Comments on: When does Gen X end and Gen Y begin?

By: KMeg

KMeg — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:14:00 +0000

Great comments! I love what you had to say, Tj , and thank you Eylsa for citing so many sources in your blog that shows the confusion of generational lines. I was just going off on my blog about Millennials (and the tendency towards entitlement, argh!) and how irritating it is to be on the very blurry line that is XY. I am smack in the middle of the “unknown” being born in 1979. I like who I am, can appreciate the positives of those above and below me, so I suppose the honest answer is I am irritated by those in both generations who lack responsibility to self and their commitments, expect hand-outs regardless of need or effort, and the seeming lack common sense all the way around.

Thanks for shedding light on the XYers out there!

By: Crazygingi

Crazygingi — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:50:00 +0000

1976 here. Love your comment. It was like my life flashed before my eyes:-)

By: Ccrazygingi

Ccrazygingi — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:34:00 +0000

Born in 1976, I a a cusper. Harry potter reference proves you are gen y.

By: Ccrazygingi

Ccrazygingi — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Having been born in 1976, I agree with most of your comments. I consider myself to be on the XY cusp.

I would also say anyone born in 1982 is clearly gen y. My sister was born in 1980 and there is a recognizable difference.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:11:00 +0000

I just looked at the Pew report and none of what you say is accurate :-/
32% of Y thinks gay marriage is bad for society, while 36% of X thinks the same… 4% difference. 59% of Y think that single women raising children is bad for society, and only 54% of X. You’re trying to say that one group is more tolerant than the other, but each has it’s own set of issues, and the majority of each is totally fine with gay marriage.

You also seem to think that a huge wave of Y dropped religion, when the number of atheists and agnostics for Y is 3% and 4% respectively, and for X it’s 2% and 2%.

X even has higher marks in their approval ratings for Obama :-/

So… WTF yo?

The truth is, there has been a population shift over the last 30+ years toward urban living rather than rural, and urbanites have generally always been more liberal — Generation Y is the continuation of that trend.

Personally, I don’t think you have anything in common with either generation. I don’t have anything in common with you, and you seem to dislike Gen X, so you clearly have nothing in common with them, either.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:39:00 +0000

I am a Gen Xer because I am:

1. Tech savvy.
2. Support ALL kinds of diversity.
3. Into the latest music and entertainment.
4. Patient.
5. Want a job.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:10:00 +0000

Holy crap, where are you getting this stuff?! Gen X thought bar codes were the devil? They’re the first computer generation, they’re the genesis of what we currently think of as computer savvy youth. Haven’t you seen War Games, that movie was all about teenage hackers that were mucking up the world in the early 80s… the whole hacker/computer culture of today comes from those kids. Look up Legion of Doom and the hacker wars of the 80s/90s. I have the entire back catalog of 2600 magazine because my cousin used to read them when he was in his teens and twenties and gave them to me — he is solidly Generation X.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:51:00 +0000

I totally agree with you. I find it very odd that there are some Gen Y kids on here that seem to think Generation X is somehow totally different from them, when in reality Generation X is their prototype (Generation Y used to be called Generation X Lite, I think). X kids are where much of current culture comes from. I have a cousin who used to babysit me and my sister in the later 80s, he is the first person I ever knew who built his own computers, he also was always into video games and I love the music he listened to. If I could post a picture here, I have one of him sitting in front of his Macintosh in the early 90s, and I swear if his monitor didn’t look so outdated, you could not tell that it was taken almost 20 years ago. He’s also the person I called when we had our first LAN parties in 1998 and couldn’t get anything working. I don’t know his exact age, just that he graduated from high school in 88 or 89. I totally don’t get why other kids don’t realize this, I think maybe the early 1970 just seem like an ancient time to be alive or something.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:27:00 +0000

I think I’d like to add that he has a point about them being a buffer between the old Boomer world and the modern world. Generation X really did change the world a lot more than they get credit for. If not for them, Generation Y would not be the happy go luck kids that they are. Boomers and their parents dragged America into a very bad place (Vietnam, killed the auto industry, the oil crisis, etc.), Generation X rebuilt it into something good again — why do people love to say how awesome the world was in the 90s, but never seem to realize *why* it was so awesome? (Edit: I’m technically Y but identify much more with X).

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:27:00 +0000