A Few Words about the Name Gen X

I was recently at a seminar about Gen Z, aka the Zoomers, what they value, and the amazing impact they're already having on the world. It made me wonder today if anyone remembers why my generation is called Generation X. It's a reason I'm rather proud of.

Back in the 90s, when we were the age the Zoomers are now, I was keeping tabs on what was being said about our generation. The movies were coming out, like "Singles" and "Reality Bites" and some were good, some not so good. Some really made me hate all of the characters in the film, but then again, none of them were like me or any of my friends.

We were the generation after the Boomers, who followed what was basically called the War Generation. They weren't called "The Greatest Generation" until Tom Brokaw's book came out. The Boomers were easy to name. They were the product of the post-war baby boom.

In 1991, Douglas Copeland's first novel "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" came out, and while he didn't plan to do it, his title effectively named the generation, while his novel and reason for writing it defined much of the spirit of the generation. Coupland said he and other people born after 1960 were not Boomers, nor were we "Generation Jones", which was the term for the latter part of that generation, which didn't identify with Vietnam or the hippie culture. We didn't identify with any of that, and didn't like being lumped in with them.

A name defying a label

We were called Generation X because we defied labelling. We weren't cohesive or unified in any way other than all of us dismissively saying "Whatever" and using "Not" as a punchline (as in, "That was the best movie ever. Not.") We also defied being marketed to so consistently that it bothered advertisers. If they tried to target something at us, we wouldn't get it because they wanted us to have it. We were pretty much the line from "Say Anything" in which we didn't want to make anything, sell anything, sell anything that was made, or make anything that was sold. If you wanted us to do it, we didn't want to do it because the powers that be were clearly assholes. In short we wanted to be left alone, we'd find out what was cool by ourselves, thank you and fuck you very much. There was no celebrity you could use, no slogan you could create that would make us want to buy or do anything. Even Mr. T.

Further, members of our generation didn't want to be the ones to endorse stuff or tell us what was cool. Douglas Coupland himself was offered millions to develop ads aimed at Gen Xers. He refused. He didn't even like being the person who named the generation, admitting he borrowed the phrase from Billy Idol's old band (with him, they did the song, 'Dancing with Myself").

So, being beyond description, but still in need of a name for others to call us, we were Generation X.

They weren't sure what to do about the ones after us at first, either, so they were Gen Y, or Gen Why, as coined by those who found the generation to be totally without direction. They were renamed the Milennials.

The ones after them, more akin to us, probably because some of them are our children, have so far been called Gen Z.

I wasn't always a fan of our generation back then, but I like us pretty well now. We've always just gone about our business with a cynical eye, knowing we mostly could only count on ourselves as individuals, or occasionally each other, while still managing to do some pretty cool things. One study published in the Harvard Business Review said we were likely the most innovative and entrepreneurial generation in history, responsible for Wikipedia, Amazon, Google, and YouTube, as well as other things. Most likely, we will be surpassed by Gen Z in that regard, but it's a nice baton to pass along.

As for the identity of the powers that be that we were rebelling against back then, they're pretty much the same as the ones you see now. The politicians at the greatest levels of power today were first elected when we were little kids. Many of the corporations and ad agencies working with them are still doing what they do. Only the fine details have changed.