Do you think of yourself as part of a 'generation'?

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if so whicha, and what are its co-ordinates of whatever variety?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:01 (eighteen years ago)

No, but I'm not much of a 'joiner' anyhow.

― Michael White, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:07 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't identify at all with a generation until I realized all of my friends and I (20-40) are getting/have been shitbinned by our own parents and got really heated about it.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:08 (eighteen years ago)

I think it was relatively easy to ignore this stuff until I started running into various glass ceilings in my still-nascent yuppiedom and realized it was all because these fucking pseudocompetent old people won't just go ahead and retire, they're going to have to eventually and the next 10 years or so are going to be the absolute pits for all of us because of it, so go eat shit, boomers, and die early so I don't have to pay for as many of your fucking pills

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

See?

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

I tend to think of myself as the older sibling of the generation that will not remember a time without the internet. I can remember using Prodigy at age 8, but my sister can't imagine life without Instant Messenger.

I think the escalating speeed and variety of consumption that the internet has brought about will bring with it interesting consequences for the way my "younger siblings" construct identity.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:15 (eighteen years ago)

Maybe the Atari Generation, but that's about it.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago)

in my mind i always link spaced up with my older cousin going on about how great human traffic and music has the right to children were... is this linkage in any way correct?

-- acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:06 (10 minutes ago)
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hahahahaha. go to my 'generation' thread.

-- That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:12 (4 minutes ago)

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago)

It's cold outside and my hands are dry
Skin is cracked and I realize
That I hate the sound of guitars
A thousand grudging young millionaires
Forcing silence sucking sound
Forced into this conversation
So i say shine let their planets collide
This is the darkening down of my mind
We could be making it oiling like crime
We could be making it staking last dimes
If you want to sieze the sound you don't need a reservation
The torch is pased it's yours to return
Lay at their feet now use it to burn
For marketing the use of the word generation
A false alliance of money persuading
Forcing silence sound sucking
Forced into this conversation
Now if you want to sieze the sound you don't need a reservation
So open so young so target I can smell your heart you're a target

― Hurting 2, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:18 (eighteen years ago)

the Pepsi Generation, the one that just missed all the cool stuff

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

The Beat(en) Generation - The The The single.

― Mark G, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

80s Baby.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

Not as good as "I'd Rather Jack (Than Fleetwood Mac)."

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

the one that just missed all the cool stuff

You would think you missed all the cool stuff, though.

I am part of the Tarantino Generation, obv.

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:20 (eighteen years ago)

I am part of the Bruce Forsyth Generation.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:22 (eighteen years ago)

i've never liked the gen-x label (nobody does, i suppose) but i definitely identify with the generation. i graduated college the same year that nevermind, [i]slacker/i] and douglas coupland's book came out, and suddenly it was like, "oh i'm part of a demographic." the particular downcast vibe of those years in the late 80s and early to mid 90s -- post-reagan, pre-dotcom -- i think had a pretty significant impact on a lot of people my age.

― tipsy mothra, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:26 (eighteen years ago)

I am about the same age as people who write critical essays about John Hughes movies, but that does not make me part of their world.

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:28 (eighteen years ago)

Where were you? You know, the first time you heard "Rapture" from iiO. Working up a sweat on the dance floor of the hottest club? Driving down the freeway blasting your radio? Laying on the beach, overhearing it in the distance from someone's summer boombox? Either way, as soon as that infectious hook kicked in you were hooked...an iiO junkie for life with no rehab on the horizon. We've heard your cries... you've just got to have more right?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:30 (eighteen years ago)

Trapper Keeper Generation.

― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

We're the generation that bought records by The Cure

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:35 (eighteen years ago)

Not I.

― Hurting 2, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:36 (eighteen years ago)

yes, but I will maintain that there is one generation that still listens to them, and another that does not.

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:37 (eighteen years ago)

ADD generation

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:38 (eighteen years ago)

ok you all realize that if a person is your brother or sister they're still part of the same generation as you regardless of when they started high school, right?

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:39 (eighteen years ago)

"gen-y" = my little sister is on 17 different versions of blogspot and friendster and I'm only on 3, our experience of the world is SO DIFFERENT

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:41 (eighteen years ago)

thanks for the ADD generation.

/custos

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:42 (eighteen years ago)

I'm the generation that has red shoes.

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:46 (eighteen years ago)

80's computer game generation.

And that's the only one I want to be known for.

― Ste, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago)

i'm part of the search function generation

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=826
http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=52160

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

morbs is not part of the arrested development generation

-- kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:01 (41 minutes ago)

the AD generation

― Just got offed, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

good point gabbneb :(

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:47 (eighteen years ago)

i'm with Ste

― g-kit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:48 (eighteen years ago)

i am sad i missed the boat on being part of the skins generation.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:51 (eighteen years ago)

"gen-y" = my little sister is on 17 different versions of blogspot and friendster and I'm only on 3, our experience of the world is SO DIFFERENT

-- TOMBOT, Thursday, May 10, 2007 9:41 AM

Whereas her primary social interactions occur on the internet and mine do not, I'd say that yes, our experiences of the world are different and will continue to diverge over time.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:51 (eighteen years ago)

i identify to at least some xtent with late gen-x (certainly not y - completely different universe), but my parents are late silent generation, definitely not boomers, so in that sense i may feel more kinship with generation jones, even if they're years ahead of me

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

Born right after JFK death = I am The Last Boomer.

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:53 (eighteen years ago)

sure hoosteen she will probably have bionic wifi implants by the time she's 26, and you will still be trying to get in touch with people using voice-over-phone

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

You would think you missed all the cool stuff, though.

The year of pop radio I can remember best is 1974. Do I lie?

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

all older brothers to "gen-y" will be forced to congregate in luddite communes as their little sisters use the new macro gestures in Pidgin 11.1.55b to chat with their clones on the moonbase

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

OTMBOT

― bernard snowy, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

ps I feel like the internet is in the process of totally destroying the age-based social structure and replacing it with self-defining communities. either that or I just don't have any friends so I'm trying to come up with excuses for why I don't feel like part of a "generation" of any sort.

― bernard snowy, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

sure hoosteen she will probably have bionic wifi implants by the time she's 26, and you will still be trying to get in touch with people using voice-over-phone

-- TOMBOT, Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:55 AM

When this shit happens I will revive and piss on your head from my high high horse.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:02 (eighteen years ago)

where is the x/y cut-off?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

late 70's?

― latebloomer, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

I think it's kind of funny that "boomers" have always been a pretty wide swath, covering about 20-25 years worth of postwar reproduction, but when they started having kids of their own they decided each one got its own generation, like the oldest would be Gen-X and the youngest was Gen-Y or Gen-Z I guess depending on the number of siblings in between.

The Boomer generation is conventionally defined as between 1943-46 and 1960-63, i.e. covering 20 years at its widest margins. Generation X is thought of as between 1961-64 and 1981 (at least according to the Howe/Strauss book 13th Gen). So these are about the same. I agree with you, though, that people seem eager to want to move on from Generation Y even though, if we continue to use that roughly 20-year segment, the children of the next generation are still largely toddlers and thus haven't exhibited any unique demographic characteristics yet.

I never really felt part of Generation X because I came in at the tail end, and it seemed like all of the early '90s cultural artefacts devoted to defining the generation all centered on growing up with '70s TV shows and parental divorce, neither of which I related to.

― jaymc, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

debatable. 76 is the earliest, 82 maybe the latest (personally i'd say 78 is the latest).

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

maybe 79

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

i'm riiiight at the end of gen-x (1980) and don't feel *much* part of it culturally, but tombot is otm.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

yes, but I will maintain that there is one generation that still listens to them, and another that does not.

That's funny, because that article about "grups" was positioned as an obit for the generation gap because all the new hot bands in the 21st century sound like '80s bands -- there are no longer revolutions in popular music as there were when rock and roll emerged and, later, when synth bands sought to overthrow the classic-rock dinosaurs -- and so one would fully expect that kids who like the Rapture or Hot Hot Heat or whatever would find a lot to like about the Cure, too. (I have no idea whether they *actually* listen to them, but the fact that Robert Smith is guesting on Ashlee Simpson and Korn records these days is maybe telling.)

― jaymc, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

61-81 seems too early to me, I'd actually go as far as 64-84 for gen X, because boomers should cover 1944-1964 really.

I'm really thinking of generations in terms of their demographic impact on economics, politics, etc. because the cultural/arts shit is a lot of fucking bollocks, I mean gabbneb is on this thread and he likes Phish and wearing sandals with shorts; I hate all that stuff, does that make me Y and him X? barf

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

The Wasting-all-my-time-on-a-bunch-of-insipid-crap-so-that-I-can-forget-that-I-am-slowly-dying-hour-by-hour-in-my-dingy-cubicle Generation

― crackaphone bro, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

WE ARE THE GENERATION THAT BOUGHT MORE SHOES AND WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE

― pisces, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:23 (eighteen years ago)

TOMBOT otm, i am part of the generation that has never been to africa.

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago)

because the cultural/arts shit is a lot of fucking bollocks

qft

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

The main reason that culture/arts is the wrong way to go in terms of defining generations is that it's almost always upper-middle-class white people's tastes that become the standard-bearers.

― jaymc, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

The reason we all despise Generation X as a label is because it was slapped on us without permission by 48-year-old buttwipes sitting in newsrooms trying to come up with some column inches for the sunday insert

so very very OTM

― Mr. Que, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:28 (eighteen years ago)

also remember this short lived soda???:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/a/ab/OK_Soda_-_can.jpg

― Mr. Que, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago)

the blank generation i.e. tail-end of the baby boom, came of age in the 1970s, endlessly reminded -- still -- by our older brothers and sisters that we missed all the groovy revolutionary stuff in the 1960s.

― m coleman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago)

haha I drank that in arkansas

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago)

Douglas Coupland was a 48-year-old buttwipe in 1990?

― jaymc, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago)

all generational labels are reductionist and serve no real purpose except to sell people soda and widgets

― Mr. Que, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:32 (eighteen years ago)

blank generation = generation jones = my favorite

there is the generation that describes the cohort that experienced major historical events in similar fashion, and then there is the generation that with a very broad brush has a common cultural experience. these two often match, but not always.

i think i get now my puzzlement at the antipathy to "Dad" and "Mom" things - if many of these Dads and Moms are Boomers, well no wonder. also perhaps the seeming weirdness of parents who are/want to be buddies/best friends.

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago)

the only generational title that truly fits all of ilx is slackers

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago)

or, i think it's accurate to describe anyone who grew up within a certain date range as belonging to a particular generation, but not all persons who belong to a given generation are necessarily of that generation, at least as much as many or most are

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago)

I think of myself as part of the initial generation of women who had choices beyond housewife/teacher/nurse, which maybe isn't accurate but I like the thought. I was in the second class of women to attend a previously all male college, I chose a technical course of study that most of the other women attending steered clear of (engineering vs. business), and I attempted the whole super-mom thing in the 80s (marriage/babies/career/volunteer work - yes please all at once). According to most definitions, I'm a boomer (1960), but I don't know that I necessarily think of myself as such.

― Jaq, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:00 (eighteen years ago)

All the crap about Gen X-Gen Y cusp feelings strikes me as somewhat true. All the cultural signifiers of the '90s without ever getting tagged Gen X, complete befuddlement at people a year or two younger than me.

― milo z, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:09 (eighteen years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_Cusp

― milo z, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:10 (eighteen years ago)

Some of the language in that article is pretty LOL, including "the elders of Generation Y" and "cuspers" acting "as translators and ambassadors between the generations," as if generational cohorts are like neighboring tribes.

― jaymc, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:12 (eighteen years ago)

i'm part of the ed lover generation

― gabbneb, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:14 (eighteen years ago)

GEN YO RAPS

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

GEN' N' ROSES

― remy bean, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:26 (eighteen years ago)

what m coleman said about Blank Gen, and plus I got to NYU about 2 years after anything exciting was onstage at CBGB.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

Hmmmmm. That xy cusp wiki thing, as funny as it may be, is pretty much spot on for me and I was born in '77. I will say, however, that I've never considered myself a generaltional translator or ambassador before. lol.

― ENBB, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:37 (eighteen years ago)

was sayin' let me outta here before I was even born,
It's such a gamble when you get a face,
It's fascinatin' to observe what the mirror does,
But when I dine it's for the wall that I set a place.

I belong to the blank generation,
And I can take it or leave it each time.
I belong to the generation,
But I can take it or leave it each time.

Triangles were fallin' at the window as the doctor cursed,
He was a cartoon long forsaken by the public eye,
The nurse adjusted her garters as I breathed my first,
The doctor grabbed my throat and yelled, "God's consolation prize!"

I belong to the blank generation,
And I can take it or leave it each time.
I belong to the generation,
But I can take it or leave it each time.

To hold the TV to my lips, the air so packed with cash,
Then carry it up flights of stairs and drop it in the vacant lot,
To lose my train of thought and fall into your arms tracks,
And watch beneath the eyelids every passing dot

I belong to the blank generation,
And I can take it or leave it each time.
I belong to the generation,
But I can take it or leave it each time.

― chicago kevin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:39 (eighteen years ago)

"I belong to the generation" should be more like "I belong to the __________ generation" to indicate a clever pause.

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)

or maybe just ellipses

― kenan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)

prolly. it's not like i was gonna be bothered typing it out.

btw, richard hell looks like the most aptly named person ever these days, i finally got around to watching "we jam econo" last night.

― chicago kevin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:42 (eighteen years ago)

<i>ok you all realize that if a person is your brother or sister they're still part of the same generation as you regardless of when they started high school, right?</i>

My dad and his brother were born 20 years apart, so no, siblings are not necessarily part of the same generation.

I consider myself part of Generation X-Wing.

― Oblivious Lad, Thursday, 10 May 2007 20:58 (eighteen years ago)

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