence, the nation mired itself in doubt. The Silent emerged from their storybook childhood hoping to add some nuance and subtlety to a culture they found oversimple. Gen Xers by contrast are growing up in what is described as “a world of information overload.” Gen Xers struggle to filter out noise, cut through rhetoric, and isolate the handful of practical truths that really matter. Also, unlike the homogeneous young Silent, Gen Xers are coming of age with sharply diverging personal circumstances in education, family economics, and career opportunities. Where their parents once struggled to break free from a tight generational center of gravity Gen Xers wonder if they will ever be able to find one.
Confronted with these facts of life, Gen Xers have built a powerful survival instinct, wrapped around an ethos of personal determinism. In their world what a person is, what he looks like, and whether or not he succeeds depend less on what a person is inside than on how he behaves. Gen Xers are constantly told that whatever bad things strike people of their age – from AIDS to drug addiction, from suicides to homicides – are mainly their own fault. No other generation in living memory has come of age with such a sense of social distance – of adults doing so little for them and expecting so little from them. Lacking the ego strength to set agendas for others, Gen Xers instead react to the world as they find it.
Source: Generations: The History of America’s Future by William Strauss and Neil Howe
GENERATION X
Generation X is often referred to as the “forgotten” generation, as they came of age during a period of relative calm between two major events: the Vietnam war and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This generation was born roughly between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, and they grew up in a time of economic uncertainty, political disillusionment, and social change. During the 1970s and 1980s, America experienced a shift away from traditional values and social structures. This was the era of the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, and the feminist movement, and it had a profound impact on Generation X. Many of them grew up in broken homes with divorced or single parents, and they were often left to fend for themselves.
The economic conditions of the time were also challenging, with the high inflation and unemployment rates. Many Gen Xers entered the workforce during a time of recession, which made it difficult for them to establish themselves in stable careers. This led to a sense of independence and self-reliance, as they were forced to find creative ways to support themselves. One defining characteristic of Generation X also showed a strong entrepreneurial spirit, with many of them starting their own businesses or pursuing nontraditional career paths. This was partly due to the influence of the Silicon Valley tech boom, which provided new opportunities for innovation and disruption. In terms of family and relationships, Generation X is often seen as more independent and less traditional than previous generations. They are more likely to delay marriage and child-rearing, and they place a high value on work-life balance and personal fulfillment.
Overall, Generation X is a complex and multifaceted generation, shaped by the social, economic, and political forces of their time. Their attitudes toward work, family, and politics reflect their experiences of growing up in a period of great change and uncertainty, and they will continue to shape America’s future in unique and unexpected ways. Here are some of the ways in which they contributed to social and cultural evolution.
- Technological advancements: Generation X was the first generation to grow up with personal computers and the internet. They played a significant role in driving the technological revolution of the 1980s and 1990s, which transformed communication, commerce, and entertainment.
- Alternative culture: Gen Xers embraced alternative music, fashion, and lifestyles that challenged mainstream norms. They were associated with the rise of punk, grunge, and hip-hop music, as well as the popularity of independent films, graphics novels, and comic books.
- Diversity and inclusion: Gen Xers were the first generation to grow up in a more diverse and inclusive society. They were exposed to a wider range of cultures, religions, and lifestyles, which influenced their values and beliefs. They were also more likely to support progressive causes such as gay rights, racial equality, and environmentalism.
- Work-life balance: Generation X was the first generation to prioritize work-life balance, seeking careers that allowed them to pursue personal interests and spend time with their families. They also pushed for greater flexibility in the workplace.
- Political activism: Gen Xers were known for their skepticism and cynicism toward traditional political institutions. However, they also played a significant role in political activism, particularly in the areas of environmentalism and human rights.
- In business, Generation X was the first to be raised to a digital age, and many members of this generation were early adopters of new technologies such as personal computers and the internet. This digital fluency has given Gen Xers an advantage in the modern workplace, where technology plays an increasingly important role.
- Gen Xers grew up in a time of economic upheaval and societal change, which led to a sense of cynicism and skepticism about institutions and authority and autonomy, has made it difficult for Gen Xers to find a place in a society that often values conformity and obedience.
GENERATION X
Gen Xers landed right in the middle of the influence of technology, individualism, and the slow-life strategy. Their life trajectory was a mix: Gen Xers came into adolescence early and hardened, thus experiencing a shortened childhood and a fast-life strategy early in life, but later living the slow life as they extended adolescence and young adulthood far beyond other generations’ limits. That slower life trajectory has continued into middle age as they hold on to their ironic T-shirts, worn jeans, and sneakers, well past 40.
The swift pace of technological change during Gen Xers lifetimes created crisp generational divides almost as soon as each device or app was introduced. Computers and email cleaved Gen X from Boomers, texting Millennials from Gen X; and Tik Tok Gen Z from Millennials. For the last ten years of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st, your generation often dictated how you communicated: Silents and Boomers wanted to see you in person or call you on the phone, Gen Xers wanted to email you, Millennials wanted to text you, and Gen Z wanted to send you their resume as a TikTok Video. Nearly every Gen Xer has a story of arguing with a Boomer over why something can be done on a computer instead of on paper.
The Rise and Fall of the Latchkey Kid: If you were a kid in the 1970s or 1980s who returned to an empty house after school, you’d let yourself in and a parentless late afternoon would stretch before you. A pack of cookies and several episodes of Happy Days and Mork and Mindy reruns later, your parent or parents would get home. adulthood. One Gen Xer wrote, “We just figured things out. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, the total freedom we had, and the absolute vulnerability we weren’t aware of. This lack of supervision, combined with being the last generation with a foot firmly in the physical world, made Gen X what it is today – tough and resilient. Of course, even as they glorify their independent childhoods, many Gen Xers are also now the parents who protect – and sometimes overprotect – their kids.
Marriage, Sex, and Children: Not Necessarily in the Order: Three points about Gen X’s adult lives.
- Gen X married later than any previous generation in American history. Early Boomers, for all their hippie reputation, married very young – 21 for women, 23 for men. By 2004, when the last of Gen X turned 25, the average age of marriage had risen to 25 for women and 27 for men. That changed beginning in the 1980s and increased from there. The slower life strategy for adulthood was winning out.
- The lower age for first sex and the higher age for first marriage lengthened the gap between the two. For example, early Boomer women has sex for only about two years before they got married. Gen X women, on the other hand, went seven years between losing their virginity and walking down the aisle. In 1991, a shocking 1 out of 10 teens said they’d had sex for the first time when they were 12 years old or younger. In short, Boomers started having sex in college, and Gen X started having sex in high school – or even junior high. Thus, Gen X “lost their childhood innocence” by having sex sooner but embrace adult commitments by getting married later.
- Having children started to become uncoupled from being married. In 1960, only 1 in 20 babies were born to unmarried mothers. That began to rise when Boomers were young, reaching about 1 in 6 by 1980. By 1993, it was 1 in 3, and the average of a woman giving birth to her first child dipped below the age of first marriage for the first time. Gen X was the first generation to live with romantic partners in significant numbers as young adults, a trend that Millennials continued. This is a key generational shift, with unmarried young adults living with a romantic partner going from close to zero to 1 in 7. There was also a huge change in the number of people who had lived with an unmarried partner before their first marriage. Only 11% of women ages 19-44 (Boomers and Silent) had done that in 1965 -1974, but by 2010 -2013 (Gen X and Millennials) 69% had. Individualism is again likely the primary cause here: If you’re an individual who can do what you want, why do you need a piece of paper from the government to live with someone?
Self-Esteem: Since they were small children, Gen X learned from their Silent and Boomer parents that self came first. Gen Xers didn’t have to march in a protest or attend a group session to realize that their own needs and desires were paramount. They just knew it. This is one of the key differences between Boomers and Gen X: Gen Xers came of age after the culture had decided to leave behind the old, collectivistic rules and embrace individualism. Gen Xers viewed themselves in more positive terms than Boomers did, displaying brash self-confidence. While only 4 in 10 early Boomer students thought they were above average in their leadership ability, 6 in 10 did by the later college years of Gen X.
Music: The ‘90s also saw another significant pop culture shift as rap and hip-hop spread from the Black community to become popular across racial lines. White teens were still playing “You’re the inspiration” at the school dance in the 80’s when Black teens were discovering an entirely new musical genre with rap, which had developed in the 1970s when DJs began rhyming lyrics to beats at block parties. Rap courted controversy from the beginning, with gangsta rap acts exploring crime, violence, and drugs. The first half of Gen X was the last cohort of White teens who didn’t listen to rap or hip-hop en masse. Within a few years White kids were listening to gangsta rap.
Trust No One – Cynicism: Gen Xers were saying they personally didn’t trust others, and that you have to be very careful when dealing with other people. Everyone is out for themselves, they agreed, so you have to protect yourself. Gen Xers were also less likely to believe that most people were fair and helpful. And unlike many negative trends in the early 1990s, this one did not go away after the economy improved – Millennials and Gen Zers were also less trusting as high school seniors. Young Gen Xers began a trend toward cynicism and mistrust that refused to fade.
Social relationships, whether with friends, family, or coworkers, flow best when they are based on mutual trust. The social fabric breaks down when people can’t trust each other. Distrust creates a society in which everyone is a potential foe. In addition, trust is the cornerstone of the economy. Economic transactions grind to a halt without trust. Even if individual people don’t trust each other, a society can still function reasonably well if the government steps in with laws and regulations to prevent people from taking advantage of each other and to help those who can’t help themselves. But what if people don’t trust the government? That’s exactly what’s happened. Among high school seniors, trust in government was high and steady from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s – but then it went into decline and, outside of a brief post-9/11 bump, it never returned to its previous heights.
Race: Young Gen Xers picked up on the racial tension. During the 1990s, the number of high school seniors who said Black-White race relations were getting worse skyrocketed, as did the number who said they worried about race relations. College students believed it was more important than ever to promote racial understanding. Individualism has gone a long way toward promoting racial equality, but the revolution was incomplete. Raised to believe in equality, many Gen Xers realized that the fight for racial equality was not over. Then things seemed to work themselves out in the 2000s, kind of. The attacks of 9/11 united the nation, and race seemingly receded into the background. Obama’s election meant “perhaps we can put to rest the myth of racism as a barrier to achievement in this splendid country.”
Even though most people didn’t agree that Obama’s election put an end to racism, the 2000s and early 2010s were still a quieter period for race relations with less than 1 out of 5 high school seniors worried about Black-White race relations and less than 1 out of 10 believing race relations had gotten worse. After Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, racial tensions would rise again.
Every Day is Earth Day: There is one political and social cause Gen X was passionate about even when they were young: the environment. Earth Day, a holiday inaugurated in 1970, had long been languishing for 20 years when Gen Xers and other organizers revived it for its 20th anniversary in 1990. What followed was a huge amount of interest in environmental issues among young people who came to agree that people would have to change their way of life to help the environment, and that government should help the cause as well. This was one area where Gen X was willing to set individualism aside for the greater good.
LGBT People: Although same-sex marriage will likely have a larger impact on the lives of Millennials and Gen Z, Gen Xers were at the forefront of the legal and political fight to get it legalized – and witnessed firsthand the entire arc of attitudes toward LGBT people, from disdain (if not violence) to acceptance to celebration. Beliefs around homosexual sex and marriage show larger generational difference than any other attitude. From those born at the beginning of the 20th century to the end of it, the number who approved of homosexuality went from nearly zero to more than 3 in 4, increasing more than 10 times over. Gen X was the first generation in which more than 50% supported same-sex sexuality and marriage throughout their adult years – and then Millennials and eventually Gen Z took those attitudes to the next level and made them mainstream similar to how the Silents fought for the equal rights that Boomers then fully lived it.
Prediction: If Millennials jump the leadership line, Matthew Hennessey sees Gen X as the last bastion of moderation against a Millennial wave set to take over just as Boomers are ceding the stage. “If Generation X doesn’t get its act together … we will have the rug pulled out from under us just as we’re on the verge of reaching our potential” he writes. “If you don’t want behemoth tech firms spying on you in your home and your car … if open debate is important to you and the chill winds of speech codes and political correctness on our college campuses have already sent a shiver up your spine … if drone deliveries and sex robots give you the creeps … then this is the time to make a stand … Soon, it will be party over. Whoops! Out of time.”
Source: Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents – and What They Mean for America’s Futures by Jean M. Twenge, PhD (2023)
GENERATION X, 1965 – 1980
What the Xers are known for: The X generation had one thing in common. Something that we all shared even if you were born in the farthest corner of the earth. We were the generation that sat right on the line between how the world was operating since the dawn of time and how the world would from then on. The Xers had a front row seat at this new world and especially to the revolution of the information age. Humans had the ability now to augment their intellectual capabilities with the assistance of machines, which could store and process more information than ever before in the history of humankind. Going from a world where information was dispersed, to one where whatever you want to know is in the palm of your hand, was a rollercoaster ride. New companies within decades overtook century old ones, in the top spots of capitalization and wealth, and created new business models and markets unimagined just a few years before.
The X Generation were born and grew up in a time when Civil Rights were the main agenda, to be established and secured around the world as a reality for millions of oppressed, even if it will take years more to pass from legislation to normality. Massive changes challenged the status quo of ruthless regimes and gave the world a glimpse of what it would look like, if we just worked together. Rights that were denied for hundreds of years became a reality and part of the modern world. Nations that were enslaved were freed and minorities that were oppressed were liberated. For the Xers it was a time of learning that every human being is the same and that racism and segregation does not lead to anything. Of course, many things were left undone, but the Xers experienced that change is doable. We saw it as kids in the countries that grew or from the discussions that their elders were having. Anything was possible and that would be a trait that Xers would forever have embedded in their character. It was also a time when Xers saw that words are not enough by themselves. Dictatorships around the globe and inequality in wealth and health, made it truly clear that this world is not a utopia, but far from it. We became skeptical about the changes that were happening around us and challenged those that sold us promises and a beautiful future.
Seeing our parents work hard gave us understanding of what our work ethic should be all about, but we also saw them lose connection to their families and spouses. Our parents led an all-time high in divorces and we found ourselves alone to cope with their mess. We also saw what it means for women to be truly liberated. For the first time in history, we saw our mothers being able to provide for themselves and not to depend on their husbands for their financial well-being. We saw them slowly but steadily climbing the corporate ladder and taking part in political life, not only as constituents but as leaders. This gave us hope that we could forget the gender discrimination of the past, but we also experienced that this would not be a road paved with roses and would need a constant struggle, till we would be truly equal in opportunities.
Xers faced economic disasters and recessions, not for a few years, but for the entire span of their adulthood. We Xers experienced more financial rises than any other generation. One every ten years since the ‘80s. The 1987 Wall Street Crash, the Dot Com Busts of 2000, the housing bubble of 2007, the Great Recession of 2008, the EU fiscal crisis of 2010, and the Covid economy crash of 2020. We have gone through it all, and we had to learn how to cope and succeed. That is why Xers are the first true entrepreneurs. We are entrepreneurs because we believe in creative destruction. We challenge everything and take nothing for granted. We discover new ways to solve problems and innovative ideas to make our life better. As the first generation in the new tech explosion, we have legs in both worlds, pre and post digital, that of down to earth thinking and that of innovation. The X generation can be proud of some of its members who not only became successful entrepreneurs but created companies that became the largest ones to ever exist and changed the landscape of business. Born in 1971, Elon Musk is a star example of what one can achieve if they put their mind to it. Larry Page, born in 1973, and Sergey Brin, born in 1979 were PhD students in Stanford University when they started their company, Google. Michael Dell, born in 1965, founded Dell Technologies. Sara Blakely, born in 1971, founded Spanx undergarments. This is a generation of doers, or fixers, of discovery and change in every sphere of life, in a re-invented society and of boldly going where no-one else had gone before.
Source: The History of Generation X by Athanasios Vamvakas (2022)
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
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