Talk:Generation X

Years are incorrect - Generation X started in 1961 or 62
I was born in 1964. My both of my Grandfathers fought in World War II, my parents were born in the generation that was part of the boom of babies born during or just after World War II - Baby Boomers. I am most definitely NOT in the same generation as my parents, I am of the generation that followed the Boomers.

The first time I heard the term "Generation X" was about 1983 or '84 and I was in college. I was absolutely a member of the group that was being referred to. I doubt you'll find many people born in 1964 (or '63 or '62 for that matter) who will claim membership in the Baby Boomers.

I think that almost all sources on the topic prior to the mid 90's will prove this definition. Here are two from this WIKI's own sources:

https://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/01/generation_x.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20041024071508/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100500 2601:182:B81:2EF0:5D26:924D:EECC:D223 (talk) 15:08, 27 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I am sympathetic to 1960-1964, as their first opportunity to vote was in the 1980 Carter/Reagan election, and Reagan did color the generation to be more conservative than Boomers or Millennials. But that is WP:OR.
 * The biggest hurdle is redefining Boomers to be other than 1946-1964, the range firmly held by the vast majority of sources.
 * The article presently does go through in some depth the etymology and evolution of the term. At most, a phrase of that could be copied up into the lead.
 * Another possibility would be to draw an analogy to Xennials (aka Star Wars generation -- born 1977-1983 coinciding with the release of the Original Trilogy) and create a new section that describes the cultural overlap between younger Boomers and GenX. But again, that would require finding some WP:RS to avoid WP:OR. Michaelmalak (talk) 15:58, 27 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I discovered the phenomenon I was describing has already been given a name, Generation Jones. So I created a new sub-section.
 * Generation Jones has its own article, and was originally defined as "as those born from 1954 to 1965 in the U.S.". Dimadick (talk) 21:34, 28 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I was born in 1964, my parents being from the previous generation, and I certainly identify with the Baby Boomer generation, not Generation X. I'm not sure that there is a definite cut-off year and I think it might vary geographically anyway. It might be better to take that into account. WyrmUK (talk) 00:36, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure who comes up with the cut off years for generations. I mean its almost arbitrary and no one seems to want to be part of the generation before or after.
 * Interestingly Billy Idol's band was called Generation X and they formed in 1976.
 * Idol was born in 1955 and the band was named after (apparently a 1964 book called Generation X by British journalists Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett which contains interviews with teenagers who were part of the Mod subculture.
 * I actually think Generation X is anyone who was a teen from the late 1970s to the end of the 1980s meaning people born between 1960 and 1976.
 * Why?
 * Well people within any generation, despite being individuals, have to have something significant in common they all shared (or didn't share). People from the late 50s to the early 70s have the same cultural touchstones ... if for nothing else they didn't have tabletop computers or didn't grow up with computers as pre teens and teens. The kids born in the 80s all grew up with computers more or less.
 * Even this is sloppy - I actually think it is kids born between 1960 and 1969. It seems to me to have been coined to define kids (teens and pre teens) who were around in the late 70s. Franko velebitan (talk) 00:09, 9 February 2024 (UTC)
 * It was quite clear from the recoining of the term that it was about a new generation of people born in the 1960s. Not 1979. IMO ... Obama was the first Gen X president and may well turn out to be the only US President to be born in the 1960s. I blame Gen Y - as being the first generation in a long time to have so little idea of the past. A problem that seems to be more and more endemic to modern media. Yes there are obviously many many exceptions - but despite having so much historical knowledge available it's ignored by more and more. So we end up with what I believe is a major failure to understand cultural generational changes. What got me to this page today, was looking up when the DEVO lead singer was born ... 1950 - as boomer as you can get - but DEVO was one of the building blocks of what became Gen X culture. The 70s was filled with proto Gen-Xers whose art was dismantling 1960s cultural concepts to create what became the post modernism of now. 2001:8003:332E:7600:2DDB:3147:A91B:E604 (talk) 11:05, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I was born in 87. But find myself more in common with gen x over fuqin millennials. 216.16.60.57 (talk) 16:20, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Besides the obvious need for a supporting cite, just thinking through it logically, the only way a digital native could have anything in common with GenX is if they were living on a deserted island. The youngest GenX were 13 when NCSA Mosaic was released -- 13 years of childhood development without the Internet. Michaelmalak (talk) 16:31, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

What about...
...Yuppies, Dinks, Goths, New Romantics and the lot? Also notable was the shift from the "hippie drugs" like marijuana and LSD (with a short resurgence at the end of the 1980s due to the trends of House music, Balearic and New Beat) to cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines and other synthetic drugs. Many Gen Xers were also more concerned with environmental issues leading to the founding and growth of Green parties and organizations.

The neoliberal politics of the 1980s in many countries had also a profound effect on the Gen X in the 1990s and 2000s as many Xers embraced the politics and behaviours in later years (especially when entering their 20's and 30's), most obvious with the decline of social structures and behaviours from the 2010s on. 2A02:560:59BD:2E00:A1F3:BB27:DFD3:7C3B (talk) 09:39, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

Auto-archiving period: 60 days
Please extend the auto-archiving for this talk page. Drsruli (talk) 23:13, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 June 2024
Hi, just thought I would suggest mentioning each generation's age ranges when 9/11 happened, though I understand that knowing how each one reacted isn't something anyone could generalize. Thanks.

Matt Oldschoolmetalhead1977 (talk) 20:29, 12 June 2024 (UTC)


 * Can you provide a citation? We wouldn't want WP:OR Michaelmalak (talk) 20:58, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.  JTP (talk • contribs) 01:01, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 June 2024
Please change 1980 to 1981 (1981 is GenX not Millennial!) 185.249.154.43 (talk) 12:37, 15 June 2024 (UTC)


 * 1981 is already mentioned as a possible end date - where the Brookings definition is cited Michaelmalak (talk) 14:07, 15 June 2024 (UTC)