MetaChat - Peeve of the Day:

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01 February 2007

Peeve of the Day: The vast and thorough misuse by the popular media of the term "Generation X" to refer to people in their twenties. →[More:]A generation is defined by birth year, and GenX's falls somewhere between 1963 and 1973, give or take a few years depending on definition. That means GenX is in their [our] late 30s and early 40s. I don't want those young whippersnappers taking away my generation name! (And get off my lawn, while you're at it.)

post by: matildaben at: 15:33 | 33 comments

I'm with you 100% on this.

And I blame the Boomers for this as they refuse to accept that they're getting older. And they control the media.

posted by seanyboy 01 February | 15:36

Agreed, more or less. My way of defining it is that anybody who was born after the Bicentennial or Elvis' death is not my generational peer.

posted by jonmc 01 February | 15:40

I haven't heard the term GenX or Generation X in at least 5 years, more like 10. Then again I don't read newspapers and barely watch tv.

posted by iconomy 01 February | 15:45

thank you! not only do I resent this form of pigeonholing / media 'tagging' but GODDAMMIT GenX is MY generation.

/grumpily turns 39 this year, turns hose on damn kids

posted by lonefrontranger 01 February | 15:45

Is this something I'd have to be an oldie to understand?

posted by chrismear 01 February | 15:46

I was griping about this same thing just the other day. Also griping about my sciatica.

*takes kids' baseball from yard; won't give it back*

posted by scody 01 February | 15:47

Hey, it's even worse for us - someone (I'm blaming Pepsi) decided that we're Generation Next. Ugh. ("We" being young professionals to freshman in high school, ish)

So if Generation X ends in 1975 (late 30s), and Generation Next starts around 1982 (mid 20s), what's the generation in between?

posted by muddgirl 01 February | 15:49

I'm 18 years old.
What generation am I?

posted by CitrusFreak12 01 February | 15:50

It's easy for this boomer to keep the Gen X thing straight. My kids are Gen X, and they're pissed about it. Can't say I blame them, but I've never felt they were fair in blaming me for that.

It was their mother that didn't want to wait ten years.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 15:50

I don't think it's just the Boomers getting old, though. I was reading an essay written by a college student, which said something like, "When my parents were in college, back in the 80s," and it seemed COMPLETELY IMPROBABLE to me that someone who was in college in the 80s would now have college-aged children. Then I did the math, then I felt old, then I shook my fist impotently at the whippersnappers on my lawn.

posted by occhiblu 01 February | 15:53

Here's a list of the generation names (on the right thar).

posted by iconomy 01 February | 15:55

"Internet Generation"

YES!!!
YES!!!11!1!!one!1!eleven

I WIN!!!
U R TEH SUX0RZ!!
::slaps self::

Sorry about that...

posted by CitrusFreak12 01 February | 15:58

So if Generation X ends in 1975 (late 30s)

31-32 is "late 30s"?

Let's not get aheada ourselves here.

posted by furiousdork 01 February | 15:59

I just decided that I want to be paid to name generations. Where do I apply for this job?

posted by iconomy 01 February | 16:01

Huh, generation Y? Boomerang generation? Generation XY? DEAR GOD I HAVE NO LABEL!!

posted by muddgirl 01 February | 16:04

*turns on Matlock, opens up cans of peaches, passes them to fellow Gen-X'ers*

posted by jonmc 01 February | 16:05

Generation F U

posted by mullacc 01 February | 16:14

generation meh

* shrugs *

posted by dodgygeezer 01 February | 16:16

I thought I was Generation X (1979).

I guess I'm not cool enough for the club.

*sniff*

*sniff*

*Takes ball, goes home.*

posted by drezdn 01 February | 16:19

I always considered myself to be part of Generation Hennessy.

posted by Hugh Janus 01 February | 16:25

Maybe 75-85 could be the "Jilted Generation"

posted by drezdn 01 February | 16:27

I guess I'm right on the cusp of Generation X then. 75 was a good year.

And yeah! 31 isn't late 30s, yo!

posted by gaspode 01 February | 16:33

I am a proud member of Generation OH MY FUCKING LORD THAT DUDE IS TOTALLY HUMPING A WATERMELON...

I was born in 1975, for reference.

posted by Divine_Wino 01 February | 16:59

somehow I am completely freaked out by the fact that divine_wino is six years younger than me.

posted by scody 01 February | 17:07

Somehow I am completely freaked out that Divine_Wino is TOTALLY HUMPING A WATERMELON!

posted by Hugh Janus 01 February | 17:08

GenerationX and a BabyBuster. Yay me.

posted by deborah 01 February | 17:14

Clean livin' Scody mah dear, I attribute my young age entirely to daily prayer, always eating breakfast and avoiding gratuitous oaths and blasphemy.

I TOTALLY HUMPED A WATERMELON and then I ran like the very dickens, Hugh, like Jesus H. Dickens himself, praise be unto him.

Although I very much wish that I was a member of Generation Dog Tricycle.

posted by Divine_Wino 01 February | 17:14

I bet you could make a tricycle like that with horses or oxen that could smash the gates of Parliament and spread havoc across the land.

posted by Hugh Janus 01 February | 17:19

I look like I humped a watermelon and am internally ripening its large, sweet progeny.

I'm currently reviewing a book on how to market to baby boomer women and the generalizations made about them (They all love Oprah! They belong to the Red Hat Society! They go to chick flicks!) are making real happy to be Gen X right about now. Even if I am older than the Wino.

posted by jrossi4r 01 February | 17:48

They belong to the Red Hat Society!

*shivers*

posted by scody 01 February | 17:53

Generation Y-ers are called "Wires" because they live in the Wired Age, which is actually Wireless. Though maybe we should be called Generation 2, because we're more like Tubers. Definitely not Big Truckers.

Tomorrow's bet peeve? People still harping on the "series of tubes" thing.

posted by Eideteker 01 February | 18:30

A while ago, I made a post here about generational identity, and whether folks thought of themselves as boomers or x-ers or y-ers or whatnot. I don't think I ever posted it, because I'm the sort of slacker who manages to be just slightly too young for the commonly-agreed-upon X markers.

(I was born in 1976--late 1976, jonmc--for what it's worth.)

posted by box 01 February | 19:08

Card-carrying member of Generation X here. Born in 1973. And 33 is late 30s only if you're Jessica Simpson. ; )

posted by sisterhavana 02 February | 01:35

← I'm going to a Zen monastery for the weekend! || Today, February 1, 2007, I decided to become a cynical commercial whore. →

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