Generation X (1965-1980)

[James Nored]

Here is the next generation--Gen X--in the Generations series.

Generation X (1965-1980)
- 46 million (added to with immigration) as opposed to 80 million Boomers, 78 million Millennials
- Parents: Silent and Boomer
- Children - Millennial and Digitals

1. Well-Known/Significant Gen Xers

• President - Barak Obama*   *(Note - President Obama was actually born in 1961; however, some generational studies start Gen X at 1961, and Obama has generally been refered to in the news as the first Gen X president.)
• Tiger Woods, Kurt Cobain, Jewel, Drew Barrymore, Marilyn Manson, Will Smith, Andy Wachowski, Pamela Anderson, Jennifer Aniston, Matt Damon, Quentin Tarantino, Jon Stewart, Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Dave Ferguson

2. Shaping/Coming of Age Events for Gen Xers

• 1973 - Roe vs. Wade - Most Aborted Generation
• 1970s- Bad economy, Bad politics, Bad cars/manufacturing (& Bad Fashion and Hair)
• 1974 - Watergate/Nixon brought down by Woodward and Bernstein (press)
• 1977-80 - Carter Recession
• 1980s - MTV/Music Videos/Cable Generation, Rise of Gangster Rap, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal Bands
• 1981 - Ronald Reagan era begins; discovery of AIDS
• 1983 - The Day After (Fear of Atomic War
• 1986 - Space Shuttle Explosion
• 1990s - Friends, Seinfeld, Alternative Rock, Grunge, Nirvana
• 1991 - Persian Gulf War

3. Later Events/Accomplishments of Gen Xers

• Technology! - First generation to grow up with personal computers; builders of  programs/programmers, IT specialists; connected; 95 percent have a Facebook account
• Google, Youtube, Amazon; 
• The Internet Generation - networked, decentralized authority and leadership, interconnected web
• Gen Xer Movies - Sex, Lies, & Videotape, Fight Club, Matrix, Pulp Fiction, The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, Reality Bites, Natural Born Killers, The Truman Show, Good Will Hunting, Office Space; Fast Food Nation; search for meaning or expose lack of meaning/randomness/violence/irony in life

4. Characteristics/Values of Gen Xers

• 13th Generation since founding of the country; grew up in shadow of Boomers
• Cynical/Survivalists/Self-Reliant/Independent - Do not expect help from any institutions, pensions, or any Social Security, Medicare
• Adaptable/Entrepreneurs/Pragmatic/Get-it-Done Doers”/Highly Educated
• Divorce/Latchkey Generation - From 1965 to 1985, the number of U.S. divorces exploded from just over 300,000 to nearly 1.2 million, so an estimated 40 percent of Gen Xers are children of divorce, compared to 11 percent of boomers
• Postmodern Generation-multicultural, multi-ethnic, pluralistic, more accepting of alternative lifestyles; see shades of gray; value community, authenticity, relationships, experience
• Post-religious (more spiritual) and rise of New Age; post-political; post-racial
• Fiercely protective parents and family-oriented, less focused on material things, and higher work/family balance than Boomers
• First generation to go down in primary breadwinner income; dramatic rise of two income working families

5. Significant Quotes - “Whatever, dude” and “Whatever works”; “Starved for affection, terrified of abandonment, I began to wonder if sex was really just an excuse to look deeply into another human being's eyes.” ― Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

What do you see are the strengths of Gen X? The challenges? The biblical values?

[Chancellor C. Roberts II]

I was born in October 1963, less than a month before JFK was assassinated, which means I'm too young to remember when I was when that defining event in the life of boomers took place. I relate much more to Gen-X. My parents were never married. When I went to live with my dad's cousin a few months after my mom died, I was a latchkey kid and had a lot of household responsibilities (while my dad's cousin, who later adopted me, was either working or going to school; she had divorced not long before I went to live with her). I actually remember the Carter recession and had the misfortune of being in high school during the disco era. I was stationed aboard USS New Orleans (LPH-11) when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. I'm also a veteran of the Persian Gulf War (I was in the Navy from 1981 to 1992). My childhood experiences made me fiercely independent and self-reliant. So, while I might technically be a baby boomer, my experiences were very definitely Gen-X.

[James Nored]

@Darryl - Thanks, Darryl! Good Resources. Thanks for sharing! Millennials are of course my next generational post. They are most like the Senior/GI Generation in many ways, as Strauss and Howe would have predicted in their 4 generation cycle theory. How are they similar? Well, not in their communication medium, obviously, but in their concern for global and civic issues. But more on them later. Thanks for the Graves resource too.

[Darryl Willis]

@James --I'm gonna stop...I promise!

Did you realize it was Doug Coupland who coined the phrase Generation X through that group of short stories of his? He also wrote a wonderful novel that followed Life After God. I highly recommend it.

[Darryl Willis]

@James and yes, it is very easy to take these general descriptions personally. But honestly, I have to admit both the negative and positive descriptions of the Boomers have an awful lot of truth that hit many of us between the eyes. We may take some things personally because ouch! that hurts!!!

8^)

However, yes, these general descriptions do not describe everyone!

[Darryl Willis]

*correction* next to last sentence:

"But you can also access Grave's theory on the internet fairly easily--as Maslow's later addition to the hierarchy of needs." should read "But you can also access Grave's theory on the internet fairly easily--as well as Maslow's latter addition..."

[Darryl Willis]

Good points all around.

@James Point well taken about too much negativity being laid at the feet of the younger generations. As a boomer I can say the boomers were also very driven, success oriented, and materialistic--we were the protest generation that gave up the protest when we saw how much fun it was to make money! And the older boomers demanded their children become "little adults" because of their need (divorce rate) while middle boomers turned their children into little precocious adults to show how great parents they were (See David Elkind's The Hurried Child and the sequel All Grown Up with No Place to Go).

I would say the millennials are incredible workers who may be self-absorbed, but tend to be very concerned about global issues and caring for the planet and the diverse people who populate it (I'm the father of two millennials and I speak from my interactions with many millennials).

Gen Xers have been given something of a bum rap, too in general by society. They saw corporate greed and they saw how their boomer parents neglected the family because of their idolatry of money and idolatry of the companies they worked for. That's one of the reasons they had no loyalty to companies because they saw corporate and individual greed as part of the reason why their families were destroyed.

But while generational studies are helpful in the broad strokes, there are other ways to examine and explain characteristics of people. Graves came up with a scale very similar to Maslow (and in fact, influenced Maslow to change the final pinnacle of his "hierarchy of needs" to include an open space above "self-actualization" labeled "transformation"). His scale was numerical from 1-8. Even numbers tend to be group/relational oriented while odd numbers are more individualistic. These numbers are not set--you progress from one to another as experience dictates the need. This is a very helpful examination and discussion to consider--although probably not in this string of discussion!

For a popular reading of Graves theory (applied to church leadership) try Mike Armour's book System Sensitive Leadership published (I think) by College Press. But you can also access Grave's theory on the internet fairly easily--as Maslow's later addition to the hierarchy of needs.

Sorry, I know I get a bit long winded (or long-inked...or long digitalized...never mind...) 8^)

[James Nored]

@Darryl - good point about the generational studies being broad brushes. People react sometimes personally against something when it may not describe them as individuals. 

[James Nored]

@Apostle - Thanks for sharing. I would say that those descriptions are overly negative on younger generations and overly positive on older generations. Note again the omittance of racism in the descriptions of older generations, for instance. As a Gen Xer, I also say that:

• Gen X is not conversationally shallow at all. I would say that their conversations are more real, frank, and "authentic." (Not just talking about the weather.)
• "Lack of loyalty" to a company, for instance, is the result of companies having absolutely no loyalties to workers, with outsourcing, constant downsizing, the elimination of pensions that Boomers and above had, etc.
• "Self-absorbed and wary of commitment"--well, that is a relative term, especially compared to the Millennials, who register off the charts on narcissism; and does not being the children of divorce, abuse, and abandonment make people more introspective and less naturally trusting?

Again, every generation has strengths and weaknesses, biblical and unbiblical values and tendencies. I for one am glad that I do not live in a highly racist, segregated society that my parents grew up in. Others are glad that they did not grow up in the sexually broken world that was thrust upon Gen Xers by  their parents.

[Darryl Willis]

Fascinating in that I've recently been going back over the generational differences for a variety of reasons (and have even broached the subject about how different cultures might experience generational differences in their culture (e.g., former Soviet nations who have a clear generational division not unlike some of ours and yet very, very different). Before I noticed this posting I had just spoke with my millennial daughter about how these are broad generic strokes and one has to be careful about holding hard and fast in order to avoid stereotyping. I've noted that many "emergent" theologians who are very close to Gen X were actually born in the middle of the Boom (i.e., Brian MacLaren I believe was born in the 50s). I liked the way James Cheoung says it: Boomers ask, What is truth? Gen X asks, What is real (authentic)? Millennials ask, What is good (for the globe and people)?

[James Nored]

@Apostle - I was not specifically talking about slavery, though we could have that discussion. I was talking about mistreatment of people and racism of the other generations in the series - Seniors, Silent generation-times which are often hallowed as the "golden age," And just because there is a rationale, that does not make it correct, right?