All I hear about is “boomers” this, “Millennials” that, “Gen Z” that, etc.
Why no one talk about Gen X? What happened to them? They just vanished like in Infinity War? Or are we mistaken Gen Z by Boomers?
Maybe they’re just lying low so nobody will blame everything on them.
A wise move
“The forgotten generation” strikes again!
Love y’all, but on bluesky gen X has been behaving like boomers more and more often. Maybe it has to do with hitting a certain age and becoming “get of my lawn”?
This is my experience with them as well. I guess we all suck when we get old.
The last lawn generation
I’m gen X. I’m certainly at get off my lawn stage. Yet I have no lawn. Hmmmmmm
I have no mouth and i must scream.
Gen X is essentially just “boomer lite.” So might as well lump them into boomers. That’s been my experience working with many many gen x’ers over the years. They’re similar in my opinion.
Lol no
It’s true. Downvote me all you want.
Well somebody voted for Trump. I’m X but many X’s must have gone MAGA. I can’t say my generation is any better.
For the past 20 years all I’ve heard is “fundamental Christianity is dying” “things will get better as Boomers die off”
Many people across a wide swath of age ranges and demographics had to vote for Trump for the numbers to turn out how they did. I feel that trying to find some small subset of people to blame is a self defeating choice compared to truly trying to understand what drew people to vote for him rather than Harris.
It’s not hard to understand.
The electoral system gives an advantage to rural states. Those states are significantly religious and want to ban abortion nation wide. Trump gave them the first step. They want the next.
I thought those things were true until like 2 months ago. I’m sad to have been proven wrong by millions.
Oh, so they’re like Gen Z’s (like me), who are “Millennial-lite.”
I think gen-z are the cool new improvement to millennials
We have all the patches and software actualization that millennials needed lol
Which is why more of you voted for Trump than in the past election?
“In the 2024 election, there was a distinct shift among people ages 18-29 towards Trump, especially in men. Fifty-six percent of young men were in favor of the former President in 2024, compared to only 41% in 2020.”
https://www.alligator.org/article/2024/11/gen-z-voter-trends
At least previous generations waited until middle age before turning hard right. (The I got mine vote screw everyone else vote.)
So… you’ve quoted that both Gen X and Gen Z voted more for Trump than last time. Perhaps the issue isn’t specific generations, but a larger turn out for Trump across most demographics?
Or you can always keep looking for reasons to get upset at strangers you don’t know for demographics they belong to that they can’t control. Very bold. We’ll have to see what the crowd thinks when it hits the fashion runway in Paris.
Or you can always keep looking for reasons to get upset at strangers you don’t know for demographics they belong to that they can’t control.
My point was it isn’t a Gen X, Y or Z thing.
Kids thinking they’re better than Boomers are deluding themselves. We have the proof it’s getting worse, not better.
Who’s making it worse? Was it the boomers who skyrocketed the price of everything, deadlocked the political system in the country so no change to the status quo could be made, or is it the youth who are misguided by those who should be their protectors?
I think you’ll find less misogyny, body shaming, and entitlement among the youth either way.
Weon, no soy yankee o ni vivo en Yankeelandia ¿De que vaina me estás hablando?
Rising Nazism isn’t limited to the US.
And yet, you only mentioned the American Elections and not any other election on the world.
There is a Segway between boomer and Gen X but every generation has an overlap. I’m a Gen X. It is a small generation that lived through the creation of the internet society. We were also responsible for 90s independent music labels and the production of the greatest music since the 60s (you are welcome btw). Boomers are post war nationalists that stopped learning anything new after their 18th birthday.
segue
Asshats who use the term “Boomer” don’t seem to understand that it means people born about 10 years after WWII and use it for anyone older than they are, so MTV term “genX” gets swamped.
Boomer is a frame of mind and enough Gen Xers fit that frame of mind to get the label.
You wouldn’t be catching strays if Musk wasn’t Gen X, some of the worst people in our congress were Gen X like Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, and outside of congress idiots like Governor Ron DeSantis are Gen X. Gen X is nearly 40% of the House Representatives and a quarter of the Senate.
Some of the most fucked up assholes on the political landscape today are Gen X so they deserve the “Boomer” label.
No, they are not their parents. Asshole or not.
You could call them The Silent Generation.
…
No, wait…
A lot of gen x got theirs. College was paid for and was cheap, lots of opportunities while they were young, got a house, a family and are just living. They will get a far inheritance if their parents die on time, but they are also the first to see that huge nest egg disappear to the current healthcare system.
Their vote never counted.
They were the first to figure out their parents had it incredibly easy, although it took them a long time. Sometimes they didn’t see it until their own kids struggled with costs and employment.
A lot are conservative but probably because they have assets and don’t like social welfare taking from them, even though their parents set it up for them to lose.
They aren’t as tech savvy as millennials.
I think I’m technically gen-x but I definitely feel more kindred with millennials, but goddamn, you nailed it. Describes exactly how I see my slightly older peers.
They aren’t as tech savvy as millennials.
We built the tech. I was there, three decades ago.
I bought a 386 motherboard that needed a patch. Not software, but by soldering a wire between two pads. You just basically figure it out and went from there with a soldering iron.
Build the computer from parts? Sure. Soldered it like it came as discrete components? Also sure.
Tech savvy is often in context of when you were learning in your teens to early twenties and then what of that skill set is still applicable today.
Some of the genx built it, but the rest of them were too old (too busy) to learn it. The kids learned it.
X86 was not built by genx if you want to get pedantic.
I was talking about the dot-com technology of 30 years ago, not the 8-bit microchip technology of ~50 years ago.
Web “1” and web2.0 was awful. Kids of that time had to troubleshoot it on their own.
Wow, that a very insightful and concise description, really. Now I understand more. Thank you.
They aren’t as tech savvy as millennials.
Yeah, this is nonsense. Gen X were the generation that had to adapt to emerging technology in the workplace, when that technology itself wasn’t designed with user-friendliness at its core, and usually without an education that prioritised that. They worked with obscure hardware and obtuse software. They then continued to adapt as the Internet became prevalent and software within offices evolved. They saw the most change, and remain in the workforce.
As time has gone on, technology has simplified for the user. As such, Gen X are absolutely the generation that taught their parents how to solve their IT issues, and the ones that continue to teach their children, with Xennials being the peak of that curve.
Anecdotally, my teenage kids fly around an iPhone, but still think a computer is the fucking monitor.
Kids of today certainly lack a lot of “background” tech troubleshooting skills, but understand some of the more nuanced details of modern systems. It’s both interesting and frustrating to watch.
I wonder if the context of ‘tech person’ vs average person is what they meant?
A genx tech person in their field is going to be on avg further along than millenial in the same field - because they’ve literally been doing it longer, more experience, learnt more, exposed to more fundamentals.
imo the distinction is the average (non-tech) genx probably will have less tech exposure than avg millenial, millenials were coming up during the shift of the average person thinking “computers are for geeks” to “tech is cool”.
disclaimer: generation names are kind of arbitrary divide and conquer bs anyway.
They aren’t as tech savvy as millennials.
I’m GenX. If you ask my group of friends “who here has built their own PC from components?” every hand is going to go up. Including the teacher, the administrator and the financier.
Ask a group of Millennials who knows what the command line is for and see what reaction you get.
GenX is the generation that does tech support for its parents and its children.
That’s simply selection bias.
Isn’t that just cos: a) you had to build your own PC back then, and b) you have way more time and resources to do so
Exactly. I don’t know that it’s just that, but it is that. It’s not like the people are fundamentally different raw materials - a generation is defined by it’s circumstances. And those were the gen x circumstance.
(Edit: except resources. There were fuck all resources compared to today)
Older millennials are firmly there with you in relation to tech.
Kind of… It’s really that weird bridge period between the two generations. 1980 seems to be the sweet spot. The further your birth year is from it, in either direction, the less tech savvy they seem to be.
I can prove this scientifically in that I am employed in tech and a lot of my friends are too.
I disagree that they aren’t as tech savvy as Millennials. I would say on average its younger GenX and older Millennials that have the highest tech skills, with GenX probably ahead. That’s referring to percentage, not total numbers.
Yes, “xennials” probably have their own generation because of this, but I have met a lot more millennials that can manage UI changes over genx.
Switch a genx from windows to Mac and they are lost. Switch a millennial and they seem to be fine. I’ve seen this with phones, TVs, websites, etc.
Genx were young during “dumb” tech. VCR, digital phones, etc. millennials were learning the internet as it was moving from a hobby to its own platform, cellphones as they were first widely available then as they went “smart”, and a lot of other examples.
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of knowledge was lost along the way like manual categorical systems including tabulation machines, phone books, Thomas Guides, even cabinet filing systems/card catslogs. Genx handles these things a lot better than the more recent generations.
Switch a millennial to a CLI or ask them to understand underlying technologies or networking and watch the difference between them and xennials for example.
Digital native means they learned how to click next.
Younger millennial here, some of us grew up using Linux. There are literally dozens of us!
Genx were young during “dumb” tech. VCR, digital phones, etc. millennials were learning the internet as it was moving from a hobby to its own platform, cellphones as they were first widely available then as they went “smart”, and a lot of other examples.
What’s being missed here is that Gen-X were doing the same thing as Millennials at the same time, except in the workplace rather than school. But they also had the experience of what came before.
Gen Xers didn’t just stop at the “dumb” tech, they were the ones putting the smart tech into practice at work. While millennial students were learning about the Internet, Gen X were building it.
My older Gen X Mom (late 1960s) is one of the most tech illiterate people I know….
Its pretty much Gen X who grew up programming their own games on Amigas on things like that, Milleniums grew up with iPads and game consoles.
When Gen X dies off I’d say the world’s going to have a lot less being fixed all round unless AI gets a lot better.
I, a millennial, was almost 30 when the iPad launched.
There’s quite a span between older and younger millennials. Older millennials were already in college by the time the iPad was released.
And some of the younger ones were too poor to get one. 93 here and I remember growing up using 95/98/XP/Linux rather than iPads.
“Xennials” probably have the most critical problem solving skills applicable to tech. But 80’s/90’s kids were dealing with really new or bad tech while 60’s/70’s kids were dealing with VCRs and ATMs.
Gen X here, can confirm that’s a pretty accurate take
For some reason, the internet has mistaken gen X for boomers with the “ok boomer” meme. Anyone over 40 is a boomer to the young. Completely unbeknownst to the fact that real baby boomers are literal senior home elderly people
Not really. 60 is the youngest boomer. People in their 60s are still on the workforce.
We’re just waiting. See you soon.
Gen X said “fuck it” quickly and lived relatively comfy, selfish lives from their boomer parents funding trips to Woodstock '99 - where they feigned a rebellion, but always with a credit card they didn’t pay for in their pockets and the rent paid.
They pretended to be above or “so over” politics, but in reality that was just a way to forgive themselves the burden of maintaining a decent society. So they willingly let the fire burn and grow out of control so that the millenials would have to deal with it.
After being hit with one life altering tragedy after the next during their prime earning years, many millenials realized they would need to be the sacrificial bridge generation. They resigned to delay or deny a lot of personal happiness/excitement so that they could do everything they could to oppose the second bush (who isn’t actually a nice, harmless man with candy) and get Obama elected.
As the millenials can’t argued homes or children of their own (part of that mentioned sacrifice) The X parents then have the kids that are gen Z later in life. Those Z kids weren’t given any civic direction, personal values or responsibility to community from their perpetually checked out and selfish X parents. So without any tools to smell building or any need to serve other humans, they then dropped the ball this election (he ball that the millenials were sacrificing their own fulfilling lives to be able to hand off to them).
Z was handed the blueprint on a silver platter, so they could literally fix shit by just showing up and acknowledging that nazis are both real and bad. There was actually a point where republicans wouldn’t have won another presidency around 2009, not without a trump emerging to lower the bar and suck the value out of words, concepts and laws. The Republicans are hungry scoundrels and religious zealots though, they wanted it more and were never slowed by legality or morality. So they got to work in earnest starting in 2010 (go watch a film called “slaying the dragon”) and here we are.
Edit: Ha! Scrolled down and saw someone posted a comic that says about exactly what I was expressing, except the Z kid would need to be falling on his face.
I want to make abundantly that Gen Z did not fumble the election, the Democrats did. The Democratic party analyzed the situation much the same way you did, and realized that there was no way the Republicans would ever win over Gen Z, so they took that as opportunity to move further right than Reagan and expose the entire two party system as one large fascist bloc with 2 different sheep dogs.
And Gen Z correctly saw electoralism as a dead end and are actively exploring alternatives.
This is all beautifully stated.
Gen X is the end of SLC Punk. “I’m not selling out, I’m buying in.”
(the ball that the millennials were sacrificing their own fulfilling lives to be able to hand off to them)
OOF. Hits hard.
For those who don’t know, SLC Punk is a movie worth your time, especially at a certain time in life. The spirit is great, but… Stevo is an Xer who ultimately did go to Harvard and dad and mom are boomers (The boomers turned from hippies to yuppies in the 80s).
100%, and it stars Matthew Lillard right after he came out of doing Hackers and Scream. It’s a classic and very heartfelt.
Gen X is a conspiracy. None of them actually exist.
My Canadian girlfriend (well, now wife) is from Gen X - I swear.
Does she exist? Is she real? Are you okay?
She goes to a different school.
Please send help. I moved up here and there’s so many moose.
It’s pronounced meese
Did one bite your sister?
It would’ve, but I fashioned a protective covering of duct tape first.
We took the brunt or everything the Boomers could throw at us. You’re welcome. Its your turn now, we’re tired.
What the hell are Boomers? Some kind of Dark souls boss? We are the Third generation they fuck up!
They got a college education for about $1000 in today money, bought property and homes for $20k today money, and are clinging to power rather than letting anyone younger have a seat at the table. They were born on third base and think they hit a triple. Every other generation is too “lazy” to do what they did, so it must be correct that they hold onto power because we’d just fuck it all up.
The world got handed to them in post-WWII USA while Europe and Asia were rebuilding and they fail to recognize that they were born into an unprecedented situation that is unlikely to repeat. That’s why they’re selfish assholes.
I agree with everything you said but I think one thing that is often overlooked is how the boomers are virtually all lead poisoned. Gen-X and some Millennials as well but the Boomers took the brunt of it. They grew up with lead gas poisoning the air, lead pipes (well, a bigger percentage anyways) poisoning the water, lead tools poisoning the workers, lead bullets poisoning game, and so forth. Lead poisoning does some fucked up stuff to people’s cognitive abilities. The lead problem still exists but the scale of the problem back when the boomers were growing up was on a whole different level.
Exposure to lead can result in a variety of effects upon cognitive functions including deficits in general intellectual functioning, ability to sustain attention on tasks, organization of thinking and behavior, speech articulation, language comprehension and production, learning and memory efficiency, fine motor skills, high activity level, reduced problem solving flexibility and poor behavioral self-control.
https://www.mwph.org/health-services/lead-treatment/poisoning-effects
Also not saying they have an excuse, just saying I think lead poisoning of > 1 sequential generation affected a lot of decisions. Most probably small but all of them adding up to set the stage for our current situation.
They also have a reputation for having dropped all the 60s counterculture idealism as soon as they got a buck, and have been driving the capitalist market for shitty overseas products like it’s a drug addiction. Sorry, is that just my dad? Signed, a Middle Millennial
Ronald Reagan happened to GenX.
Worse than an H Bomb
Here is GenX
41% make up the US House of Representatives 28% make up the US Senate 42% of governors
Some GenXers: Elon Musk Jeff Bezos (squeaked in) Jack Dorsey (Formerly Twitter) Michael Dell (Dell CEO) Satya Nadella (MSFT CEO)
And in 2018, about 40% of F500/Inc500 CEOs were GenX.
So, not missing. We just don’t wear our generational name as a badge. What’s the point?
Nah we are here, just staying out of the drama I guess. Busy working. My guess is we aren’t enough of a market - not the desirable-to-marketers 18-30 age group, and not a huge group with money like the boomers. So we are not targeted as much.
That sounds very plausible
