this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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It makes much more sense when a generation boundary is marked by some sort of significant societal shift. Like Boomers are people born after WWII ended. I guess Gen X kinda makes sense being defined as a generation that grew up after the civil rights act and the establishment of rock & roll. But it seems like there should also be something between that and the internet, because as you say there’s a difference in late Gen X. Maybe the advent of video games should be a cutoff. Someone who grew up with video games and VCRs in the 80s has a pretty different experience from someone who grew up in the 70s.
I've always been told the defining turn from boomers to Gen X was the end of the boom. Readily available birth control for men and women made family planning the norm. Gen X just doesn't get a fancy name because they never got there "define with this" phenomena
That makes sense as a reason too. I think the 60s saw an undeniable cultural shift. The 80s is harder to pinpoint and yet I don’t know anyone born in the last years of the 70s that is comfortable with being grouped with Gen X without caveats.
i'm late gen x (78), that's more comfortable to me than being lumped with millennials. (the caveat being, i suppose, that we're dissimilar in some respects from early gen x.)
internet was not widely available until about the time i started college, and gen x media defined popular culture at that time. i also relate to the notion of being the child of two working parents - the first generation of latchkey kids.
i tend to see millennials as people who were kids when i was in school - and they grew up with the internet.
Worth noting that Douglas Copeland who wrote the book Generation X that gives the generation it's name cut it off in 1974 if I recall correctly.
I was born in 77. I am the Star Wars generation.
'78
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