I have many of your experiences Kelly but I am an inbetweener. Like my horoscope, I am on the cusp of Libra and Scorpio and was born in 1963, the year before Generation X supposedly begins.
We cuspers have the formative experiences of watching the boomers protest war and winge about Watergate (seems so mild now) and also grew up with the real fear of nuclear annihilation. But, I also have the experience of VCRs revolutionizing home entertainment when I was in my late teens. Before that, the only way to see a movie more than once was to go to the theatre more than once (I saw Star Wars twice) or wait for it to show up on a movie of the week tv broadcast. I know what it’s like to buy multiple copies of albums because I wore them out (looking at you Kate Bush) but also what it’s like to have to replace my entire record collection with CDs. Like you, I know how to fill endless hours of unscheduled time but probably unlike you have many of the shared cultural experiences of my cusp generation growing up in Canada in the 60s and 70s when there were only three tv channels (CBC, some local channel and the French channel). Mr Dessup anyone? For a very long time I absolutely identified with the music of the 80s, particularly new wave, but as I get older, the music that really imprinted on me is from the 70s. So back and forth, but I’m still very grateful I grew up when I did, before smart phones and social media, which now have their claws in me. I should know better. I experienced better.
Good stuff, Kelly. Though a boomer of long standing (born 1952), I've always been an early adopter, and that included the first computerized processors in the 1970s (they'd fill a room), dial-up Internet in the mid '90s (I found it amazing to watch a page load over several minutes), and cellphones the size and weight of bricks. Nowadays, I turn off my phone and forget to turn it back on (well, to be fair, I forget a lot of things these days). Most of all, I marvel at all the changes I've seen since the '50s (black-and-white TV with only four channels), and believe it all to be grand. Oh, and for those who want to blame the boomers for the state of the world, to quote Billy Joel, "We didn't start the fire." Oh, and a lot of great music, too.
Alright, Kelly, let’s light a clove cig & talk shop. You’re not wrong. Gen X is aging like Keith Richards. Improbably, defiantly & w/ a healthy amount of side-eye at everyone else’s life hacks. But let’s not gild the cassette. We’re not just aging gracefully. We’re surviving out of spite. Never thought I’d hit 30 let alone still be explaining what a damn landline is to three generations of confused digital addicts.
We were born with latchkeys around our necks & trauma playlists in our Walkmans. Grew up watching the Challenger explode live in the gymnasium. Learned sex from Madonna & got emotional education from John Hughes films that said being ignored was a personality. We’re fluent in failure & fluent in pretending we didn’t care.
Folding maps & waiting for Rick Astley? Try rewinding a VHS with pinky cuz the VCR ate your rental copy of Heathers & you’re about to get charged $75. We were feral & analog, raised on sitcoms & casual nihilism. We didn’t have safe spaces. Just 7-11 & parents who thought therapy was a scam.
Sure we span the analog digital divide like jaded cybernetic monks but let’s be honest. Most of us learned to code HTML only cuz our band needed a Geocities page. We don’t navigate tech. We survive it with the same shrug we gave Y2K.
We’re not running things cuz we wanted to. We’re running them cuz the Boomers wouldn’t let go, & Millennials got PTSD from unpaid internship & Tik Tok clout. Yeah we show up, fix the printer, translate GenZ memes, & get zero credit cuz we’re too dead tired to self promote.
Anyway keep on shouting into the void. The rest of us will be silently saving hte world, one emotionally stunted chat group at a time. No we aren’t joining your substack chat.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go rewatch Neon Genesis Evangelion & pretend I’m not emotionally attached to the mid 90s.
This. Its’s everything. It makes me feel proud
I have many of your experiences Kelly but I am an inbetweener. Like my horoscope, I am on the cusp of Libra and Scorpio and was born in 1963, the year before Generation X supposedly begins.
We cuspers have the formative experiences of watching the boomers protest war and winge about Watergate (seems so mild now) and also grew up with the real fear of nuclear annihilation. But, I also have the experience of VCRs revolutionizing home entertainment when I was in my late teens. Before that, the only way to see a movie more than once was to go to the theatre more than once (I saw Star Wars twice) or wait for it to show up on a movie of the week tv broadcast. I know what it’s like to buy multiple copies of albums because I wore them out (looking at you Kate Bush) but also what it’s like to have to replace my entire record collection with CDs. Like you, I know how to fill endless hours of unscheduled time but probably unlike you have many of the shared cultural experiences of my cusp generation growing up in Canada in the 60s and 70s when there were only three tv channels (CBC, some local channel and the French channel). Mr Dessup anyone? For a very long time I absolutely identified with the music of the 80s, particularly new wave, but as I get older, the music that really imprinted on me is from the 70s. So back and forth, but I’m still very grateful I grew up when I did, before smart phones and social media, which now have their claws in me. I should know better. I experienced better.
Good stuff, Kelly. Though a boomer of long standing (born 1952), I've always been an early adopter, and that included the first computerized processors in the 1970s (they'd fill a room), dial-up Internet in the mid '90s (I found it amazing to watch a page load over several minutes), and cellphones the size and weight of bricks. Nowadays, I turn off my phone and forget to turn it back on (well, to be fair, I forget a lot of things these days). Most of all, I marvel at all the changes I've seen since the '50s (black-and-white TV with only four channels), and believe it all to be grand. Oh, and for those who want to blame the boomers for the state of the world, to quote Billy Joel, "We didn't start the fire." Oh, and a lot of great music, too.
1978 baby here to Thank You. And may I play your sister in the film adaptation?
Alright, Kelly, let’s light a clove cig & talk shop. You’re not wrong. Gen X is aging like Keith Richards. Improbably, defiantly & w/ a healthy amount of side-eye at everyone else’s life hacks. But let’s not gild the cassette. We’re not just aging gracefully. We’re surviving out of spite. Never thought I’d hit 30 let alone still be explaining what a damn landline is to three generations of confused digital addicts.
We were born with latchkeys around our necks & trauma playlists in our Walkmans. Grew up watching the Challenger explode live in the gymnasium. Learned sex from Madonna & got emotional education from John Hughes films that said being ignored was a personality. We’re fluent in failure & fluent in pretending we didn’t care.
Folding maps & waiting for Rick Astley? Try rewinding a VHS with pinky cuz the VCR ate your rental copy of Heathers & you’re about to get charged $75. We were feral & analog, raised on sitcoms & casual nihilism. We didn’t have safe spaces. Just 7-11 & parents who thought therapy was a scam.
Sure we span the analog digital divide like jaded cybernetic monks but let’s be honest. Most of us learned to code HTML only cuz our band needed a Geocities page. We don’t navigate tech. We survive it with the same shrug we gave Y2K.
We’re not running things cuz we wanted to. We’re running them cuz the Boomers wouldn’t let go, & Millennials got PTSD from unpaid internship & Tik Tok clout. Yeah we show up, fix the printer, translate GenZ memes, & get zero credit cuz we’re too dead tired to self promote.
Anyway keep on shouting into the void. The rest of us will be silently saving hte world, one emotionally stunted chat group at a time. No we aren’t joining your substack chat.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go rewatch Neon Genesis Evangelion & pretend I’m not emotionally attached to the mid 90s.
Gen X out
#4 lol
Gen X, here. Can confirm this entire list. Thank you for capturing our truly unique experience so unapologetically.
I have literally never felt more seen & understood.
Footnote to #4: we are the last generation to remember a song almost exclusively followed by a specific
station id or ad because that’s the way we recorded it off the radio and listened to it for years afterward.