Where do you sit on "the animal of a life"? More specifically, what "generation" are you—and do you fit in with your demographic compatriots? An open thread...
I am one of the “Lucky Few” albeit the tail’s end. Am I lucky? I guess so. Yes, I entered the military as an officer and served in foreign war. Lucky that war I participated in was in the Dominican Republic, not Vietnam - lucky!. I wad shot at but not wounded and I received my honorable discharge in 2 years - lucky!
I had my own consulting firm for over 15 years and enjoyed attempting to protect the environment. Probably was at least 20 years too early since the world is just beginning to wake up to the reality of Climate Change - unlucky for me and everyone else living on Mother Earth.
I am 81, healthy, and financially comfortable - at least somewhat lucky. I am still married to my 1st wife for 47 years - very lucky!
1969, and I fit - I'm a total Gen X. Independent, suspicious, and rolling their eyes at the Boomer/Millennial drama. Latch key 1970s kid reading "Flowers in the Attic" in 3rd grade and watching "Apocalypse Now" when I was like 8. Parents who paid zero attention to what I was doing/reading/watching/even where I was. I can make my own entertainment w/o media distractions and I don't mind just sitting in a chair and chilling out. That may be that I'm just old now! But I'm glad my brain formed before social media, phones, and even home computers, really.
I’m a ”baby boomer”, 1946. (But I prefer to self-identify as MidCentury Modern.) In some ways I fit in, but in others I don’t. Now that I think about it, I’ve been pretty much that way all my life, fitting in at times, out in left field at others!
Born in 1965, I am glad to see the Generation Jones choice. I knew I wasn’t a Boomer, and just identified as Gen X because that’s where my values are more aligned. I recently read a description of Gen Xers that resonated: we acted like we were 30 when we were 8, and we act like we’re 30 now that we are 50. I can remember seeing that commercial about littering with the Native American man with the tear running down his cheek, and then looking at my mom ironing pillowcases and thinking, “What are we even DOING about this stuff??”
Gen X is 1965-1980, so you are already considered to be within the generation, just on the very oldest end. There is a pretty big difference, of course, between an Xer born in '65 and one born in '80.
Beth, I was EXACTLY the same. I saw the commercials and learned about extinction in my public school which put great fear into my sensitive heart. I used to run around the house shutting off lights and telling my mom not to let the water run while she brushed her teeth. That definitely hasn’t changed.
Thanks for the mention, dearest friend. My comment is two sentences. The past is still always happening. Every day I wake up and invent what I have to live for. All narrative is a contemplation of memory, whether the memory is of five minutes ago or 50 years ago, we layer our associations between then and the way we feel now, in the moment of speaking on the page. I think Oldster is a glorious contemplation of remembering we will die, and we remember we will die in between the times we forget we will die, and when we remember we will die we know we must decide as much as is possible how we want to live in whatever time is left to us. As you age, there is more time to look back on and exactly the same relationship to forming a life out of the values one has gathered up until then. I think what you're doing here is great and original.
Born 1936 - definitely silent generation. I think this fits; although after 87 years, noone would now consider me silent! Typical - had children WAY too young; non-typical, not one of the Lucky Few!. Now, so many of my generation are vocal activists, fighting for change and securing our democracy (as fragile as that is). I went to the Peace Corps at age 80. So we might have started out silent - but now you can hear us roar. On the animal of life, I am at the tail of a very health dinosaur!
I'm a later GenX ('77), and I mostly feel it. I grew up without a computer (until late teens), took TYPING in high school, had Home Ec, loved Downtown Julie Brown and the MTV crew (remember when they played videos?). But I also tend to resist generation or decade packaging. There are common themes that affect a group of people in time, but there are so many variables and exclusions. Is Generation Jones applicable to people of color who were literally red lined out of purchasing housing at the time? Sometimes the generational divide is just that. A division.
Our generational place also carries weight in our memories. I don't remember Jimmy Carter's presidency, and I barely remember Regan's even though he was in power until 89, when I was 12. I came of age during HIV/AIDS but my suburban whiteness shielded me from a lot of the coverage. I'm pre-internet but tech savvy now. Sinead's passing was a gut punch.
It's definitely an interesting topic to consider, and people have a lot of strong opinions about what generation they belong. Thanks for this thought-provoking read!!
I’m at the beginning of the “millennial” designation and definitely want to interrogate the social construction of these generational boundaries! In terms of economics I absolutely feel millennial- which is to say, crunched at every turn and unable to buy a house because my parents weren’t homeowners, but also still paying off student loans. Also pretty pissed at boomers for the whole climate change situation tbh.
But even though I remember rotary phones (my grandma had one!) I am also friends with a lot of Gen Z folks- I used to teach college and seeing how the young’uns have begun to interrogate society gives me so much hope that things are going to change for the better.
I feel like millennials are a strange blend of wanting the economic safety of their parents’ generation while also (deep down) knowing that it’s never going to happen- scared to challenge the status quo even though we know that the status quo is untenable. Whereas Gen Z basically grew up in the dystopia and can see our flawed economic and social systems without the illusion of “safety” that millennials were raised to expect by their boomer parents.
Born '92, and I definitely identify solidly as a millennial. Agree with everything you said, esp. re: the climate situation - I'm anxious about it constantly. Gen Z is so much braver and cooler than we were in our teens/20s, which is both a privilege and a responsibility. I only hope the earth survives to see them all come of age and make it a more habitable, equitable place.
Gen X all the way! And my partner, who’s 60, is definitely Generation Jones. As for the hog, I’m gonna vote for the intestines, as gross as that may sound. I’m not in the belly where lots of new input is coming in all the time. I’m more in the processing and sifting stage. Putting to use what is useful and trying my best to release what isn’t, if that makes any sense.
I'm part of the Silent Generation. When I was in elementary school, I was aware there were meetings at my house, but I was instructed to say upstairs. I was not involved in the conversation or allowed to socialize with the company downstairs, even though there were family friends in the group. I learned later that what I thought were parties were meetings.
I was a red diaper baby. I was sent once a week to a candy store to buy the Daily Worker, fold it in half so the masthead did not show and bring it home.
My father enlisted in the Navy during World War II. He was the oldest man on his ship. I missed him. I don't think that my mother missed him. During the war, men could take a break from domestic responsibilities and difficult marriages.
When I started high school, my mother told me to keep my mouth shut, especially in social studies classes. She was a math teacher, one of many suspected ex-and-current Communists who were investigated by a special New York City schools committee. She never told me what was going on, but I figured it out myself. She must have thought silence meant safety.
During the Vietnam War, I was part of the group of protestors who gathered at the town train station every weekend. I reviewed books and wrote articles for a feminist newspaper. I became involved in local politics. Born in 1939, I may be part of the Silent Generation but In fact I am a chanter, a marcher, a letter-to-the-editor write. Silence? Bah.
I was born on July 1, 1964 -- and people try, but no one's gonna tell me I missed Gen X by 6 months on the dot! Uh uh, no way, I read that book as soon as it came out (uh, Douglas Coupland was born in '61), I am SO Gen X! Kamala Harris: born in '64. Michelle Obama: born in '64... don't quote me, but I think I've heard both say they X-identify. I am gonna squeak in with THEM.
oh, thank you! Neglected to say I'm thinking about the Generation Jones thing AND what someone else mentioned, that post-Kennedy assassination would be the line for a new gen. I feel that, that makes sense to me.
Also we older Gen Xers -- we didn't have a youth culture. Being early '20s in the mid-'80s, yuppie time, youth culture was about people who already had fancy jobs, who CARED about fancy jobs, ugh. You could rebel all you wanted, but it wouldn't be Zeitgeist again till the early '90s, that was one bare patch of time to try and be young! Oh, just another reason I think we get a pass...
Born in 1966, so early Gen X. I definitely feel it in my sarcastic sense of humor, general distrust of mainstream opinion/thought, and overwhelming suspicion that I was born too late to participate in the good times. I do appreciate that I didn’t have a smartphone until my 40s, requiring me to be good with directions, buy books and records, and navigate a card catalog. All good life skills that I try to impart to my Gen Z kids.
Being born in 1983, I am what the literature calls a “geriatric millennial.” My wife, born in 1979, sits at the tail end of Gen X. If we don’t see eye to eye on an issue, I’ll just say “you Gen Xers just don’t understand us millennials.”
Thanks for this interesting piece. I had just recently come across the term Generation Jones and I was glad for it, as born in 1960, I don't feel a kinship with many of the Baby Boomer traits, being on the tail end. Definitely have some Gen X traits thrown into my makeup.
I am also glad to know of Generation Jones...I had not heard the term until reading this article. Born in 1961, I always felt out of step with the Boomers but denied an invitation to Gen X, though my "type" leans more forward than backward. The description is apt. Thank you.
JFK's assassination is often one of the first "I remember exactly where it was when it happened" memories of boomer kids; it is very much associated with that generation. My boomer mother was 11 years old at the time, I, a Gen Xer, was not even a thought in anyone's mind. There was no Gen Xer who was even born when this pivotal event occurred.
I divide them by turning points that changed the country emotionally-- for me, X is born between JFK dying and Reagan being sworn in, Millennials are 1981 to 9/11, and Zs are 9/11 to pandemic. Born in 1967, complete GenX!
What an interesting way to think about it! While born in 1960, I think of JFK's assassination in 1963 as a pivotal emotional turning point for the country I was born into and associate more with X than with Baby Boomer.
Interesting conversation! I'm technically a Boomer (1963), don't fit with most Boomer stereotypes, but also not really GenX. Does anyone talk about our siblings and birth order with this--thinking that if we are on younger end of the birth order, do we age up closer to the older siblings category or rather, does the family dynamic shift over time so that the youngers essentially experience things differently?
I am one of the “Lucky Few” albeit the tail’s end. Am I lucky? I guess so. Yes, I entered the military as an officer and served in foreign war. Lucky that war I participated in was in the Dominican Republic, not Vietnam - lucky!. I wad shot at but not wounded and I received my honorable discharge in 2 years - lucky!
I had my own consulting firm for over 15 years and enjoyed attempting to protect the environment. Probably was at least 20 years too early since the world is just beginning to wake up to the reality of Climate Change - unlucky for me and everyone else living on Mother Earth.
I am 81, healthy, and financially comfortable - at least somewhat lucky. I am still married to my 1st wife for 47 years - very lucky!
Ok, count me in as one of the lucky few.
Good to hear from a representative of "The Lucky Few" Edward! <3
1969, and I fit - I'm a total Gen X. Independent, suspicious, and rolling their eyes at the Boomer/Millennial drama. Latch key 1970s kid reading "Flowers in the Attic" in 3rd grade and watching "Apocalypse Now" when I was like 8. Parents who paid zero attention to what I was doing/reading/watching/even where I was. I can make my own entertainment w/o media distractions and I don't mind just sitting in a chair and chilling out. That may be that I'm just old now! But I'm glad my brain formed before social media, phones, and even home computers, really.
Same. I feel we played by the same rulebook. We were the last generation to understand what it means to sell out.
Flowers in the Attic! What a memory. I'm also GenX. Latch key kid. I never did watch Apocalypse Now, though.
I’m a ”baby boomer”, 1946. (But I prefer to self-identify as MidCentury Modern.) In some ways I fit in, but in others I don’t. Now that I think about it, I’ve been pretty much that way all my life, fitting in at times, out in left field at others!
Mid Century Modern! Ha. I love it.
Definitely relate.
Same here, I can totally relate.
Born in 1965, I am glad to see the Generation Jones choice. I knew I wasn’t a Boomer, and just identified as Gen X because that’s where my values are more aligned. I recently read a description of Gen Xers that resonated: we acted like we were 30 when we were 8, and we act like we’re 30 now that we are 50. I can remember seeing that commercial about littering with the Native American man with the tear running down his cheek, and then looking at my mom ironing pillowcases and thinking, “What are we even DOING about this stuff??”
Gen X is 1965-1980, so you are already considered to be within the generation, just on the very oldest end. There is a pretty big difference, of course, between an Xer born in '65 and one born in '80.
Beth, I was EXACTLY the same. I saw the commercials and learned about extinction in my public school which put great fear into my sensitive heart. I used to run around the house shutting off lights and telling my mom not to let the water run while she brushed her teeth. That definitely hasn’t changed.
Thanks for the mention, dearest friend. My comment is two sentences. The past is still always happening. Every day I wake up and invent what I have to live for. All narrative is a contemplation of memory, whether the memory is of five minutes ago or 50 years ago, we layer our associations between then and the way we feel now, in the moment of speaking on the page. I think Oldster is a glorious contemplation of remembering we will die, and we remember we will die in between the times we forget we will die, and when we remember we will die we know we must decide as much as is possible how we want to live in whatever time is left to us. As you age, there is more time to look back on and exactly the same relationship to forming a life out of the values one has gathered up until then. I think what you're doing here is great and original.
I love those two sentences! And thank you.
Born 1936 - definitely silent generation. I think this fits; although after 87 years, noone would now consider me silent! Typical - had children WAY too young; non-typical, not one of the Lucky Few!. Now, so many of my generation are vocal activists, fighting for change and securing our democracy (as fragile as that is). I went to the Peace Corps at age 80. So we might have started out silent - but now you can hear us roar. On the animal of life, I am at the tail of a very health dinosaur!
🦕
I'm a later GenX ('77), and I mostly feel it. I grew up without a computer (until late teens), took TYPING in high school, had Home Ec, loved Downtown Julie Brown and the MTV crew (remember when they played videos?). But I also tend to resist generation or decade packaging. There are common themes that affect a group of people in time, but there are so many variables and exclusions. Is Generation Jones applicable to people of color who were literally red lined out of purchasing housing at the time? Sometimes the generational divide is just that. A division.
Our generational place also carries weight in our memories. I don't remember Jimmy Carter's presidency, and I barely remember Regan's even though he was in power until 89, when I was 12. I came of age during HIV/AIDS but my suburban whiteness shielded me from a lot of the coverage. I'm pre-internet but tech savvy now. Sinead's passing was a gut punch.
It's definitely an interesting topic to consider, and people have a lot of strong opinions about what generation they belong. Thanks for this thought-provoking read!!
I’m at the beginning of the “millennial” designation and definitely want to interrogate the social construction of these generational boundaries! In terms of economics I absolutely feel millennial- which is to say, crunched at every turn and unable to buy a house because my parents weren’t homeowners, but also still paying off student loans. Also pretty pissed at boomers for the whole climate change situation tbh.
But even though I remember rotary phones (my grandma had one!) I am also friends with a lot of Gen Z folks- I used to teach college and seeing how the young’uns have begun to interrogate society gives me so much hope that things are going to change for the better.
I feel like millennials are a strange blend of wanting the economic safety of their parents’ generation while also (deep down) knowing that it’s never going to happen- scared to challenge the status quo even though we know that the status quo is untenable. Whereas Gen Z basically grew up in the dystopia and can see our flawed economic and social systems without the illusion of “safety” that millennials were raised to expect by their boomer parents.
Also Millennial here and you summed it up beautifully 😅
Born '92, and I definitely identify solidly as a millennial. Agree with everything you said, esp. re: the climate situation - I'm anxious about it constantly. Gen Z is so much braver and cooler than we were in our teens/20s, which is both a privilege and a responsibility. I only hope the earth survives to see them all come of age and make it a more habitable, equitable place.
Gen X all the way! And my partner, who’s 60, is definitely Generation Jones. As for the hog, I’m gonna vote for the intestines, as gross as that may sound. I’m not in the belly where lots of new input is coming in all the time. I’m more in the processing and sifting stage. Putting to use what is useful and trying my best to release what isn’t, if that makes any sense.
Intestines...love it! (Makes me think of stuffed derma.)
I'm part of the Silent Generation. When I was in elementary school, I was aware there were meetings at my house, but I was instructed to say upstairs. I was not involved in the conversation or allowed to socialize with the company downstairs, even though there were family friends in the group. I learned later that what I thought were parties were meetings.
I was a red diaper baby. I was sent once a week to a candy store to buy the Daily Worker, fold it in half so the masthead did not show and bring it home.
My father enlisted in the Navy during World War II. He was the oldest man on his ship. I missed him. I don't think that my mother missed him. During the war, men could take a break from domestic responsibilities and difficult marriages.
When I started high school, my mother told me to keep my mouth shut, especially in social studies classes. She was a math teacher, one of many suspected ex-and-current Communists who were investigated by a special New York City schools committee. She never told me what was going on, but I figured it out myself. She must have thought silence meant safety.
During the Vietnam War, I was part of the group of protestors who gathered at the town train station every weekend. I reviewed books and wrote articles for a feminist newspaper. I became involved in local politics. Born in 1939, I may be part of the Silent Generation but In fact I am a chanter, a marcher, a letter-to-the-editor write. Silence? Bah.
Love it! Counter-culture. And a red diaper baby, too.
I was born on July 1, 1964 -- and people try, but no one's gonna tell me I missed Gen X by 6 months on the dot! Uh uh, no way, I read that book as soon as it came out (uh, Douglas Coupland was born in '61), I am SO Gen X! Kamala Harris: born in '64. Michelle Obama: born in '64... don't quote me, but I think I've heard both say they X-identify. I am gonna squeak in with THEM.
Squeak away! I give my Gen X blessing.
oh, thank you! Neglected to say I'm thinking about the Generation Jones thing AND what someone else mentioned, that post-Kennedy assassination would be the line for a new gen. I feel that, that makes sense to me.
Also we older Gen Xers -- we didn't have a youth culture. Being early '20s in the mid-'80s, yuppie time, youth culture was about people who already had fancy jobs, who CARED about fancy jobs, ugh. You could rebel all you wanted, but it wouldn't be Zeitgeist again till the early '90s, that was one bare patch of time to try and be young! Oh, just another reason I think we get a pass...
I was thinking about the Coupland book as well. Was reluctant to bring him up because of current work. Glad you did.
Born in 1966, so early Gen X. I definitely feel it in my sarcastic sense of humor, general distrust of mainstream opinion/thought, and overwhelming suspicion that I was born too late to participate in the good times. I do appreciate that I didn’t have a smartphone until my 40s, requiring me to be good with directions, buy books and records, and navigate a card catalog. All good life skills that I try to impart to my Gen Z kids.
DITTO!!!
Being born in 1983, I am what the literature calls a “geriatric millennial.” My wife, born in 1979, sits at the tail end of Gen X. If we don’t see eye to eye on an issue, I’ll just say “you Gen Xers just don’t understand us millennials.”
😂 It's better than "Okay, Boomer."
That expression was created by some one the age of my kids who just got CAUGHT! It is so dismissive...
Same here (Millennial with a Gen X partner who eyerolls at my millennial moments 😂)
Thanks for this interesting piece. I had just recently come across the term Generation Jones and I was glad for it, as born in 1960, I don't feel a kinship with many of the Baby Boomer traits, being on the tail end. Definitely have some Gen X traits thrown into my makeup.
I am also glad to know of Generation Jones...I had not heard the term until reading this article. Born in 1961, I always felt out of step with the Boomers but denied an invitation to Gen X, though my "type" leans more forward than backward. The description is apt. Thank you.
JFK's assassination is often one of the first "I remember exactly where it was when it happened" memories of boomer kids; it is very much associated with that generation. My boomer mother was 11 years old at the time, I, a Gen Xer, was not even a thought in anyone's mind. There was no Gen Xer who was even born when this pivotal event occurred.
I divide them by turning points that changed the country emotionally-- for me, X is born between JFK dying and Reagan being sworn in, Millennials are 1981 to 9/11, and Zs are 9/11 to pandemic. Born in 1967, complete GenX!
What an interesting way to think about it! While born in 1960, I think of JFK's assassination in 1963 as a pivotal emotional turning point for the country I was born into and associate more with X than with Baby Boomer.
Interesting conversation! I'm technically a Boomer (1963), don't fit with most Boomer stereotypes, but also not really GenX. Does anyone talk about our siblings and birth order with this--thinking that if we are on younger end of the birth order, do we age up closer to the older siblings category or rather, does the family dynamic shift over time so that the youngers essentially experience things differently?
Good questions, re birth order and siblings!!