The memory of growing up in a computer-free world is still fresh to Gen X’ers, who built the bridge from analog to digital.
Anna Sofia Martin
We are the forgotten generation, or so the articles say. I’ve personally never felt forgotten. But then I never cared if marketers (or whomever) thought about me. And THAT is a hallmark of Generation X.
A lot of funny memes are circulating now, in this social distancing, social isolation world of pandemic quarantine, about how GenX is best suited to rolling with these punches. I can’t agree more. While my blog is focused on how to have a youthful inside and a youthful outside, the one thing I don’t recommend changing is our GenX (or GenX-adjacent) attributes.
We were out for a walk yesterday, and saw a group of young Millennials “hidden” in a low hollow of a parking lot. They were all in their yoga pants, sitting in lawn chairs, behind their cars, separated by ten feet of open air. It looked like a weird kombucha yoga tailgate party.
My first thought was NOT appreciation that they were following the rules. It was…
WHO has a compulsive need to gather with ten of their girlfriends to do that?!
It may help to understand that I’m a bit of a social loner – so herd behavior has always baffled me. And perhaps as a bit of a loner, I gravitate towards people who share those characteristics. But in that moment, I wanted to give a huge hug to my entire generation.
GenX is resilient. Quarantine is stressful but GenX is coping with it beautifully. We don’t expect anyone to do anything for us. We were the first generation of latchkey kids so we solve problems for ourselves – pretty creatively. We had simple pleasures – like growing chia pets, playing Kick-the-Can with friends, riding our bikes (without helmets), building tree forts, and using our imaginations to amuse ourselves. We remember the days when there were only three channels on tv and phone pranking strangers was par for the course.
Is your refrigerator running? You better go catch it!
We can spend time alone, disconnected and self-amused. GenX is the last generation where an imagination was a common part of childhood. I’m seeing that creativity and imagination serve us (and our families) well right now.
Let’s run through the influences on our lives:
- Remember “Duck and Cover”?
- The Cold War
- Fall of the Berlin Wall
- HIV/AIDS
- Pre- and Post-9/11
- The Challenger Disaster
- The Bombing of PanAm Lockerbie flight
- Iranian Hostage Crisis
- Stock Market (and Housing Market) fall
- Exxon Valdez
- The Gulf War
Not that it was all bad.
We saw the rise of personal computers, cell phones, MTV/cable TV. Our generation thought up a lot of the innovative technology we still use today. Heck – the Internet is GenX. (The World Wide Web is not.) My point is, we went through a lot. A lot of before:after moments. Every generation has them, but we had some doozies!
I don’t mean this to say that GenX doesn’t need connection or doesn’t experience stress. We do. And, not all Gen Xers are the same. But we have many common characteristics that I have always loved, and appreciate more than ever right now.
I’m not worried about us.
We were good before, we are good now and we’ll be good after.
Sure it’s different and weird and unknown – but then so are we.
