Say it louder for the wazzbags in the back!! Our superpower was (and still kinda is) Apathy. It's how we survived, man. We were the Feral Generation. I love this sh...tuff.
I was born in 1973 in Philadelphia. I was just telling my sister I would be fine with going back to the way things were in the 80s, when we hung out in real life, went to malls, played video games in the arcades, played sports in the street, weren’t tied to phones and appliances lasted decades instead of a couple months past the warranty.
No doubt….I was born in DC in 1971 so we’re pretty close both in age & in geography…..these days making a kid go outside IS the punishment 🤨🤷🏼♂️I vividly remember the excitement & anticipation of another school year ending & spending pretty much the entire summer at the neighborhood swimming pool ….I know every generation says this but life seemed so much simpler than…..the world has changed A LOT in the last 20-25 years…..probably more so than any other time in history & it can be hard to keep up at times but it sure is entertaining to watch…to watch humanity drive the last few nails into its own coffin all because of uncontrollable & unchecked greed,as long as $$ continues to trump everything else including etchics,morals,reasoning & decency it’s only gonna get worse as you have more people fighting over less & less while a small number of people reap all the benefits & have more than they can use in 10 lifetimes yet entire families starve in the street….I hope I’m at least 100 miles away when/if karma comes to collect that debt 🤨
Also born in '73 in Minneapolis. And I can relate to everything you said. Now, at 50, I can say that I wish I were 80 and on my way out b/c of the direction this bat$hit insane First World is headed.
Bicycle everywhere, spend the entire day at the mall, listen to good music, do my homework while watching MTV, scare myself by watching scary movies late at night while alone, cooking tv dinners, walking home from school because I missed the bus, staying outside until the street lights came on, staying up late during school days, going to arcades, building tree forts, skateboarding, and so much more.
Ironically we all seem to love our childhood yet we robbed our own children of that... We were the last generation to play outside, to ride our bikes across town to our friend's house, Walk to school... But yet it seems most Gen xers raised their children completely opposite.
i always thought that was awkward - I'm a millennial born in 1990 and i remember going outside and playing baseball outside my house with my friends and yelling "car!!" whenever one came through (and also getting grounded from going outside and hating being in the house). also, if you're born in the 80s, doesn't that make you a millennial? i thought gen x was between 1965 to 1979...
We get to watch it all go to hell, haunted by wistful memories of our first 25 to 40 years. We wont be able to relate to anyone in another 30 years. Younger generations born after 2000 will think we are aliens.
Not true older millennials like my self remember climbing trees and playing manhunt (hide and seek). I remember only 4 TV channels (UK), dial up internet used to take hours to load a website, mobile fones as big as a house brick with pull out aerials so long if you're stood next to someone and turn around you'll have their eye out 😂 best years of my life.
A lot of you were born after the net got going. As a boomer I remember the world as ABC, CBS & NBC. Pure heaven when PBS came to our neck of the woods.
@@buckoxt I think the labels based on age range need to be reworked to have a proper discussion in the future. Due to technology I'd say the subset of about 75 to 85 have the most in common. 60s babies are definitely not at all the same as late 70s. And right now, my 2005 genZ kid has zero in common with someone born in the 90s. That's even more wild.
Being in a Hispanic household. Maybe if my parents left me alone to do other things instead of having a paint brush in one hand and a hammer in the other. I would have done better in high school.
Taught self reliance at a young age. We all started working around age 15 so we could buy our own things etc then Move right out after high school graduation or go straight to college. VHS, Sony walkmans, Sony discmans, CD, laser discs, Atari, Sega Genesis, a lot of outdoor activities ;) I liked growing up as a kid in the 80’s.
We were also one of the best generation for music. We listened to everything. We seen the birth of rap, hip hop, grunge, heavy metal, punk. We all respected the Beatles and Motown.
OMG that's so true. Everyday I meet a kid digging thru our old toy box of games, music and movies. In a way it felt like my childhood was extended a little longer because of them.
No, that's the millennial generation... The Gen X didn't grow up with Internet and still is fairly technologically illiterate. Gen Y is the "hybrid generation".
"Stay within sight of the house" in forests of PNW. I'd be a ridge over, but could see the house. Broke "Be home by dark" only once. Never did it again because one simple fact. My 9 year old @$s literally took a beating.
No cell phones, Instagram, or Facebook. We held up lit Bic Lighters at a concert, not IPhones. We danced without anyone filming us and preferred it that way.
@@heraldomedrano1417ikr?! My mom sent me to the store with notes to get her cigarettes. This new generation thinks that they are tougher because they’re smoking and buying cigs when we were sent to buy cigs at age 9 and up. Some of us even started smoking as early as 12-13 years old, in which we probably tried our first cig at age 9.
Oh, how I miss the 70s. It seemed like we had the entire world at our feet and all things were possible. Then, reality hit in the 80s & 90s. Things have never been quite the same since.
LMAO. Yes!! I was actually referred to as an "Elitist Poser" on a metal music thread the other day, and my high School memories all came to mind. Little punk! Who you calling an "Elitist Poser"? My reply went something like this: Awe man why ya gotta be like that? I'm just a cool little jive turkey chillin and enjoying some tunes. I'm far from "Elitist Poser." You and I need to sit down over a few beers and have metal summit. Metal Head's accept all the societal unwanted and misfits of the world without question or judgement. How does "Elitist Poser" even become a realistic notion in your mind where my comment is concerned? I also followed with.... You know what? Nevermind! I'm not spending my hard earned beer money and metal music time with you. Us "Elitist Posers" have upper caste reputations to protect. I wouldn't want to give the wrong impression that I was breaking bread with the help where my peers are concerned. Society and other's points of view influence all aspects of my life. I simply cannot be seen with you in public or otherwise. It could have detrimental effects in my life and influential connections. Redacting my invitation is the best course of action at this time. Do take care! Yeah, stick that up your "Elitist Poser" commenting butt! Lol. God do I miss the days where if you had an issue or problem, you talked it out or you fought it out. You won some and you lost some. No anonymous chicken shite comments where the responder can hide behind a keyboard and accept no accountability for their actions or words. Alrighty." Elitist Poser" out! I have dinner staff to emotionally bankrupt. Do take care!😉
Don't forget, "wannabe". We, Gen X, are the "keep it real" generation. Millennials, not so much. The entire hipster culture is based social memes of the past, pretending to be sailors, lumber jacks, etc. Not only are they unoriginal, the seem to be proud of it.
That's Good Dagmar! I So remember that term "POSER" I never wanted to be called a "SOSH" that was the designer Jeans and polo shirt People....LOL! I have My Own look that is not mainstream and People are still Assholes the with the looks I get
Gen X'ers would look at the 3 or 4 missing kids on the milk carton as we ate our cereal in the morning. Then our Mother would kick us out of the house and we would be gone all day.
That's a fact...Proud latch key kid here...Mom had to work 2 jobs since she was raising 2 kids by herself after dad left. Mom would say be back by dark and she doesn't want to get a call from the police or hospital about me.
With Generation X, our parents bought us basic necessities. If we wanted something more, we had to find a way to earn the money ourselves. Whether it be by babysitting, mowing lawns, or working at a fast food restaurant. We visited our friends regularly. If we didn’t have a toy or game, one of our friends did. We rode our bicycles without helmets. We rode in the back of pickup trucks down highways and didn’t fall out. Nobody wore seatbelts. There were no cellphones or answering machines. Only land line phones. Going out to eat was reserved for special occasions. From the time we got out of school, until our parents came home, we were completely unsupervised. If we wanted something to eat, we just cooked it ourselves. We watched, sang and danced along to MTV. Generation X had one of the best childhoods ever!
*Boomers:* _"Millennial's are a nuisance!"_ *Millennials:* _"Boomers are a nuisance!"_ *GenX:* _"Shout, shout, let it all out! These are the things I can do without, come on! I'm talking to you, come on!"
My Parents are both Gen Xers and I think my Dad put it best they were old enough to remember life and the world before the internet, social media and smartphones but still young enough to catch on to those things when they came out.
PRECISELY!! Which means that our evaluations of living life in "both worlds" are likely the most pertinent and truthful evaluations to be had. We actually witnessed the societal evolution of all the above "tech" and many of us were responsible for actually designing it and pushing it through. As a cross-over generation...generation X straddles one of the most significant societal periods in modern, cultural history and we are akin to people who have actually lived TWO lives...rather than just one. Pre and post social media....provide two VERY different life experiences on this planet and it's only generation X that can claim to have experienced the overlapping zeitgeist in real time.
I remember the internet just starting to come out, the America online discs that were packaged with everything. "You got mail!" And last but not least, 10 minutes of waiting to get on the internet with dial up. I didn't have a cell phone in highschool they wouldn't be out until a few years later, I had a beeper.
I was born in 1970. Im damn proud of being GEN X. I was a latchkey kid, played outside, was gone all day exploring the woods, building forts, riding my bike miles away from home. My friends lived in my neighborhood, their parents were basically my parents and could discipline me if needed. I learned to take care of myself, bandage my own wounds and not complain. It rocked being a teen in the 80’s, the music was great, punk rock was great…hell EVERYTHING was great. If possible, I’d go back & live it all again..even the hard lessons.
I was born in 1970 as well . I didn't have the best childhood , but I also have a lot of good memories . Growing up in the 70s and 80s was a fun time to be a kid ; I have a lot of nostalgia for this time period and wouldn't trade it for anything . I'm also a proud Gen-Xer .
Your experience sounds close to mine. I don't think that this vid creator understood what a huge difference growing up without social media made. If you wanted a social life, you had to actually go and visit friends (or they visited you) and interact with them face-to-face and it's a massively different (and positive) experience compared to texting, posting or calling. It's the single biggest thing I'm thankful for as a GenXer. Plus just about everyone was super-fit because we had to amuse ourselves by playing sports, exploring the outdoors and the like because yeah there was Atari etc. but for sure the majority couldn't afford them. Ditto on the music - my Spotify playlists are almost all 80s and 90s music lol.
I was born in the 80's and that sounds like my childhood too. 😂 Only saw my parents at mealtimes. Every house in the street was open, and every adult in the street would parent us.
Exactly. We were first adopters of many ground breaking technologies that are commonplace nowdays. But were something completely new when we were kids. For example first wave of affordable home computers was transferred to our hands for widespread adoption. Later Gens were only technology user but not adopters.
@@JanKowalski-vj9py Yup... We learned how to use DOS and BASIC in order to do anything useful with early PC's. We learned to use hand tools to build stuff and work on vehicles or small power equipment. We could get around without Google Maps, MapQuest, WAZE, etc... We didn't have or need "... an App for that...". Doesn't make us better than younger Gens, but it does set us apart from them. We also don't need to "brag" about being able to read/write in cursive, read an analog clock or use a rotary phone (like those lame ass Boomers like to do). Gen-X was the bridge generation between lower tech and high tech.
I love the term "latch key kid". I remember forgetting my house key more than once and literally had to break into my house after school because my single mom was at work. Good times! 👍
I had a window that I knew how to work open from the outside of my parent's garage. Once in, I used the attic ladder that led to a door that entered my upstairs bedroom. LOL.
Our key was hidden under a rock by the gutter downspout and it froze. My twin brother and I couldn’t get in the windows so we sat on the front porch in the warm sun. The neighbors had us come in when it got dark and fed us soup at the family table. Dad showed up about 10 or so. Good times! lol I am very good and breaking in windows now but don’t lol
So funny my grandma forgot her keys and I caught her trying to crawl through the window, I started yelling tuck and roll, tuck and roll grandma. Lolol. I got her out the window lolol and crawled in for her lolol.
I couldn’t help nodding when you said what a latch-key kid was. That was my childhood. I would walk home 2 miles from my school and let myself in at 2pm every day. Both my parents worked swing shift and would not be home until midnight. There was never a problem and I always kept the house clean. I essentially grew up unsupervised and only the television and Nintendo to keep me company. To this day I feel completely fine being alone 24 hours a day and and simply going about my business.
Yes! Gen x also seem to be raising gen z similarly to how they grew up (at least from my experience and that of my friends) because they (as other comments pointed out) are the workhorse generation and having to work all the time to accommodate boomers' excessive lifespan and gen z's difficulties entering a job market laying off more people than they hire or earning enough to not be dependant on their parents since wages have been stagnating compared to inflation pretty much all our lives. Even when, on the odd occasion both parents are home, gen x parents seem more than happy in front on the telly and leaving their kids alone like they're still at work. No doubt because, as the workhorse generation, they're exhausted and just need to switch off after being worked to death all day. Does make me angry when some gen x parents opt to give their kids an ipad instead of actually spending time with them though. Maybe us gen zers are just too insufferable to want to spend time with, lol
YES!! I still need to have my ALONE time so that I can rejuvenate and be able to deal with my own family! It work’s so beautifully!! I was “re-setting” before we were able to re-set! Lol 🤯👍
We are the adults in the room. I am proud of Gen X, we were integrated, didn't play victims and we really were making strides with non-racism. I am sad to see identity politics dividing us.
100% see. We can see right through the media and government racial politics. Gen X more than any other age demographic stood up to the nonsense jab and mask mandates. Millennials and Gen Z conformed to that like sheep. Boomers of course made the mandates.
YES! I keep telling people this kind of thing, too! Only Gen-Xers get it, unfortunately. We had great things happening - no one gave too many fucks about anything - but I mean this in the best way - for example, we had friends of all colors and no one even talked about racism. It was increasingly on life-support. This progress was quickly bulldozed by righteous, overly idealistic, tech-smug, hive-minded, impatient, instantly gratified (or else!), arrogantly wiki-educated millennials who had no idea about true individuality. Back in the day - for MANY people - things like skin color / gender etc. were actually irrelevant to who you were as a person & we naturally found things in common without identity labels. But these narcissistic babies with bad habits show up - all tattooed but fragile, glued to social media groupthink - they're just a lump of virtue signalling idiots, accountable for nothing - this is how they position themselves and they're everywhere. I actually want to get on an island where only Gen-Xers are allowed. No cell phones or fucking email. Maybe some boomers can come - they at least say hi to strangers and can carry a conversation skillfully with a sense of humour or sarcasm. haha
@@MrKingalowthe only people who believe that racism wasn't an issue or there wasn't way more work to be done were very naive white people. Talk to a black person for a few minutes in the mid 2000s and they'd tell you something different.
As a gen xer, i used to think we were short changed compared to our parents generation, but now i'm nothing,but grateful to grow up when i did when i see how the world has panned out for the young. They really drew the short straw.
@@onehothand68 I was depressed as heck in high school, but what I wouldn't give to live back in time for a while. Things were so simple and every new discovery, experience, book, piece of music *was* something. Now things just fly by, and there is no more magic. Back then we were forced to make our own magic out of almost nothing.
@@Yamaha_slut Agree! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when my son said I was a sellout because I work for a major corporations most of his life. More sad because he is right, but glad he recognizes it so young and hopefully won't drink the kool-aid too. And no, he's not living in my basement saddled with student loans and depression. He's making his own way. He will be able to do what I could not.
@@1destinySS selling out isn't the worst thing in the world, it secures one's future fainancially. Which really opens up opportunities for them, but much like everything else in the world, every action has a reaction be it good or bad!
@@highjenks3d The Silent did a better job, well actually they just got freaking lucky. ( then they spent their grandchildren's inheritance.) Boomers gobbled everything that was left.
I was born in '74. What makes our generation a little unique is that we had to manage things with a high cost to failing. For example if I missed an episode of a cartoon or TV show, I would have to wait months maybe to see it again. There were lost of little things like. Another exmaple: I remember listening to the radio on my boom box for an hour hoping for "EAT It" by weird al to come on so I could record it on blank tape for my friend. Now is say "Hey Google, play eat it by weird al". I'm not saying we were better for it; just explaining how it was
I know this reply is 8 months old but when you talked about recording song off the radio it put a smile on my face. I made a ton of mix tapes like that as I rarely had the money to go to Tower Records or any other music store and buy singles or records.
I didn’t have cable so MTV came through in snow and I’d sit there for hours waiting for ‘that new tune’ like, The Eurythmics or something, to pipe through and I’d grab my portable tape cassette player and hold it speaker to recorder and press record and hold my breath that no little sister would come storming down the stairs and screw it all up. mix tapes of newly discovered music were everything! And I’d spend days on end decorating the paper that listed the songs. And don’t even get me started on the frustration/thrill of going to the local video store to see what was left in the new releases! I understand why kids are nuts now- they never wait for anything; there is never a thrill just over the horizon.
Gen x was the most bad ass generation over there. Thriving for good things and comfort in life while dealing with the all hardship possible out there alone.
Exactly. We Xers just did what needed to be done without needing permission from everyone else to do the simplest of things. That's why we were able to be so inventive. Millennials and Z's have to be told how to do everything...
@@Deborahtunes Many of the later generations don't think it is important to learn anything. They have it all on their phone. Critical thinking skills are now left to the internet.
@@rockymntain ~ True. With Millennials and the Z generation, everything is about their FEELINGS. They don't know how, or even want to think for themselves...
First year Gen X. Born in 65. We are overlooked because we didn't whine and cry about everything. We were raised to be tough and soldier on when things were bad. Terms like "walk it off" and "I'll give you something to cry about" were common for us.
Born in '70. We learned quick that attention is a double-edged sword. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the nail that stands up will be pounded flat. Cries for help can make you a target. So we chose stealth and self-sufficiency, and became Generation Unknown, Generation X.
It's like in the Never Ending story where the boy is told his destination is to walk 10,000 miles, so he trudges in the mud, almost drowns, gets up and keeps going until he can't anymore... It's a good and bad thing. 😅
_You don't know how good you got it_ _No one likes a crybaby_ _Stand up for yourself_ These are the things I heard from my Dad, Granddad, and coaches. It built emotional fortitude.
The thing with GenX is that we grew up self reliant and understanding the need to be responsible for our own selves. Yes, we played video games after school but eventually most of us knew when to turn it off to eat and do homework. The idea that GenZ needs someone to tell them to get off their phones, use social media wisely so their brains don't rot kind of makes some of us roll our eyes a bit.
@@nunodasilva5449Personally. I rode my bike everywhere or my older brother would take me on the bus downtown to search for baseball cards and Garbage Pail Kid cards.
I'm at the end of Gen X (born 1979). My mum worked from when I was 5 - I used to walk myself to my ballet class after school and get changed by myself for the class at 5 years old. From about the age of 9 me and my brothers would be home alone after school for an hour until Mum got home. I remember being left home alone for the weekend the first time when I was 12 and my oldest sibling was 13 and my younger brother 10 (that would be illegal now). When I fought with my brothers and went to tell my mother she would say sort it out amongst yourselves. We mostly used to walk or bike a half mile to catch the school bus. All of this stuff would be considered bad parenting now but it made us self sufficient and self reliant and taught us how to handle issues ourselves from a young age
born 1980 here, i remember summers, going out with friends into woods (Finland, we have forests), and going home eating when hungry, or we had something with us, or foraged something. Unless we had somewhere to be (like we are going to visit granma this weekend), none cared where we were. This was when we were mature age of a 9-13.
All that lack of parenting wasn't all good, either. Some Gen Xers ended up pretty crappy parents themselves because their own parents sucked. It just snowballs from their every generation. And I'm saying that as a Gen Xer who remembers some of my friends having absentee parents who were selfish Boomers, and those friends grew up to be crappy parents themselves.
I was eleven when I first spent the night in my house by myself, Because dad had to go out of town on a business meeting and it was a school night and I had to be in school the next day. I actually liked having that time to myself.
The last generation to think friends who took pictures of themselves constantly and INSISTED on showing them to you was a weird personality flaw and suspected their parents would probably have to intervene and fork out for some expensive therapy. 😂
I blame reality TV like road rules and TRL and yo MTV raps being play non-stop episode after episode they stop playing good music music that people liked then started force-feeding people stuff like Britney Spears and boy bands.....and Kids stop watching
5 лет назад+3
@@leroylowe5921 Yeah but its way more work and you have to know what you are looking for. The cool thing about MTV was you never knew what was next and they gave a variety. Algorithms can't seem to do variety.
@ Yeah, the algorithms (that sounds like a band) are made to show you more of what you seem to like. It's like a self sustaining positive feedback loop (okay, phrases like that are above my pay grade).
_Friday (1995):_ *Mr. Jones:* Oh, no, son, that's not the way it is. You kids today are nothin' but punks. Sissified. So quick to pick up a gun. You're scared to take an ass-whippin'. [he holds up his fists] *Mr. Jones:* This is what makes you a man. When I was growin' up, this was all the protection we needed. You win some, you lose some, but you live. You live to fight another day. And you think you're a man with that gun in your hand, don't you?
@@FutureNow You forgot to mention Gen X made rebellious music in the 90s and early 2000s besides Nirvana like Eminem, Slipknot, Green Day, System of a Down, Drowning Pool, Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Disturbed and so on.
"Gen x parents have gen z kids" This is true. A lot of gen Xers like myself waited until much later in life to have kids than their boomer parents did. My kids are actually on the young side of gen Z. I almost feel bad for them, because they will have much less access to the internet than most of their peers. Lol
Gen X is the generation that started with vinyl records--LPs and 45s, raided our parents' 8-track tapes, made mix tapes with our casettes, then bought our entire teen music library over again in CD format, before jumping on MP3s in the mid to late 90s. We saw all the teething problems of the first internet and its bulletin boards, the early days of the World Wide Web with dial ups, digital subscriber lines, then broadband. We had an old rotary phone in the house before being replaced by a cordless phone, then bought pagers before eventually leaping onto analog and later digital cell phones, then smart phones, and where we are now. I was three years old when my father brought home our first home computer. Yet, I was 19 years old before I even bothered with Windows and the more famous operating systems. I watched tech grow from 8-bit to 16-bit and on to 64 bit and beyond, all during my school years (though the last leaps were when I was in college). I grew up in the Cold War. I remember the Berlin Wall coming down. I remember the First Gulf War, the Balkan Wars, and of course, 9/11 and all that came after. I was a kid during the D&D scare--the terrifying thought that your child may be using their imagination to play in a make believe world using strange-shaped dice. Believe it or not, some parents--inspired by a bunch of greedy televangelists--considered Dungeons and Dragons a greater threat to children than drugs and unprotected sex, even during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
You are so right. I remember on Dec 31, 1999, when millennials were dancing to Prince’s song “1999” I wanted to shout out “do you hear what that song is talking about?”! We didn’t even know if we were going to make it to the year 2000!
@@TheBetsyBoopLmao! I set my alarm to go off whenever the 1st place on earth experienced the New Year (somewhere in China), just so I could see if everything went to shit; & get a head start, if it did. When it didn't, I went back to bed!
Gen X here and I work in I.T Systems. We went through all of the massive technology jumps and appreciate this more. We will be the last generation that can still appreciate the simple life we once had.
I miss the excitement of discovery from a time when the entire world wasnt just a click away. Import bins at the record shop or doing reports where you would call the subject you were researching and they would send you some free stuff in the mail.
@@gauloise6442 I miss seeing pretty girls which are rare these days. Almost everybody is fat and with tattoos everywhere I go. A lot of the people I see out these days could have worked at fairs in the freakshow exhibits in days of old.
Gen X here. Happy to tell the Z's how we did things in our day. And till this day, Saturday morning cartoons during our time were and still are the best ever.
Yeah, Saturday morning just isn't what it used to be, is it? You looked forward to ONE day out of the week to be entertained and not educated, and now look at? They replaced all the cartoons with educational programs, these kids today will never know the joys of Bugs Bunny!
and those trippy live action sid and marty krofft Saturday morning shows. Our childhoods were spent consuming far-out media created by a bunch of a drug addicts
@@gauloise6442 Hey, I'd much prefer that to watching an antelope give birth, any day! To Gen Z, I guess I would say what you never knew, you don't miss. But imagine for four hours, pure animation joy having your Saturday mornings begin with Bugs Bunny and end just before Noon with Shazam/ISIS!
Greatest generation hands down, they raised me & actually saved the world, they were & knew real Americans, then boomer cuz they hogged all the last of the American dream then US, tho we had the best music
We can not forget how our Moms left us in the cars to go grocery shopping. We were told to lock the doors and roll the windows up, and do not open the door for anyone or we would get a spanking😂
As a Gen X-er, I feel lucky to have grown up the way we did. Yes, we had minimal supervision - but this meant we had to learn how to take care of ourselves. Many, many times we would come home from school to empty houses, finding notes on the kitchen table with instructions for cooking dinner for ourselves. Minimal supervision and relative lack of technology meant we had to find things to do on our own, sometimes even making up games with friends if we were bored. Neighborhood games like kick the can ruled the day. We had hobbies back then! Sometimes we'd do our hobbies together with friends. You also learned how to be your own person and how to own yourself: if you talked smack about someone, you could get "called out" and find yourself in a fist fight. No parents, police, or teachers involved, it would be all on you. You quickly learned not to be a jerk or you'd get your ass kicked. Our greatest fears were that our parents would find out! Our parents were generally more strict and we all knew the difference between the leather belt and the wooden spoon. Safety was not thought about and we generally tried to see how far we could take things. The community was more homogenous than today so we all pretty much celebrated the same holidays. Christmas was a much bigger deal and the schools and towns had decorations and festivities to a much larger extent than today. Summer vacation seemed to last forever and we had off from June 5th until just after Labor Day in September. 2-week summer family vacations were standard. So happy I grew up then!
Heisenberg I'm at the end of the "Baby Boomer" era and grew up under circumstances just like you. My single mother was working full time and going to night school so she could get a better job to pay the bills. Without help from our dad and an abusive ex-stepfather under our belts (yes I use that term specifically) we were on our own to get to school, do our homework, finish our chores and stay out of trouble. My sister and I did well but I can't say the same for my brother who hung out with "hoodlum" friends!
Being Gen Xer I think we had freedoms that seems to be slowly eroded over successive generations. From films to comedy, music and socializing there was hardly any restrictions, for example many films made in the 80s would never be made today. Helicopter parenting was unheard of, if we got caught doing something we shouldn't then we'd face the consequences because we knew we were in the wrong. As teenagers we'd get Saturday jobs, summer jobs, more money for records and clothes. It was if we grew up fast but still maintained a sense of youthful curiosity and the only people we wanted to impress were either our friends or latest crush. The world wasn't our judge, our mistakes weren't fodder for countless strangers to pick over. I crave for those days now, not because I'm getting older but because of how full life seemed despite not having much. I love my generation of Xers, and I'm so grateful to have experienced one of the unique moments in time.
I was born in 1971, and my mom was the biggest helicopter parent you could imagine. I often say, I lived through all the history and pop culture of Gen X, but was raised more like a Millennial somehow lol
As a gen Xer, what I feel defines us is our independence.. we didn’t need mommy and daddy hover around and protect us from everything; Our older boomer parents sided with teachers, etc when we acted up; It was acceptable to actually discipline your kids; School shootings didn’t happen; People actually talked to each other.. in person and on (gasp) landlines; The music was great, and it was the last real time of innocence. People were very local, we mostly didn’t have any clue what was going on in other towns around the country. We just lived the dream
The last generation before the rise of the Internet forum, where hive minds started taking over the world, and really weird niche groups started feeling "normal."
Well... who's the parents of the later generations that was helicoptered and told they deserve a trophy for participating? Who's the parents millennials? I'm a GEN Y (between Gen X and millennials) my kids are Gen Alpha and I'm 39....my mom was Gen X and so was my Dad and they had me very young. So Gen Z and millennials are both the product of Gen X.
Born in 78..I'm glad I'm in this generation...we were raised to be held accountable for our actions...we were in a society that wasn't soft...we were dependent on ourselves....to date hands down have the best music ppl today rock t shirts of bands during our time...the first cell phone I remember was huge and plugged in the car....just a great generation
Gen X ware born before the computer revolution but grew up with computers and witnessed how they changed society for better and for worse. In a way gen x understands bouth the boomers and millenials who lack this common perspective.
Millenial here. I can agree with that. I find that Gen Xers are easy to relate to, far more than baby boomers. You guys were our older brothers and our pop culture heroes. In fact, I feel more connected to Gen X than Gen Z. Millenials definitely remember prank calling on 3-way phone lines, hanging out at the mall, and going to arcades.
Generation Z will have big impact on the world, they are not idiot boomers or weak milennials. Far better than them, If we put internet along there generation Z already will reach the god level on this world. This is the generation you grew up X and Milennials, those monster generation are away from control. You will not control us but we will control you, our sons Beta Generation will be your nightmares on the path you will see.
@@Email5507 Wow... mkay. Hate to say it, but Gen Z is gonna face the same problems as Gen X: low population. Gen X had a hard time being heard and making moves in the world because they were so many Boomers in control of the world their whole life, and they were overlooked. Sorry to say it, but I fear the same happening to Gen Z. Not that it's really all that big of deal though.
@@DKC_Returns yup sounds true just like when my father's Silent Gen was stuck in the middle with the Greatest n Boomers those things can happen with the younger
ÖLÜMLÜHAYATBUGÜNVARSINYARINYOKSUN One of the biggest threats future generations will have to face will be disinformation and foreighn propaganda aka informational warefare waged by trolls on behalf of rough foreighn states and organisations. These rough states (dictatorships, authoritarian states) will use the young people of their countries (cyber terrorists) to promote their ultra conservative, authoritarian agenda to Western liberal democracies by creating an illusion of suport of authoritarian and backwards ultra conservative ideas and spreading conflict between different age, gender, race and political groups with the goal to trigger them into rate against one another. Back in my day (lol) we told such people to „fuck off”, and just like in the songs of one of my favorite Punk rock bands from the 90’s The Offspring to all younger generations i would say „if you take home anything let it be the will to think” and not really on what random people on the internet say, no matter how many of them seam to suport agree and thumbs up the conservative agenda promoted by some backwards authoritarian state. All generations are different because they had different experiances that is why they have a problem to understand each others perspective. In no way one generation is better than the onter. If you do not understand this then you are either stupid, arrogant and/or sponsored by some rough backwards state to promote such agenda.
Too busy taking care of my Boomer parents and putting my Gen Z kids through college while working full time so I don't have time to care about much else, frankly.
You don't care as long as you can live life as you want to. Y'all don't want to be forced to contemplate the well-being of others because that might make you uncomfortable. Secretly weak trying to wear a facade of apathetic independence.
@@soccerwizard975 *hits buzzer* WRONG!!! GenXers do care about people. We largely just don't care about what people think about us. We're used to people not giving us recognition or credit for the things we contribute, so we just go ahead and do them without making a show of it.
@@Jamison4200-OG Yea, right. You wish. We're making everyone else wanna kill themselves online bc we're the only generation of ppl who don't get 'triggered'
@@dr.strangelove5708 Agreed, everything else is still the same. It just got smaller, streamlined, and stupider. Rap was the last original music genre to be created. EDM = 80s techno.
I’m Gen X, born in 1972. I wasn’t a latchkey kid. We were poor and I grew up out in the sticks of Mississippi. My mom was a stay at home mom. I remember fondly the times before the internet and cell phones. I miss that time. It was more peaceful when you could go somewhere without a constant text or phone call or notification. People couldn’t easily bother you. We truly had the BEST music too!
My family moved several times, but my preteen years were in West Virginia. It was amazing how i could just go walking in the woods for hours at age 11 or so and exactly no one in my family knew where i was. There was no way to reach them and they couldn’t reach me. I just walked and poked around in creeks and listened to birds… it was pretty great
We Gen Xers have taken a lot of heat because of our lack of idealism and ironic approach to pop culture. Yet we are the ones working to support both our retired boomer/silent parents and Gen Z kids (not me personally, since I have no kids and my parents are fine, but generally). We are the workhorse generation, if anything, the first to have been hit with the realization that we'll have it worse than our parents.
A lot of our parents like to ignore that they used a lot of us gen x eldest or eldest female children as part-time SAHP to our siblings and as housekeeping. Now they tell us that they can't help us because they are done raising a family. Dude, you didn't raise a family, you worked. The kids raised themselves.
Proud to be generation X!!!!! I remember just walking through all my friends doors because NO ONE had a door locked 😂 the 80’s were actually really chill.
It was the same here in the UK, when I got home from school my parents were at work, so I'd fight with my brothers, eat whatever had been left in the fridge for for us, then go out with my friends. I'd see my parents for 30 seconds when I got in as they tried to wring information out of me about where I'd been and what I'd done. Then I'd go upstairs, listen to some music, watch some TV or play some video games and hit the sack. In the long long summers, we'd go on bike rides for hours at a time, leaving early morning and not returning until the sun was down. Climb trees, shake down conkers, discover weird and places to hang out, go swimming, get into fights, taught ourselves to do tricks on the BMX and so much more. Golden years. Wouldn't change a thing.
I love how he wraps the video by saying what GenX has to do to prove ourselves and show we are doing the right thing. The fact that we don't care what others think, and that we couldn't care less about proving anything to anybody is what makes us GenX! LMAO!
@@phoenix5054 You must be of the Ritalin generation. Your thought process is of no consequence to others, as you are "special". Note; an attempt to use the simplest and direct wording here may have resulted in the use of words above the two syllable mark. Please have someone interpret for you. A participation award will be issued, along with free entry passes to your nominated safe space.
As a Gen Xer I remember back in elementary school, my teacher taught us about the generations. Went into the "greatest generation" and how they beat Hitler in WWII, about the Boomers and how many believed they rode coattails of their parents. So we asked what our generation was. She told us Generation X was considered the "lost" generation or that we were simply forgotten. Even back then it was prophetic. She went on to say most people view our generation as lazy and apathetic. Not sure if it means anything but half my class was asleep and the other half didn't care
Then, the Millenials- taking it to the next level. The younger sibling of the ordeal! The more guided and less independent! Hopefully, we stop the downward trend and the upcoming generation gets frustrated with needed so much physical and emotional support
I was born in 1965. I was exoected to find my way home from kindergarten at 5 years old. I walked. In a city. Over a mile. To say my parents were hands off is an understatement.
Generally speaking, since GenX kids spent a lot of time alone and effectively raised themselves, they became very comfortable doing things on their own, making their own decisions and letting other people do the same. Which is probably why there aren't many GenX folks in politics trying to arbitrate other people's life choices. It's not in our nature to tell others what to do, nor to let others tell us what to do.
yes but, its in our nature to go into those places and fix it to how it use to be and how it worked -- no one wants that ive found. Millennials think they have over taken gen x for some reason... boggles the mind.
We are also prudent fact checkers, prefer to maintain our emotions until we know the whole story, some are minimalists BUT will go all in for philanthrophy, conservation, and saving money for a future of some sort
It certainly made it easier for me to go through family photos and remove every one of me with that hideous hair cut my mother insisted I get. Oh yes, I won't miss those 80's hair styles.
@VR Wanderings You mean One Hour Western Photo Center, right lil'shooter. It shut down way back when insta downloading to computers to print off and Wal-Mart.
I love being GenX. I was reading a story of a mom who went on a cruise and left her kids at home with wi-fi and a credit card. You know that's what happened when we were growing up. We raised ourselves and had to figure out on our own. I had a key. We were the MTV kids. The generation who could drive a stick, cook our own meals, do our own laundry.
As a Gen Xer, I also think we’re the generation having pensions ripped out from under us. I’ve had it happen twice. I’m pessimistic that social security will still be around when I retire. That’ll probably get ripped out too. They’re already inventing new ways to chop away my 401k. What a joke that is!!
I was taught in college my sophomore year, 87, that social security would all be used up by the boomers when we retire. But, at 20, that seemed a long ways off...
That's why I've been working on my dividend portfolio. If SS does exist when I get that age, I'll just consider it a bonus, but I'm sure as hell not counting on it. Them politicians like their dividends, so I'm confident those will be safe until I die.
My dad is gen x, and he is seriously one of the coolest guys I know. He’s a gamer, computer savvy and has always been so modern. He never shunned technology, he welcomed it and even helped me and my sibling build our own computers. He’s relatable and “with the times” and that’s coming from A millennial and a gen z sibling. I’ve always loved gen x fellows. In fact, most my friends are gen x. I don’t feel judged. I’m so old fashioned and not even following the trend of most millennials and yet boomers are some of the meanest people I’ve met sometimes (not all mind you). Simply for being young and not born into their age - just a total destain for my generation. Much love for you gen x peeps!
My husband is a gen x dad and he's just awesome. He and our 4 year old play electric guitar together. They sing some Nirvana songs. They play the Wii. We are a really close family. We would never put our son through a divorce either so no matter what issues arise in our marriage, we work it out. I think Gen X moms are a little misunderstood. We come across as hovering moms but I think we're just trying to figure out what a mom is since a lot of us had moms who were way more into their own lives than our lives.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut Never heard of a Gen Xer requiring safe spaces -- EVER -- let alone in our college years. Nor did we get participation ribbons. We won or we lost. We competed. Nor were we coddled . Our parents most certainly did NOT make excuses and defend us when we were wrong. We got our asses whipped. We experienced the consequences of OUR actions. We didn't have attitudes of entitlement nor believe what we wanted should be handed to us with no blood, sweat and tears. Never did we consider we were entitled to other people's money and the fruits of their labor -- the millennial mantra is everything free, free, free for me, me, me. We most definitely were NOT offended and whining every single minute of every day. We weren't dictating what was and was not acceptable speech, and no rioting, violence, and destruction of property to shut down the speech of people with whom we disagreed. We weren't triggered by opposing points of view. We listened, debated and conversed. We weren't MY FEELINGS OVER FACTS. We didn't harass and assault people dining in restaurants or who wore red hats -- taking it even further to their homes and family -- UNTHINKABLE. We enjoyed and lived OUR lives and left others to their own. We weren't dictating to others how to live. But most of all, WE LOVED OUR COUNTRY IN OUR YOUTH AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED. WE WEREN'T I HATE AMERICA SOCIALIST MARXIST COMMIES IN TRAINING. Baby boomers are our parents, dumb ass. There's bound to be friction. Millennials deserve every verbal beating and beat-down they get. It's called cause and effect.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut Radical feminists started in the late 60s/early 70s. I was born in 1965, and I am telling you, that was not mainstream popular youth culture. Period.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut I lived and came up in the 80s/90s. That shit was NOT across the nation mainstream day in and day out in your face like it is with the millennials today. You can spout as much as you like. It doesn't change the reality of the time in which I came of age.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut In fact, I personally know four millennials. Two young women and two young men. They call me Aunt Dawn. Thankfully, they are sane, rational, intelligent, hard-working, and dare I say normal. My niece has shared with me the multitude of times she was harassed for wrong think on her college campus. So, you'll excuse me if I take her personal experiences as nearer the truth than your claims.
I was born at the cusp of Gen X in 1966, so I kinda watched the whole generation grow up. My wife, meanwhile, was born in 1972 and sums it up perfectly. Our generation hit middle age in the 2000s, when corporate media switched from targetting the older, well-to-do, upper middle class adults (and their children) to advertising to the young adult demographic. We were skipped. Combine that with the number of kids who grew up on their own, and it's no wonder we felt like we were overlooked.
I see Gen X as a badge of honor. we were the children of divorced families, grew up, hard knocks, had to grow up really fast, got jobs early to be self-reliant, learned knowledge from a lot of peers and friends, as opposed to parents, the first to use the Internet without butchering it. Now we’re at a point where we just want to live our lives somewhat incognito and watch everyone around us just going insane.
Well said. This is why we take umbrage at the millenials who like to pretend they went through what we went through. Back in our day we called someone who did that a POSER!
I'm a 1978 Gen X. A lot of this video I can relate to. Mom and Dad both working, constant fighting, getting divorced. That's the negative side. The positive side... I grew up with MTV when it actually played music videos. I saw the rise and fall of hair metal, new wave, and grunge. Kurt Cobain killed himself when I was 16. Disco officially died in 1982. Me and my brother and all our friends would be outside the whole day. We would ride our BMX bikes for hours and go everywhere. Without helmets and knee pads. Or we would build these wobbly ramps with a old drum and a plank and we would become Evel Knievel with heavy metal music blasting from a ghetto blaster. How we didn't get maimed or killed is still a miracle to me. We blew up stuff with fire crackers and bottle rocket. Insane but fun times!😂😂
Not one kid these days or prior to the Gen X age will ever understand the struggle of making a mix tape for someone. Having to use a pencil or your finger to fix the tape if the spool spun the wrong way and tape filament came out and twisted.
I enjoyed growing up in a time before the internet and cell phones became a popular thing. We were forced to socially interact with people in real life.
@ not really... the 80's and 90's gave birth to a lot of the same music you listen to today... particularly hip hop, pop, R&B and electronica... even modern country, most of which hasn't changed much since then
A hallmark of Gen X is growing up with both parents working and older siblings not wanting us around. We grow up outside, with friends in semi feral packs, we talked to people, we did stuff. Family for me was just the house, but I was everywhere and often wasn't home till well after the streetlights came on. I hardly see kids out doing the stuff we did. Now everyone i know with kids seems to be insulating them, or wanting them in organized sports and other crap like that. Cell phones showed up in the mid 80's and were expensive, if we were lucky we had a pager in the late 80's. I got deep into motorcycles and riding, meeting more people, learning by example, then taking classes. I read books, watched documentaries, got deep into electronics, all with little care of parents. Gen X also entered the working world at the beginning of some of the worst economic times since the depression and also entered a time of easy credit with high costs. I learned to live with what I could afford, a good part being the once very nice things boomers sold cheap because they were "old". Living this way protected us, many though wanting the VW GTI simply couldn't afford it, or the insurance. We lived with roommates, drove old cars like earlier generations did and learned to take care of things. It always kind of surprises me when i deal with younger people who are either uninterested in or simply can't fix anything. One big thing I found I learned was to not depend on others, or often want their help as it seems to always come with a price. I watch the boomers with a degree of distain, they seem to want to take the world with them as if they're spoiled butts were really that important. As for younger people, the arrogance I see in them is between annoying and a joke. It's funny seeing people act as though they're so important when they can't do much of anything without having to explain it to them.
You make a really good point about not depending on others growing up, and the risk of failure having a potentially very high cost was, back then, very real, and as a generation it seems. What’s crazy is I feel like nothing’s changed. STILL no help for us with our parents OR our kids and DEFINITELY still none for us. Stand By Me to everything from John Hughes, the A-Team to punk rock and the Goonies meant something then and still do for a reason. We’re a good group, a tough group, yeah, but definitely a good one. ✊🏾
Nicely said! Just a strange observation here. I feel the reason the "boomers" and zoomers" can't get along, is because they are the same people (not all, but a whole lot of them). For Both groups: In their late teens and/or early 20's, the world was bananas with social justice issues (some necessary and some not) and all the name calling that goes along with that, serious wars ending and beginning in close succession, feminism and other special Interest groups running wild and demanding change from everyone but themselves, EVERYTHING being politicized, fruitless protests and/or outright rioting, a government that either didn't really care all that much about really helping society at large or was just "accidentally" doing a bad job of it, an economy in the toilet, breakdown of the more traditional family & societal values in favor of a much more "open" and liberal approach to things, and parents with blinders on because they were too busy trying to keep food/clothes/shelter going for their families. Sure, we Gen x kids had some of these worldly problems too, but we were parented way differently than the boomers and zoomers. Most of us had a lot of responsibilities at home and no time to worry about petty things, and our parent(s) had no time or desire to hear complaints from us. The boomers see in the zoomers who they used to be (or maybe still are Inside) and realize how ridiculous they may have been in youth, and the elder zoomers are possibly looking at their bleak future selves in the boomers, and both are in angry denial.
I'm a gen x. I was a antisocial kid & now I'm a 53 year old antisocial adult. I've been on my own since 15. Anything that I wanted in my life I went out and earned it. I bought a rundown house & renovated it myself and own it outright. Since this pesky pandemic hit life hasn't changed for me much. The only thing I miss is going to see punk rock bands who came through town on their 40th anniversary tours that I originally saw back in the 1980s.
I'm, also missing the old man punk shows. We have similar life experience. Out @ 15. Bought 1st house At 23. Punks not dead it just goes to bed early these days.
Hey man, so you are absolutely the right age to be Gen X, but I’m going to peg you as more of a late ‘Gen Jones’ which is kind of in between boomers and Gen X, they are more of the edgy punk rock type… I say that with total respect, kind of feel like that might be more you….
1:43 I was born in 84 but I moved out when I was 14 and I went to prison when I was 18 and I didn’t get my first cellphone till I was 21. I like to think I’m Gen-X at heart. Like most of y’all in this comment I was antisocial when I was young, still anti social… I bought a cheap 2 story rundown house and fixed it up. I don’t rely on other people for shit, I work to get what I want and what I need. All these newer generations are leading us right into the shitter🤦♂️
As a Gen X... I can honestly say I'm so proud of being from the last generation to grow up without tech as we know it today. We watched it all. I also feel we are the last generation to grow up with a good sense of humor, and common sense. None of us saw what was coming... It just wasn't conceivable to us. All the political correctness and sensitivity... Honestly... We never saw it coming.
We took care of ourselves. We learned from being outside, and we were OUTSIDE a LOT! We respected our elders. We learned how to lose so we could know how to win. If you weren't good enough, you didn't get a ribbon. It made us stronger and try harder. We had jobs at 10, 11, 12 years old. We saved our money if we wanted to buy something. We weren't coddled, we learned the hard way, and the hard way often came with a good smack to the face. We survived and in fact, we overcame.
Greg Allen right born in 1969 and thanks to hard work and years of sacrifice my husband and I are doing better than ever financially, mentally and spiritually. We still have a lot to give that’s is unless A bus 🚌 takes us out sayonara 😉
People forgotten about the generation x parents silent generation from jazz Doo wop rock and roll soul to hip hop grunge tribute s cadillac records nas and his great father olu dara jazz rock. Overlap between the silent generation and generation x both were unique in movies music.
The Gen X childhood was the best time in history to be a kid. Goonies, NES, Garbage Pale Kids, The A-Team. We had the best of everything and how I wish I could relive it again.
NES ... my best friend and I playing co-op games on the NES, trying to beat Double-Dragon II, and later III by playing together. "Jackal", or "Contra" ... oh Contra. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select Start (had to hit "select" because it was a 2P game). - Bonded of that. - Later went to High School together and kept it up with the SNES. - We'd be 16 or 17, go into a convenient store back when they had nude-magazines on the rack behind the counter, and ask to buy a scratch off ... if the clerk allowed it (meaning that he didn't card us), then try to casually say, "Hey, uh ... go ahead and throw on that Hustler, too." - We'd get sodas from the vending machine in front of the grocery store, and it was legit 25-cents -- just a quarter. Always walked everywhere.
i'm from the UK. We were the gen who played and hung out in the streets and parks after school and in the holidays and had next to 0 parental supervision. We pretty much sorted out our own issues, and we were all well aware who the local weirdos were. being in the real world so much meant we were really tuned into what was going on around us. Growing up in the 70's and 80's was just the best. The music, the freedom. fantastic !
Malls in the UK were generally modest in size and only became wide spread in the later years of the 80's (There were a small number of exceptions) but especially in the 90's so we didnt hang out in them. we had a local mall built in 1992 i was in my 20's by then. We only got our first large super market store in my town in 1978. before that there were just small family owned shops along the street.Each shop had its own smell the bakers the butchers the hardware store the grocers shop, the chip shop and the sweet shop. milk was delivered by the milk man every morning at about 6 o'clock in his electric milk float. i still remember the clinck of the bottles when he would deliver. We gen x were responsible for the .com bubble burst.
@@Jade-pd3wm We had them everywhere in the states starting in the late 60's. There's lots of "dead mall" exploration videos on youtube which are fascinating. Latchkey kids were always hanging out at the mall. It was the thing in the 80's.
you all were the kids from Grange Hill! (the best tv show EVER; this Xer yank would happily pay tv tax for GH!) and even tho i don't think the bbc intended it that way: the two returns of Tucker Jenkins for his struggling nephew are about as genX as it gets. healthy disrespect for authority and all. : - >
I am of Gen X and our childhood was rough. We had to grow up quickly, we did not complain because we would get beat and told "I'll give you something to cry about!" when we showed emotion. To this day I don't ever complain about an injury, I just suck it up and brush it off. We took care our ourselves and learned to be self-reliant. We weren't allowed in the house so lived outside, rode our bikes and skateboards everywhere, and explored our surroundings. It was the best childhood but then a lot of us did not make it because we were the test dummy for child safety seats and bike helmets. I love my Gen X crew because we are fiercely loyal and looked out for each other.
@T Mox for real bro. It's a fight on who is the most special. Gen x is smaller by date than others for some reason too. We just want to be left alone to do what we do. Earn that trophy of we deserve one .
Millennials are being spoken about, it’s not them boasting about how great they are, it’s older generations blaming millennials for destroying industries/companies/dating etc. I was born in 84 so I’m technically a millennial, but my childhood was very Gen X. Bikes. Building dens/forts etc. Very little technology. I relate to both generations and there’s even a “micro generation” from like 78-86 or something called Xennials for this very reason. I do however think Millenials get a hard time. We can’t get on the property ladder. University degrees don’t lead to jobs in the relevant field very often. University loans are massive. Rent is extortionate and wages are low so we can’t save money or travel as much as previous generations. But the only thing boomers focus on is that we aren’t buying fabric softener and we’ve stopped eating at shit chain restaurants.
Being Gen X and not being talked about is better than being a millennial or boomer and being constantly dogged on with idiotic negative stereotypes that aren’t even true. Most people aren’t obsessed with hearing how amazing they are. Most people are just trying to survive.
Being a Gen-X ER I'm in a unique good place I can see the past and see the future and take advantage of both. Couple years ago I was at my son's High School graduation where are the commencement speech included references to how Tech literate the Millennials were compared to their Gen X parents. I yelled out who do you think invented it?
@ABRAXAS To go even further than that, thats how Human knowledge came to be. Generation after generation. A culmination of thought and idea. Without the past, there is no future.
I once heard that the difference between Gen X and millennial was that millennials don't know what "format c:" means. I tested it. It's true. Ok why would they, but it's still mind-boggling. ABRAXAS you're completely right of course, all the greats of any generation had to do their stint standing on the shoulders of giants - from the previous generation.
That's how things work. One day, future generation is gonna teach millenials about tech that they ironically invented. The cycle will go on so all the credit goes to the earliest of the earlier human so nobody alive gets to have the right to say any of that atleast.
Born in 1978 and my life was like Lord of The Flies. I raised myself and my brother and how we are still alive is amazing. The stuff we did and got up to should have had Gen X be weeded out by attrition. Yet, somehow we survived.
@@kiwidiesel Climbing trees, going miles from home with no way to contact anyone if we got hurt, jumping in creeks and rivers, builind crude ramps for our bikes, clay dirt rock fights, pine cone fights, Throwing people in the air and hoping they land on the schools gym mats.....We did a lot of stupid stuff.
Proud Gen X'er, here. Latchkey kids, free range kids, M-tv generation.. Super independent, self sufficient, disciplined, responsible, mature beyond our years, made the first playlists (all we needed was a boombox and a blank tape or 2), and took rock n roll and hip hop to supersonic levels. We're wise, we're artistic, we're innovative, we're freakin' AMAZING. And we're just getting started. The best is yet to come. 💗💗
We rarely CHOSE to stay home to play video games. We chose to play them once we couldn’t go out anymore or we were staying at a friends house. We were out playing until the street lights came on.
To be fair, it is better in the end to have a face to face meeting rather than just texting or some other electronic means. I'm a Gen Z kid and I am trying to limit my phone time a little more.
Siculus Hort I thumbed you up but I’m actually very grateful for gps. I suck with directions. I get sentimental about all the books I read from frequenting the local library. AND we can write in script.
Damn straight we will rock you and in the same token ride the Crazy Train, and all the while thinking We're Not Gonna Take It while Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Lol ok I'll stop now.
Proud Gen X'er here. F*** off. Don't want none of the drama or discussion. When the s** hits the fan we will take care of our own. Good luck to the rest of you.
As a gen x person I don’t really mind being overlooked. The drama of today’s world is so tiring.
As a Gen X can confirm, we just want to be left alone and not sucked into all the drama 😂
@@suzybearheart530 exactly. Some make it sound like we feel left out, when honestly it's giving us what we want.
Say it louder for the wazzbags in the back!! Our superpower was (and still kinda is) Apathy. It's how we survived, man. We were the Feral Generation. I love this sh...tuff.
Amen!
👍
I was born in 1973 in Philadelphia. I was just telling my sister I would be fine with going back to the way things were in the 80s, when we hung out in real life, went to malls, played video games in the arcades, played sports in the street, weren’t tied to phones and appliances lasted decades instead of a couple months past the warranty.
No doubt….I was born in DC in 1971 so we’re pretty close both in age & in geography…..these days making a kid go outside IS the punishment 🤨🤷🏼♂️I vividly remember the excitement & anticipation of another school year ending & spending pretty much the entire summer at the neighborhood swimming pool ….I know every generation says this but life seemed so much simpler than…..the world has changed A LOT in the last 20-25 years…..probably more so than any other time in history & it can be hard to keep up at times but it sure is entertaining to watch…to watch humanity drive the last few nails into its own coffin all because of uncontrollable & unchecked greed,as long as $$ continues to trump everything else including etchics,morals,reasoning & decency it’s only gonna get worse as you have more people fighting over less & less while a small number of people reap all the benefits & have more than they can use in 10 lifetimes yet entire families starve in the street….I hope I’m at least 100 miles away when/if karma comes to collect that debt 🤨
Also born in '73 in Minneapolis. And I can relate to everything you said. Now, at 50, I can say that I wish I were 80 and on my way out b/c of the direction this bat$hit insane First World is headed.
I so agree entirely. Was a great way to grow up. I feel so terribly sorry for kids today.
Get off your phone and go bitch and complain to someone in real life.
@@marlaalbrecht5516100 totally agree born in 73 in California and I dont recognize my clown 🤡 world any longer . I loathe this timeline
I LOVE being a Gen-Xer. I always say we were the last "go outside and play" generation. Wouldn't trade my childhood in the 1980's for anything!
born in '65 & raised my kids ['92/'96] the same way I was raised...
"You have a dog, a creek, and bicycles. I'll holler when dinner's ready."
Bicycle everywhere, spend the entire day at the mall, listen to good music, do my homework while watching MTV, scare myself by watching scary movies late at night while alone, cooking tv dinners, walking home from school because I missed the bus, staying outside until the street lights came on, staying up late during school days, going to arcades, building tree forts, skateboarding, and so much more.
Ironically we all seem to love our childhood yet we robbed our own children of that... We were the last generation to play outside, to ride our bikes across town to our friend's house, Walk to school... But yet it seems most Gen xers raised their children completely opposite.
i always thought that was awkward - I'm a millennial born in 1990 and i remember going outside and playing baseball outside my house with my friends and yelling "car!!" whenever one came through (and also getting grounded from going outside and hating being in the house). also, if you're born in the 80s, doesn't that make you a millennial? i thought gen x was between 1965 to 1979...
Agreed!!
The living memory of the world before the Internet dies with Gen X. I'm grateful to be a part of it. Life made us all old souls early on.
We get to watch it all go to hell, haunted by wistful memories of our first 25 to 40 years. We wont be able to relate to anyone in another 30 years. Younger generations born after 2000 will think we are aliens.
Not true older millennials like my self remember climbing trees and playing manhunt (hide and seek). I remember only 4 TV channels (UK), dial up internet used to take hours to load a website, mobile fones as big as a house brick with pull out aerials so long if you're stood next to someone and turn around you'll have their eye out 😂 best years of my life.
A lot of you were born after the net got going.
As a boomer I remember the world as ABC, CBS & NBC.
Pure heaven when PBS came to our neck of the woods.
As if we are the last of the members of the tribe before the fall. 52 year old GenExer here from the Philippines.
@@buckoxt I think the labels based on age range need to be reworked to have a proper discussion in the future. Due to technology I'd say the subset of about 75 to 85 have the most in common. 60s babies are definitely not at all the same as late 70s. And right now, my 2005 genZ kid has zero in common with someone born in the 90s. That's even more wild.
We were left alone as kids. We want to be left alone and not bothered as adults.
Truth.
Being in a Hispanic household. Maybe if my parents left me alone to do other things instead of having a paint brush in one hand and a hammer in the other. I would have done better in high school.
Taught self reliance at a young age. We all started working around age 15 so we could buy our own things etc then Move right out after high school graduation or go straight to college. VHS, Sony walkmans, Sony discmans, CD, laser discs, Atari, Sega Genesis, a lot of outdoor activities ;) I liked growing up as a kid in the 80’s.
This is so true.
Damn right!!
Im Gen X and I'm happy to be left alone. We were 30 at 10 and still 30 at 50.
Been telling people all my life that I was born 30, and at the age of 47 I'm still 30.
Yes we are...so true
Facts
❤well said
Bingo 🎯
We were also one of the best generation for music. We listened to everything.
We seen the birth of rap, hip hop, grunge, heavy metal, punk. We all respected the Beatles and Motown.
Not all, I hated the Beatles and am very meh towards Motown.
I agree. I still remember when I bought the greatest hits of the Beatles. They and there songs are still awesome today.
80s was The Absolute BEST Decade for music EVER!!!!!!🤗🤗🤗
Gen X here. I never really cared for the Beatles. I was more into Black Sabbath.
You left out edm and industrial.
GenXer here. I'm only 28 seconds in, and already thinking "I just wanna be left alone."
A hallmark of Gen X is that other generations like to talk about us a lot more than we like to talk about ourselves.
OMG that's so true. Everyday I meet a kid digging thru our old toy box of games, music and movies. In a way it felt like my childhood was extended a little longer because of them.
Yes and we don’t give a fuck about stupid agist media tropes.
@rustytr Generalizations about age groups that span many years is a joke. Free Navalny.
@rustytrEvery generation since the beginning of time.
We're often forgotten
Generation X is both
The first generation
to go online as well as the last generation to remember life before the internet
I'm a millenial, and definitely remember before the internet. It was barely coming out when I was late into high school.
@@DizzyedUpGirl
It came out when I was in high school.
And I'm generation x
Yeah I was playing Doom on PC when I was like 12 but we didn't get Internet till I was 14 like 1995 somewhere in there
@@DizzyedUpGirl : ¿¿ ??
No, that's the millennial generation... The Gen X didn't grow up with Internet and still is fairly technologically illiterate. Gen Y is the "hybrid generation".
We were the free range kids. "Be home by dark" the only rule we had.
"Don't miss school tomorrow" was pretty much it. Spent a lot of time doing the "sleeping over at blank's house" dodge.
Free range and positively feral. Yes, we really were raised by wolves
"Stay within sight of the house" in forests of PNW. I'd be a ridge over, but could see the house. Broke "Be home by dark" only once. Never did it again because one simple fact. My 9 year old @$s literally took a beating.
Stranger danger.b
As long as we were home for supper or called that we weren't going to be home for supper.
No cell phones, Instagram, or Facebook. We held up lit Bic Lighters at a concert, not IPhones. We danced without anyone filming us and preferred it that way.
I bought cigarettes at 17.
@@heraldomedrano1417I bought cigarettes at 14, we thought it made us look cool. Now I know we were cool without them.
We had no choice, those Sony cams belonged to our parents 😂
I still use a lighter at shows,
@@heraldomedrano1417ikr?! My mom sent me to the store with notes to get her cigarettes. This new generation thinks that they are tougher because they’re smoking and buying cigs when we were sent to buy cigs at age 9 and up. Some of us even started smoking as early as 12-13 years old, in which we probably tried our first cig at age 9.
As a Gen Xer myself, growing up in the 70s 80s and 90s was the BEST time to be alive!!!!!🤗🤗🤗
Amen
Oh, how I miss the 70s. It seemed like we had the entire world at our feet and all things were possible. Then, reality hit in the 80s & 90s. Things have never been quite the same since.
@@samsmom1491 unfortunately, at the turn of the Millennium 2000s, things were going downhill!!!!!:/
@@sgt_slobber.7628 From 2000 onwards the magic faded away.
I agree 👍
Funny... the worst insult you could call someone when I was in high school (1984-1988) was “POSER” now everyone’s a literal poser.
LMAO. Yes!! I was actually referred to as an "Elitist Poser" on a metal music thread the other day, and my high School memories all came to mind.
Little punk! Who you calling an "Elitist Poser"? My reply went something like this: Awe man why ya gotta be like that? I'm just a cool little jive turkey chillin and enjoying some tunes. I'm far from "Elitist Poser." You and I need to sit down over a few beers and have metal summit. Metal Head's accept all the societal unwanted and misfits of the world without question or judgement. How does "Elitist Poser" even become a realistic notion in your mind where my comment is concerned?
I also followed with.... You know what? Nevermind! I'm not spending my hard earned beer money and metal music time with you. Us "Elitist Posers" have upper caste reputations to protect. I wouldn't want to give the wrong impression that I was breaking bread with the help where my peers are concerned. Society and other's points of view influence all aspects of my life. I simply cannot be seen with you in public or otherwise. It could have detrimental effects in my life and influential connections. Redacting my invitation is the best course of action at this time. Do take care!
Yeah, stick that up your "Elitist Poser" commenting butt! Lol. God do I miss the days where if you had an issue or problem, you talked it out or you fought it out. You won some and you lost some. No anonymous chicken shite comments where the responder can hide behind a keyboard and accept no accountability for their actions or words.
Alrighty." Elitist Poser" out! I have dinner staff to emotionally bankrupt. Do take care!😉
Yes i ended the century for graduation. From all i read 81 is edge so we are xiennal because of where i was year wide which im 1981 born
Don't forget, "wannabe". We, Gen X, are the "keep it real" generation. Millennials, not so much. The entire hipster culture is based social memes of the past, pretending to be sailors, lumber jacks, etc. Not only are they unoriginal, the seem to be proud of it.
@@jimnorrison8481 yes i know what your saying . Im a keep it real . People don't like real though
That's Good Dagmar! I So remember that term "POSER" I never wanted to be called a "SOSH" that was the designer Jeans and polo shirt People....LOL!
I have My Own look that is not mainstream and People are still Assholes the with the looks I get
Gen X'ers would look at the 3 or 4 missing kids on the milk carton as we ate our cereal in the morning. Then our Mother would kick us out of the house and we would be gone all day.
Millennials would do that too. We used to have those magazines where we look for the ten things that are different from the other photo.
FUCK... that shit is true... try not to get kid napped today okay?
@@SYDAirlineEnthusiast we just get amber alerts we ignore now.
@@karamlevi Stick em with the pointy end ok?
That's a fact...Proud latch key kid here...Mom had to work 2 jobs since she was raising 2 kids by herself after dad left. Mom would say be back by dark and she doesn't want to get a call from the police or hospital about me.
With Generation X, our parents bought us basic necessities. If we wanted something more, we had to find a way to earn the money ourselves. Whether it be by babysitting, mowing lawns, or working at a fast food restaurant. We visited our friends regularly. If we didn’t have a toy or game, one of our friends did. We rode our bicycles without helmets. We rode in the back of pickup trucks down highways and didn’t fall out. Nobody wore seatbelts. There were no cellphones or answering machines. Only land line phones. Going out to eat was reserved for special occasions. From the time we got out of school, until our parents came home, we were completely unsupervised. If we wanted something to eat, we just cooked it ourselves. We watched, sang and danced along to MTV. Generation X had one of the best childhoods ever!
*Boomers:* _"Millennial's are a nuisance!"_
*Millennials:* _"Boomers are a nuisance!"_
*GenX:* _"Shout, shout, let it all out! These are the things I can do without, come on! I'm talking to you, come on!"
tears for fears boomers
@@margaretanderson7993 You guys haven't been around long enough to hate, walking around with your breaths still smelling like similac.
@@margaretanderson7993 Good! Come to the dark side. We have cookies! People suck and I don't care.
LOL! That is my all time favorite song!!! And as many others have said us Gen X grew up on our own and we just want to be left alone!!
😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
My Parents are both Gen Xers and I think my Dad put it best they were old enough to remember life and the world before the internet, social media and smartphones but still young enough to catch on to those things when they came out.
PRECISELY!! Which means that our evaluations of living life in "both worlds" are likely the most pertinent and truthful evaluations to be had. We actually witnessed the societal evolution of all the above "tech" and many of us were responsible for actually designing it and pushing it through. As a cross-over generation...generation X straddles one of the most significant societal periods in modern, cultural history and we are akin to people who have actually lived TWO lives...rather than just one. Pre and post social media....provide two VERY different life experiences on this planet and it's only generation X that can claim to have experienced the overlapping zeitgeist in real time.
Exactly.
@@donnietobasco9791 well said
Correcto! Gen X gets the crown 🔑 👑 😉 📺 🎶 💻 🏃🏻♂️ 😘👏🏼👍🏼…
I remember the internet just starting to come out, the America online discs that were packaged with everything. "You got mail!" And last but not least, 10 minutes of waiting to get on the internet with dial up.
I didn't have a cell phone in highschool they wouldn't be out until a few years later, I had a beeper.
I was born in 1970. Im damn proud of being GEN X. I was a latchkey kid, played outside, was gone all day exploring the woods, building forts, riding my bike miles away from home. My friends lived in my neighborhood, their parents were basically my parents and could discipline me if needed. I learned to take care of myself, bandage my own wounds and not complain. It rocked being a teen in the 80’s, the music was great, punk rock was great…hell EVERYTHING was great. If possible, I’d go back & live it all again..even the hard lessons.
I was born in 1970 as well . I didn't have the best childhood , but I also have a lot of good memories . Growing up in the 70s and 80s was a fun time to be a kid ; I have a lot of nostalgia for this time period and wouldn't trade it for anything . I'm also a proud Gen-Xer .
Your experience sounds close to mine. I don't think that this vid creator understood what a huge difference growing up without social media made. If you wanted a social life, you had to actually go and visit friends (or they visited you) and interact with them face-to-face and it's a massively different (and positive) experience compared to texting, posting or calling. It's the single biggest thing I'm thankful for as a GenXer. Plus just about everyone was super-fit because we had to amuse ourselves by playing sports, exploring the outdoors and the like because yeah there was Atari etc. but for sure the majority couldn't afford them. Ditto on the music - my Spotify playlists are almost all 80s and 90s music lol.
I was born in the 80's and that sounds like my childhood too. 😂 Only saw my parents at mealtimes. Every house in the street was open, and every adult in the street would parent us.
80s had the best music ever!
@@item6931I'm '72 and miss my childhood.
Gen X here and we learned how to do things on our own. We don’t whine about things, we find a solution. And we are okay with being left alone.
Exactly. We were first adopters of many ground breaking technologies that are commonplace nowdays. But were something completely new when we were kids. For example first wave of affordable home computers was transferred to our hands for widespread adoption. Later Gens were only technology user but not adopters.
@@JanKowalski-vj9py Yup... We learned how to use DOS and BASIC in order to do anything useful with early PC's. We learned to use hand tools to build stuff and work on vehicles or small power equipment. We could get around without Google Maps, MapQuest, WAZE, etc... We didn't have or need "... an App for that...".
Doesn't make us better than younger Gens, but it does set us apart from them. We also don't need to "brag" about being able to read/write in cursive, read an analog clock or use a rotary phone (like those lame ass Boomers like to do).
Gen-X was the bridge generation between lower tech and high tech.
I love the term "latch key kid". I remember forgetting my house key more than once and literally had to break into my house after school because my single mom was at work.
Good times! 👍
I had a window that I knew how to work open from the outside of my parent's garage. Once in, I used the attic ladder that led to a door that entered my upstairs bedroom. LOL.
Our key was hidden under a rock by the gutter downspout and it froze. My twin brother and I couldn’t get in the windows so we sat on the front porch in the warm sun. The neighbors had us come in when it got dark and fed us soup at the family table.
Dad showed up about 10 or so.
Good times! lol
I am very good and breaking in windows now but don’t lol
My mom put my house key on a ribbon I wore around my neck.
So funny my grandma forgot her keys and I caught her trying to crawl through the window, I started yelling tuck and roll, tuck and roll grandma. Lolol. I got her out the window lolol and crawled in for her lolol.
Had to do this multiple times....
I couldn’t help nodding when you said what a latch-key kid was. That was my childhood. I would walk home 2 miles from my school and let myself in at 2pm every day. Both my parents worked swing shift and would not be home until midnight. There was never a problem and I always kept the house clean.
I essentially grew up unsupervised and only the television and Nintendo to keep me company.
To this day I feel completely fine being alone 24 hours a day and and simply going about my business.
Yes! Gen x also seem to be raising gen z similarly to how they grew up (at least from my experience and that of my friends) because they (as other comments pointed out) are the workhorse generation and having to work all the time to accommodate boomers' excessive lifespan and gen z's difficulties entering a job market laying off more people than they hire or earning enough to not be dependant on their parents since wages have been stagnating compared to inflation pretty much all our lives.
Even when, on the odd occasion both parents are home, gen x parents seem more than happy in front on the telly and leaving their kids alone like they're still at work. No doubt because, as the workhorse generation, they're exhausted and just need to switch off after being worked to death all day. Does make me angry when some gen x parents opt to give their kids an ipad instead of actually spending time with them though. Maybe us gen zers are just too insufferable to want to spend time with, lol
YES!! I still need to have my ALONE time so that I can rejuvenate and be able to deal with my own family!
It work’s so beautifully!! I was “re-setting” before we were able to re-set! Lol 🤯👍
I could totally survive solitary confinement.
Me too . Loved coming home with my parents gone .
@@5Gburn 🤣😂🤣
LMAO, I secretly think I could do it too! Lol 🙊
Only a Gen Xer would say that!
We are the adults in the room. I am proud of Gen X, we were integrated, didn't play victims and we really were making strides with non-racism. I am sad to see identity politics dividing us.
100% see. We can see right through the media and government racial politics. Gen X more than any other age demographic stood up to the nonsense jab and mask mandates. Millennials and Gen Z conformed to that like sheep. Boomers of course made the mandates.
YES! I keep telling people this kind of thing, too! Only Gen-Xers get it, unfortunately. We had great things happening - no one gave too many fucks about anything - but I mean this in the best way - for example, we had friends of all colors and no one even talked about racism. It was increasingly on life-support. This progress was quickly bulldozed by righteous, overly idealistic, tech-smug, hive-minded, impatient, instantly gratified (or else!), arrogantly wiki-educated millennials who had no idea about true individuality. Back in the day - for MANY people - things like skin color / gender etc. were actually irrelevant to who you were as a person & we naturally found things in common without identity labels. But these narcissistic babies with bad habits show up - all tattooed but fragile, glued to social media groupthink - they're just a lump of virtue signalling idiots, accountable for nothing - this is how they position themselves and they're everywhere. I actually want to get on an island where only Gen-Xers are allowed. No cell phones or fucking email. Maybe some boomers can come - they at least say hi to strangers and can carry a conversation skillfully with a sense of humour or sarcasm. haha
@@MrKingalowthe only people who believe that racism wasn't an issue or there wasn't way more work to be done were very naive white people. Talk to a black person for a few minutes in the mid 2000s and they'd tell you something different.
And we never kissed the government's troops' asses.
As a gen xer, i used to think we were short changed compared to our parents generation, but now i'm nothing,but grateful to grow up when i did when i see how the world has panned out for the young. They really drew the short straw.
Totally agree.
👍
With every comic, game, book, movie, tv show being a bad remake we silently laugh knowing the original was far better.
Gen X becomes ignored while 80s culture is stripmined within an inch of its life.
Turned 10 in 80, graduated in 87. There was no better time.
@@onehothand68 I was depressed as heck in high school, but what I wouldn't give to live back in time for a while. Things were so simple and every new discovery, experience, book, piece of music *was* something. Now things just fly by, and there is no more magic. Back then we were forced to make our own magic out of almost nothing.
@@donnaknudson7296 good times
Ain't that the truth... At least they haven't gotten to Gilligan's Island, Fat Albert or Fantasy Island... Yet, I better shut up!
GenX: The worst thing you could be, the worst insult you could hurl was "sellout".
Baby boomer the worst generation ever their opulance and greed that will never be equaled
Ironically gen x sold out the hardest
@@Yamaha_slut Agree! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when my son said I was a sellout because I work for a major corporations most of his life. More sad because he is right, but glad he recognizes it so young and hopefully won't drink the kool-aid too. And no, he's not living in my basement saddled with student loans and depression. He's making his own way. He will be able to do what I could not.
@@1destinySS selling out isn't the worst thing in the world, it secures one's future fainancially. Which really opens up opportunities for them, but much like everything else in the world, every action has a reaction be it good or bad!
@@highjenks3d The Silent did a better job, well actually they just got freaking lucky. ( then they spent their grandchildren's inheritance.) Boomers gobbled everything that was left.
I was born in '74. What makes our generation a little unique is that we had to manage things with a high cost to failing. For example if I missed an episode of a cartoon or TV show, I would have to wait months maybe to see it again. There were lost of little things like. Another exmaple: I remember listening to the radio on my boom box for an hour hoping for "EAT It" by weird al to come on so I could record it on blank tape for my friend. Now is say "Hey Google, play eat it by weird al". I'm not saying we were better for it; just explaining how it was
I know this reply is 8 months old but when you talked about recording song off the radio it put a smile on my face. I made a ton of mix tapes like that as I rarely had the money to go to Tower Records or any other music store and buy singles or records.
@@gryphon9507 going out to buy 45s was the big thing back then too. Or getting the last of the 8 tracks in stores. I'm talking about pre CD era.
@@mikemcgown6362 oh I was there born in 72.
@@gryphon9507 Right on! 😁
I didn’t have cable so MTV came through in snow and I’d sit there for hours waiting for ‘that new tune’ like, The Eurythmics or something, to pipe through and I’d grab my portable tape cassette player and hold it speaker to recorder and press record and hold my breath that no little sister would come storming down the stairs and screw it all up. mix tapes of newly discovered music were everything! And I’d spend days on end decorating the paper that listed the songs. And don’t even get me started on the frustration/thrill of going to the local video store to see what was left in the new releases! I understand why kids are nuts now- they never wait for anything; there is never a thrill just over the horizon.
Gen x was the most bad ass generation over there. Thriving for good things and comfort in life while dealing with the all hardship possible out there alone.
We were "overlooked" because it's easy to overlook a generation that isn't constantly pissing and moaning.
Exactly. We Xers just did what needed to be done without needing permission from everyone else to do the simplest of things. That's why we were able to be so inventive. Millennials and Z's have to be told how to do everything...
@@Deborahtunes Many of the later generations don't think it is important to learn anything. They have it all on their phone. Critical thinking skills are now left to the internet.
@@rockymntain ~ True. With Millennials and the Z generation, everything is about their FEELINGS. They don't know how, or even want to think for themselves...
YES!
The boomers cry more than the millennials about what they think they are owed.
First year Gen X. Born in 65. We are overlooked because we didn't whine and cry about everything. We were raised to be tough and soldier on when things were bad. Terms like "walk it off" and "I'll give you something to cry about" were common for us.
Born in '70. We learned quick that attention is a double-edged sword. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the nail that stands up will be pounded flat. Cries for help can make you a target. So we chose stealth and self-sufficiency, and became Generation Unknown, Generation X.
I remember being told by my father to do something, and me saying "what for?". His response: "come here. I'll show you what for".
Sure thing. That's when libs started teaching socialism just hasn't been done right. Birney bros took the bait. You work give me the money. FJB
It's like in the Never Ending story where the boy is told his destination is to walk 10,000 miles, so he trudges in the mud, almost drowns, gets up and keeps going until he can't anymore... It's a good and bad thing. 😅
_You don't know how good you got it_
_No one likes a crybaby_
_Stand up for yourself_
These are the things I heard from my Dad, Granddad, and coaches.
It built emotional fortitude.
The thing with GenX is that we grew up self reliant and understanding the need to be responsible for our own selves. Yes, we played video games after school but eventually most of us knew when to turn it off to eat and do homework. The idea that GenZ needs someone to tell them to get off their phones, use social media wisely so their brains don't rot kind of makes some of us roll our eyes a bit.
come on, the video games were kinda boring. We would play like half an hour then go outside. Pestering the boomers was way more fun.
Too self reliant
@@nunodasilva5449Personally. I rode my bike everywhere or my older brother would take me on the bus downtown to search for baseball cards and Garbage Pail Kid cards.
The power of one
You wouldn’t need to roll your eyes if you did your job as parents properly.
I'm at the end of Gen X (born 1979). My mum worked from when I was 5 - I used to walk myself to my ballet class after school and get changed by myself for the class at 5 years old. From about the age of 9 me and my brothers would be home alone after school for an hour until Mum got home. I remember being left home alone for the weekend the first time when I was 12 and my oldest sibling was 13 and my younger brother 10 (that would be illegal now). When I fought with my brothers and went to tell my mother she would say sort it out amongst yourselves. We mostly used to walk or bike a half mile to catch the school bus. All of this stuff would be considered bad parenting now but it made us self sufficient and self reliant and taught us how to handle issues ourselves from a young age
Me, and my sisters would go home after school, and my oldest sister would make supper for when my mom, and dad came home from work.
Sadly now CPS would be called. But I grew up just like you.
born 1980 here, i remember summers, going out with friends into woods (Finland, we have forests), and going home eating when hungry, or we had something with us, or foraged something. Unless we had somewhere to be (like we are going to visit granma this weekend), none cared where we were. This was when we were mature age of a 9-13.
All that lack of parenting wasn't all good, either. Some Gen Xers ended up pretty crappy parents themselves because their own parents sucked. It just snowballs from their every generation. And I'm saying that as a Gen Xer who remembers some of my friends having absentee parents who were selfish Boomers, and those friends grew up to be crappy parents themselves.
I was eleven when I first spent the night in my house by myself, Because dad had to go out of town on a business meeting and it was a school night and I had to be in school the next day. I actually liked having that time to myself.
The last generation to think friends who took pictures of themselves constantly and INSISTED on showing them to you was a weird personality flaw and suspected their parents would probably have to intervene and fork out for some expensive therapy. 😂
😂😂exactly. I’m so glad I am Gen x.
yes, being narcistic was shame for us
Agree with everything except the expensive therapy. I can't remember a single person in therapy in the 70's 80's...
Remember there was a cliched joke of bores showing their holiday slides to their friends?
As a Gen X'r, I am proud to say that us teenage latch key kids knew how to throw a "House Party."
No doubt. Every time our parents left town for anything. House party
Truth
Yes 1990s college parties in particular were fantastic
COPS!
And leave no evidence
GenX: Witnessed the birth of MTv and the death of Music Television.
Painful isn't it?
But now we have RUclips!
I blame reality TV like road rules and TRL and yo MTV raps being play non-stop episode after episode they stop playing good music music that people liked then started force-feeding people stuff like Britney Spears and boy bands.....and Kids stop watching
@@leroylowe5921 Yeah but its way more work and you have to know what you are looking for. The cool thing about MTV was you never knew what was next and they gave a variety. Algorithms can't seem to do variety.
@ Yeah, the algorithms (that sounds like a band) are made to show you more of what you seem to like. It's like a self sustaining positive feedback loop (okay, phrases like that are above my pay grade).
as a Gen X i grew up in school fist fighting a lot came home with bruises and black eyes and we never had to worry about a gun
In the 90'S there's was a lot fist fighting in middle school and high school.
_Friday (1995):_
*Mr. Jones:* Oh, no, son, that's not the way it is. You kids today are nothin' but punks. Sissified. So quick to pick up a gun. You're scared to take an ass-whippin'.
[he holds up his fists]
*Mr. Jones:* This is what makes you a man. When I was growin' up, this was all the protection we needed. You win some, you lose some, but you live. You live to fight another day. And you think you're a man with that gun in your hand, don't you?
Born in 1965, so the first of the Gen Xers. We prefer to be overlooked, we don't have the patience for everyone's drama.
👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
Gen x parents have gen z kids
Some have Millennial kids.
@@FutureNow You forgot to mention Gen X made rebellious music in the 90s and early 2000s besides Nirvana like Eminem, Slipknot, Green Day, System of a Down, Drowning Pool, Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Disturbed and so on.
Todd Reyes True.
"Gen x parents have gen z kids" This is true. A lot of gen Xers like myself waited until much later in life to have kids than their boomer parents did. My kids are actually on the young side of gen Z. I almost feel bad for them, because they will have much less access to the internet than most of their peers. Lol
I'm a Boomer with a Gen Z kid
Gen X is the generation that started with vinyl records--LPs and 45s, raided our parents' 8-track tapes, made mix tapes with our casettes, then bought our entire teen music library over again in CD format, before jumping on MP3s in the mid to late 90s. We saw all the teething problems of the first internet and its bulletin boards, the early days of the World Wide Web with dial ups, digital subscriber lines, then broadband. We had an old rotary phone in the house before being replaced by a cordless phone, then bought pagers before eventually leaping onto analog and later digital cell phones, then smart phones, and where we are now.
I was three years old when my father brought home our first home computer. Yet, I was 19 years old before I even bothered with Windows and the more famous operating systems. I watched tech grow from 8-bit to 16-bit and on to 64 bit and beyond, all during my school years (though the last leaps were when I was in college).
I grew up in the Cold War. I remember the Berlin Wall coming down. I remember the First Gulf War, the Balkan Wars, and of course, 9/11 and all that came after. I was a kid during the D&D scare--the terrifying thought that your child may be using their imagination to play in a make believe world using strange-shaped dice. Believe it or not, some parents--inspired by a bunch of greedy televangelists--considered Dungeons and Dragons a greater threat to children than drugs and unprotected sex, even during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
I remember that. Man,the bizarre hysteria just never stops. It just moves on to something else to fear.
Some of my earliest fears were getting nuked in world war 3.
You are so right. I remember on Dec 31, 1999, when millennials were dancing to Prince’s song “1999” I wanted to shout out “do you hear what that song is talking about?”! We didn’t even know if we were going to make it to the year 2000!
@@TheBetsyBoopLmao! I set my alarm to go off whenever the 1st place on earth experienced the New Year (somewhere in China), just so I could see if everything went to shit; & get a head start, if it did. When it didn't, I went back to bed!
@@ericaz1494 that’s funny!
We are overlooked because we don’t complain and instead quietly go about our business and get shit done.
Bingo!
Gen X here and I work in I.T Systems. We went through all of the massive technology jumps and appreciate this more. We will be the last generation that can still appreciate the simple life we once had.
Mele Nico yeah I also work in I.T and it’s wild how quickly it feels it went from floppy disks, cassette tapes and VHS to where we are now.
I missed the simple life of the 80s and early 90s.
I meant to say I miss.
I miss the excitement of discovery from a time when the entire world wasnt just a click away. Import bins at the record shop or doing reports where you would call the subject you were researching and they would send you some free stuff in the mail.
@@gauloise6442 I miss seeing pretty girls which are rare these days. Almost everybody is fat and with tattoos everywhere I go. A lot of the people I see out these days could have worked at fairs in the freakshow exhibits in days of old.
Gen X here. Happy to tell the Z's how we did things in our day.
And till this day, Saturday morning cartoons during our time were and still are the best ever.
Yeah, Saturday morning just isn't what it used to be, is it? You looked forward to ONE day out of the week to be entertained and not educated, and now look at? They replaced all the cartoons with educational programs, these kids today will never know the joys of Bugs Bunny!
DAMN RIGHT!!! Bugs bunny Road runner show.
and those trippy live action sid and marty krofft Saturday morning shows. Our childhoods were spent consuming far-out media created by a bunch of a drug addicts
@@gauloise6442 Hey, I'd much prefer that to watching an antelope give birth, any day! To Gen Z, I guess I would say what you never knew, you don't miss. But imagine for four hours, pure animation joy having your Saturday mornings begin with Bugs Bunny and end just before Noon with Shazam/ISIS!
3 words
Creature Double Feature.
I was born in 1971, and I'm so glad to be Gen X. I couldn't have picked a better time to be born and grow up in if I had a choice!
Same 71 model here too
Agreed. Loved being an MTV kid. 😎👍
@Martin Wheatley yep, you got that right!
we are well balanced
Greatest generation hands down, they raised me & actually saved the world, they were & knew real Americans, then boomer cuz they hogged all the last of the American dream then US, tho we had the best music
We can not forget how our Moms left us in the cars to go grocery shopping. We were told to lock the doors and roll the windows up, and do not open the door for anyone or we would get a spanking😂
As a Gen X-er, I feel lucky to have grown up the way we did. Yes, we had minimal supervision - but this meant we had to learn how to take care of ourselves. Many, many times we would come home from school to empty houses, finding notes on the kitchen table with instructions for cooking dinner for ourselves. Minimal supervision and relative lack of technology meant we had to find things to do on our own, sometimes even making up games with friends if we were bored. Neighborhood games like kick the can ruled the day. We had hobbies back then! Sometimes we'd do our hobbies together with friends. You also learned how to be your own person and how to own yourself: if you talked smack about someone, you could get "called out" and find yourself in a fist fight. No parents, police, or teachers involved, it would be all on you. You quickly learned not to be a jerk or you'd get your ass kicked. Our greatest fears were that our parents would find out! Our parents were generally more strict and we all knew the difference between the leather belt and the wooden spoon. Safety was not thought about and we generally tried to see how far we could take things. The community was more homogenous than today so we all pretty much celebrated the same holidays. Christmas was a much bigger deal and the schools and towns had decorations and festivities to a much larger extent than today. Summer vacation seemed to last forever and we had off from June 5th until just after Labor Day in September. 2-week summer family vacations were standard. So happy I grew up then!
Heisenberg I'm at the end of the "Baby Boomer" era and grew up under circumstances just like you. My single mother was working full time and going to night school so she could get a better job to pay the bills. Without help from our dad and an abusive ex-stepfather under our belts (yes I use that term specifically) we were on our own to get to school, do our homework, finish our chores and stay out of trouble. My sister and I did well but I can't say the same for my brother who hung out with "hoodlum" friends!
Yep, that was my life growing up as well. We know how to cook, clean and be self sufficient. Mom could depend on me and still can.
Preach on!
True facts ! Also, when parents got the first microwave it made cooking even easier !
Holy shit, Spot on man
Being Gen Xer I think we had freedoms that seems to be slowly eroded over successive generations.
From films to comedy, music and socializing there was hardly any restrictions, for example many films made in the 80s would never be made today.
Helicopter parenting was unheard of, if we got caught doing something we shouldn't then we'd face the consequences because we knew we were in the wrong.
As teenagers we'd get Saturday jobs, summer jobs, more money for records and clothes. It was if we grew up fast but still maintained a sense of youthful curiosity and the only people we wanted to impress were either our friends or latest crush. The world wasn't our judge, our mistakes weren't fodder for countless strangers to pick over.
I crave for those days now, not because I'm getting older but because of how full life seemed despite not having much.
I love my generation of Xers, and I'm so grateful to have experienced one of the unique moments in time.
I was born in 1971, and my mom was the biggest helicopter parent you could imagine. I often say, I lived through all the history and pop culture of Gen X, but was raised more like a Millennial somehow lol
Speaking words of wisdom. 💯
Perfectly said.
Well said! 👏
As a gen Xer, what I feel defines us is our independence.. we didn’t need mommy and daddy hover around and protect us from everything;
Our older boomer parents sided with teachers, etc when we acted up;
It was acceptable to actually discipline your kids;
School shootings didn’t happen;
People actually talked to each other.. in person and on (gasp) landlines;
The music was great, and it was the last real time of innocence.
People were very local, we mostly didn’t have any clue what was going on in other towns around the country. We just lived the dream
You know middle aged people said the same thing 30 or 40 years ago?
The last generation before the rise of the Internet forum, where hive minds started taking over the world, and really weird niche groups started feeling "normal."
@@BishopWalters12Tale as old as time.
Well... who's the parents of the later generations that was helicoptered and told they deserve a trophy for participating? Who's the parents millennials? I'm a GEN Y (between Gen X and millennials) my kids are Gen Alpha and I'm 39....my mom was Gen X and so was my Dad and they had me very young. So Gen Z and millennials are both the product of Gen X.
@@hostileactual7655 My man, Gen Y and millennials are the same generation, 81-96.
We are the last generation that will remember life before and after the internet. When life and mankind changed forever.
That’s because we’re the glue that holds the past and present together.
As a Gen-X'er myself. I completely approve this message. Unfortunately things have only gotten worse as I've gotten older. Thanks.
so true, no hope since the .. wait... no hope... ever. jokes on us. work until you die, yaaaay
Born in 78..I'm glad I'm in this generation...we were raised to be held accountable for our actions...we were in a society that wasn't soft...we were dependent on ourselves....to date hands down have the best music ppl today rock t shirts of bands during our time...the first cell phone I remember was huge and plugged in the car....just a great generation
I miss my first Nokia bag cell phone.
You belong too The Greatest Generation Girl! 1969'r here!!!
@@JoePedo turn into stone
@@kevinstimelsky673 of all times...
@Daniel Daniels yes.. and there wasn't that unlimited deal it was per call and later when text or was per text.. calls free after 8
Gen X ware born before the computer revolution but grew up with computers and witnessed how they changed society for better and for worse. In a way gen x understands bouth the boomers and millenials who lack this common perspective.
Millenial here. I can agree with that. I find that Gen Xers are easy to relate to, far more than baby boomers. You guys were our older brothers and our pop culture heroes. In fact, I feel more connected to Gen X than Gen Z. Millenials definitely remember prank calling on 3-way phone lines, hanging out at the mall, and going to arcades.
Generation Z will have big impact on the world, they are not idiot boomers or weak milennials. Far better than them, If we put internet along there generation Z already will reach the god level on this world. This is the generation you grew up X and Milennials, those monster generation are away from control.
You will not control us but we will control you, our sons Beta Generation will be your nightmares on the path you will see.
@@Email5507 Wow... mkay. Hate to say it, but Gen Z is gonna face the same problems as Gen X: low population. Gen X had a hard time being heard and making moves in the world because they were so many Boomers in control of the world their whole life, and they were overlooked. Sorry to say it, but I fear the same happening to Gen Z. Not that it's really all that big of deal though.
@@DKC_Returns yup sounds true just like when my father's Silent Gen was stuck in the middle with the Greatest n Boomers those things can happen with the younger
ÖLÜMLÜHAYATBUGÜNVARSINYARINYOKSUN One of the biggest threats future generations will have to face will be disinformation and foreighn propaganda aka informational warefare waged by trolls on behalf of rough foreighn states and organisations. These rough states (dictatorships, authoritarian states) will use the young people of their countries (cyber terrorists) to promote their ultra conservative, authoritarian agenda to Western liberal democracies by creating an illusion of suport of authoritarian and backwards ultra conservative ideas and spreading conflict between different age, gender, race and political groups with the goal to trigger them into rate against one another. Back in my day (lol) we told such people to „fuck off”, and just like in the songs of one of my favorite Punk rock bands from the 90’s The Offspring to all younger generations i would say „if you take home anything let it be the will to think” and not really on what random people on the internet say, no matter how many of them seam to suport agree and thumbs up the conservative agenda promoted by some backwards authoritarian state. All generations are different because they had different experiances that is why they have a problem to understand each others perspective. In no way one generation is better than the onter. If you do not understand this then you are either stupid, arrogant and/or sponsored by some rough backwards state to promote such agenda.
Others have claimed Gen-X was a feral generation. Agreed. We tend to keep to ourselves and avoid the drama created by others.
The average GenXers don’t care. We just go about living our lives.
Too busy taking care of my Boomer parents and putting my Gen Z kids through college while working full time so I don't have time to care about much else, frankly.
Yea cynical
That's part of our problem. We're so wrapped up in our own lives that we don't realize we're about to be run over.
You don't care as long as you can live life as you want to. Y'all don't want to be forced to contemplate the well-being of others because that might make you uncomfortable.
Secretly weak trying to wear a facade of apathetic independence.
@@soccerwizard975 *hits buzzer* WRONG!!!
GenXers do care about people. We largely just don't care about what people think about us. We're used to people not giving us recognition or credit for the things we contribute, so we just go ahead and do them without making a show of it.
Generation X - where the bullies all had to do their bullying - face to face.
And still do!
Hahaha
@Edgar Foerster cringe
@@Jamison4200-OG Yea, right. You wish. We're making everyone else wanna kill themselves online bc we're the only generation of ppl who don't get 'triggered'
perfectsplit Bullies and victims often became friends, too.
Gen X the only generation to be cooler than their kids...
That is the strange thing about this time period, the only thing that is really new is the powerful digital technology
@@dr.strangelove5708 Agreed, everything else is still the same. It just got smaller, streamlined, and stupider. Rap was the last original music genre to be created. EDM = 80s techno.
I get it, but most of us have gen Z children. They are pretty cool not as cool as us , but certainly not those whining millennials.
@J B good point. Never thought about that. It's funny because my lily sis was an associate proff for 20years at Yale.
🤣
We've been booted out of every conversation on Earth and I am so over it!!!
Amen Sister!!
I’m Gen X, born in 1972. I wasn’t a latchkey kid. We were poor and I grew up out in the sticks of Mississippi. My mom was a stay at home mom. I remember fondly the times before the internet and cell phones. I miss that time. It was more peaceful when you could go somewhere without a constant text or phone call or notification. People couldn’t easily bother you. We truly had the BEST music too!
Gen Xer here- I’m a native Mississippian. 🖤
I the summer I did manual labor.
We had two chanles.
My family moved several times, but my preteen years were in West Virginia. It was amazing how i could just go walking in the woods for hours at age 11 or so and exactly no one in my family knew where i was. There was no way to reach them and they couldn’t reach me. I just walked and poked around in creeks and listened to birds… it was pretty great
We Gen Xers have taken a lot of heat because of our lack of idealism and ironic approach to pop culture. Yet we are the ones working to support both our retired boomer/silent parents and Gen Z kids (not me personally, since I have no kids and my parents are fine, but generally). We are the workhorse generation, if anything, the first to have been hit with the realization that we'll have it worse than our parents.
So true. I'm experiencing this with my kids and wife's father right now.
Perfectly stated 👌
So true, having it worse than our parents and working harder.!
A lot of our parents like to ignore that they used a lot of us gen x eldest or eldest female children as part-time SAHP to our siblings and as housekeeping. Now they tell us that they can't help us because they are done raising a family. Dude, you didn't raise a family, you worked. The kids raised themselves.
Boomer grandparents have raised many of genXes children
Proud to be generation X!!!!! I remember just walking through all my friends doors because NO ONE had a door locked 😂 the 80’s were actually really chill.
It was the same here in the UK, when I got home from school my parents were at work, so I'd fight with my brothers, eat whatever had been left in the fridge for for us, then go out with my friends. I'd see my parents for 30 seconds when I got in as they tried to wring information out of me about where I'd been and what I'd done. Then I'd go upstairs, listen to some music, watch some TV or play some video games and hit the sack.
In the long long summers, we'd go on bike rides for hours at a time, leaving early morning and not returning until the sun was down. Climb trees, shake down conkers, discover weird and places to hang out, go swimming, get into fights, taught ourselves to do tricks on the BMX and so much more. Golden years. Wouldn't change a thing.
I love how he wraps the video by saying what GenX has to do to prove ourselves and show we are doing the right thing. The fact that we don't care what others think, and that we couldn't care less about proving anything to anybody is what makes us GenX! LMAO!
Agreed.
They have no idea just how much we don't care. Bless them.
He sounded like a liberal Millennial to this Gen Xer.
Hes a millennial and millennials all expect to be handed success.
AMEN!!!!
They are overlooked because they dont spend all their time complaining.
Rich Henry Okay Karen.
@@phoenix5054 Were you crying when you wrote this? Nevermind, we all the know the answer.
Amen!
no one listened to them anyway.
@@phoenix5054 You must be of the Ritalin generation. Your thought process is of no consequence to others, as you are "special". Note; an attempt to use the simplest and direct wording here may have resulted in the use of words above the two syllable mark. Please have someone interpret for you. A participation award will be issued, along with free entry passes to your nominated safe space.
As a Gen Xer I remember back in elementary school, my teacher taught us about the generations. Went into the "greatest generation" and how they beat Hitler in WWII, about the Boomers and how many believed they rode coattails of their parents. So we asked what our generation was. She told us Generation X was considered the "lost" generation or that we were simply forgotten. Even back then it was prophetic. She went on to say most people view our generation as lazy and apathetic. Not sure if it means anything but half my class was asleep and the other half didn't care
LOL!!! That's accurate.
Then, the Millenials- taking it to the next level. The younger sibling of the ordeal! The more guided and less independent!
Hopefully, we stop the downward trend and the upcoming generation gets frustrated with needed so much physical and emotional support
I would stop caring too if my teacher told me my generation was the lost generation and just lazy and forgotten.
@@jasonm1827 They probably didn't know it at the time- hahah, but- imagine the immense pressure of the immediate generations prior.
sounds about right
I was born in 1965. I was exoected to find my way home from kindergarten at 5 years old. I walked. In a city. Over a mile. To say my parents were hands off is an understatement.
I walked to and from school as well from kindergarten on.
Generally speaking, since GenX kids spent a lot of time alone and effectively raised themselves, they became very comfortable doing things on their own, making their own decisions and letting other people do the same. Which is probably why there aren't many GenX folks in politics trying to arbitrate other people's life choices. It's not in our nature to tell others what to do, nor to let others tell us what to do.
there isn't any room either, with a bunch of washed up 80 year old corpses in politics because they are selfish assholes.
Well stated
yes but, its in our nature to go into those places and fix it to how it use to be and how it worked -- no one wants that ive found. Millennials think they have over taken gen x for some reason... boggles the mind.
We are also prudent fact checkers, prefer to maintain our emotions until we know the whole story, some are minimalists BUT will go all in for philanthrophy, conservation, and saving money for a future of some sort
So did millenials ? Lol
I appreciate the lack of cell phone cameras in the 80s and 90’s 😂
No one will ever know the hour to week long wait to get film developed, like us older folk (Gen X here).
@@karmaalstad5588 Yeah take that stuff to the Fotomat lol
It certainly made it easier for me to go through family photos and remove every one of me with that hideous hair cut my mother insisted I get. Oh yes, I won't miss those 80's hair styles.
@VR Wanderings
You mean One Hour Western Photo Center, right lil'shooter.
It shut down way back when insta downloading to computers to print off and Wal-Mart.
Amen!
Some say we are forgotten, but I say we are invisible, and being invisible has it's advantages :)
I came to this same understanding during this video. Thank you for speaking my thoughts
I'm 60
@@dianariverrose3635 then you’re a boomer (1961 + 60 = 2021 1945-1964 = Boomer).
😂😂
I completely agree.
I love being GenX. I was reading a story of a mom who went on a cruise and left her kids at home with wi-fi and a credit card. You know that's what happened when we were growing up. We raised ourselves and had to figure out on our own. I had a key. We were the MTV kids. The generation who could drive a stick, cook our own meals, do our own laundry.
As a Gen Xer, I also think we’re the generation having pensions ripped out from under us. I’ve had it happen twice. I’m pessimistic that social security will still be around when I retire. That’ll probably get ripped out too. They’re already inventing new ways to chop away my 401k. What a joke that is!!
George Carlin called that s#it years ago. Now, here we are.
Tell me about it, I'm going to need to work a half day, the day of my funeral.
They are doing the same in England too, keep raising the retirement age. At this rate will get to retire at 80!
I was taught in college my sophomore year, 87, that social security would all be used up by the boomers when we retire. But, at 20, that seemed a long ways off...
That's why I've been working on my dividend portfolio. If SS does exist when I get that age, I'll just consider it a bonus, but I'm sure as hell not counting on it. Them politicians like their dividends, so I'm confident those will be safe until I die.
My dad is gen x, and he is seriously one of the coolest guys I know. He’s a gamer, computer savvy and has always been so modern. He never shunned technology, he welcomed it and even helped me and my sibling build our own computers. He’s relatable and “with the times” and that’s coming from
A millennial and a gen z sibling. I’ve always loved gen x fellows. In fact, most my friends are gen x. I don’t feel judged. I’m so old fashioned and not even following the trend of most millennials and yet boomers are some of the meanest people I’ve met sometimes (not all mind you). Simply for being young and not born into their age - just a total destain for my generation. Much love for you gen x peeps!
Boomers can be assholes
Yeah, your type is more than welcomed to come sit with us❤
@Doctor Detroit This guy.
My husband is a gen x dad and he's just awesome. He and our 4 year old play electric guitar together. They sing some Nirvana songs. They play the Wii. We are a really close family. We would never put our son through a divorce either so no matter what issues arise in our marriage, we work it out. I think Gen X moms are a little misunderstood. We come across as hovering moms but I think we're just trying to figure out what a mom is since a lot of us had moms who were way more into their own lives than our lives.
@Doctor Detroit weren't millennials raised by Gen X parents? Most Gen X'ers didn't have good parents so maybe that affected their kids?
We also remember when being HIV positive was a death sentence...
I know a lot of people who never even cared cause we knew we all would die someday.
All the people who idealize the 80s forget this as well as plenty of other things that weren't all that great about the 80s
Dance the night away ladidadida ay....
Then Magic Johnson happened, like some double entendre.
Yeah thank god for modern medicine
(Also RIP Freddie Mercury)
GEN X'ER here.. thank you young man for giving us our props.. ❤
Generation X is the new "silent generation". Just quietly living their lives
Well said.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut Never heard of a Gen Xer requiring safe spaces -- EVER -- let alone in our college years. Nor did we get participation ribbons. We won or we lost. We competed. Nor were we coddled . Our parents most certainly did NOT make excuses and defend us when we were wrong. We got our asses whipped. We experienced the consequences of OUR actions. We didn't have attitudes of entitlement nor believe what we wanted should be handed to us with no blood, sweat and tears. Never did we consider we were entitled to other people's money and the fruits of their labor -- the millennial mantra is everything free, free, free for me, me, me.
We most definitely were NOT offended and whining every single minute of every day. We weren't dictating what was and was not acceptable speech, and no rioting, violence, and destruction of property to shut down the speech of people with whom we disagreed. We weren't triggered by opposing points of view. We listened, debated and conversed. We weren't MY FEELINGS OVER FACTS. We didn't harass and assault people dining in restaurants or who wore red hats -- taking it even further to their homes and family -- UNTHINKABLE. We enjoyed and lived OUR lives and left others to their own. We weren't dictating to others how to live. But most of all, WE LOVED OUR COUNTRY IN OUR YOUTH AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED. WE WEREN'T I HATE AMERICA SOCIALIST MARXIST COMMIES IN TRAINING. Baby boomers are our parents, dumb ass. There's bound to be friction. Millennials deserve every verbal beating and beat-down they get. It's called cause and effect.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut Radical feminists started in the late 60s/early 70s. I was born in 1965, and I am telling you, that was not mainstream popular youth culture. Period.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut I lived and came up in the 80s/90s. That shit was NOT across the nation mainstream day in and day out in your face like it is with the millennials today. You can spout as much as you like. It doesn't change the reality of the time in which I came of age.
@Ken Meyer-Landrut In fact, I personally know four millennials. Two young women and two young men. They call me Aunt Dawn. Thankfully, they are sane, rational, intelligent, hard-working, and dare I say normal. My niece has shared with me the multitude of times she was harassed for wrong think on her college campus. So, you'll excuse me if I take her personal experiences as nearer the truth than your claims.
I was born at the cusp of Gen X in 1966, so I kinda watched the whole generation grow up. My wife, meanwhile, was born in 1972 and sums it up perfectly. Our generation hit middle age in the 2000s, when corporate media switched from targetting the older, well-to-do, upper middle class adults (and their children) to advertising to the young adult demographic. We were skipped.
Combine that with the number of kids who grew up on their own, and it's no wonder we felt like we were overlooked.
Thank goodness, I for one don't want to be included in all those offended wanting to blame someone for all their woes.
And now the shift is going back to the older demographic because those young adults who are now at that age still want the attention.
I see Gen X as a badge of honor. we were the children of divorced families, grew up, hard knocks, had to grow up really fast, got jobs early to be self-reliant, learned knowledge from a lot of peers and friends, as opposed to parents, the first to use the Internet without butchering it. Now we’re at a point where we just want to live our lives somewhat incognito and watch everyone around us just going insane.
Well said. This is why we take umbrage at the millenials who like to pretend they went through what we went through. Back in our day we called someone who did that a POSER!
You hold grudges and are apathetic. Seem to be smart but do cruel things unconsciously.
Couldn't have said it better myself...just gonna sit on the porch with a drink and watch it all burn with an "I told you so" ready on my lips.
I wouldn't. Your generation kept quiet and allowed mega corporations to take over the world. You're generation was useless and accomplished nothing
AMEN!!!
I'm a 1978 Gen X. A lot of this video I can relate to. Mom and Dad both working, constant fighting, getting divorced. That's the negative side. The positive side... I grew up with MTV when it actually played music videos. I saw the rise and fall of hair metal, new wave, and grunge. Kurt Cobain killed himself when I was 16. Disco officially died in 1982. Me and my brother and all our friends would be outside the whole day. We would ride our BMX bikes for hours and go everywhere. Without helmets and knee pads. Or we would build these wobbly ramps with a old drum and a plank and we would become Evel Knievel with heavy metal music blasting from a ghetto blaster. How we didn't get maimed or killed is still a miracle to me. We blew up stuff with fire crackers and bottle rocket. Insane but fun times!😂😂
A lot of the teens list the Vs in the backseat of the car on prom night.
Not one kid these days or prior to the Gen X age will ever understand the struggle of making a mix tape for someone.
Having to use a pencil or your finger to fix the tape if the spool spun the wrong way and tape filament came out and twisted.
😂😂😂
Truth. 😀
....and your pinky finger getting sore or stuck after two turns. LOL
That sh*t was delicate work. Constantly on the edge. If the tape broke that was as bad as the Blue Screen of Death.
Never mind having to wait for that particular song to come on only to have the DJ talk over the whole beginning of the song. @@5Gburn
The key for GenX was to bridge the analog and digital world. I enjoy riding a bicycle and know how to use a computer. Balance is key baby!
Perfectly balanced as all things should be
Everyone born before 2000 had that life.
🎶 "I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars..." 🎶
I enjoyed growing up in a time before the internet and cell phones became a popular thing. We were forced to socially interact with people in real life.
@ not really... the 80's and 90's gave birth to a lot of the same music you listen to today... particularly hip hop, pop, R&B and electronica... even modern country, most of which hasn't changed much since then
A hallmark of Gen X is growing up with both parents working and older siblings not wanting us around. We grow up outside, with friends in semi feral packs, we talked to people, we did stuff. Family for me was just the house, but I was everywhere and often wasn't home till well after the streetlights came on.
I hardly see kids out doing the stuff we did. Now everyone i know with kids seems to be insulating them, or wanting them in organized sports and other crap like that. Cell phones showed up in the mid 80's and were expensive, if we were lucky we had a pager in the late 80's. I got deep into motorcycles and riding, meeting more people, learning by example, then taking classes. I read books, watched documentaries, got deep into electronics, all with little care of parents. Gen X also entered the working world at the beginning of some of the worst economic times since the depression and also entered a time of easy credit with high costs. I learned to live with what I could afford, a good part being the once very nice things boomers sold cheap because they were "old". Living this way protected us, many though wanting the VW GTI simply couldn't afford it, or the insurance. We lived with roommates, drove old cars like earlier generations did and learned to take care of things. It always kind of surprises me when i deal with younger people who are either uninterested in or simply can't fix anything.
One big thing I found I learned was to not depend on others, or often want their help as it seems to always come with a price. I watch the boomers with a degree of distain, they seem to want to take the world with them as if they're spoiled butts were really that important. As for younger people, the arrogance I see in them is between annoying and a joke. It's funny seeing people act as though they're so important when they can't do much of anything without having to explain it to them.
Damn straight! ✌️
I love the younger generations, we in X need to mentor the Zers bcuz its millenials that screwed them up
You make a really good point about not depending on others growing up, and the risk of failure having a potentially very high cost was, back then, very real, and as a generation it seems. What’s crazy is I feel like nothing’s changed.
STILL no help for us with our parents OR our kids and DEFINITELY still none for us.
Stand By Me to everything from John Hughes, the A-Team to punk rock and the Goonies meant something then and still do for a reason.
We’re a good group, a tough group, yeah, but definitely a good one. ✊🏾
Nicely said! Just a strange observation here. I feel the reason the "boomers" and zoomers" can't get along, is because they are the same people (not all, but a whole lot of them). For Both groups: In their late teens and/or early 20's, the world was bananas with social justice issues (some necessary and some not) and all the name calling that goes along with that, serious wars ending and beginning in close succession, feminism and other special Interest groups running wild and demanding change from everyone but themselves, EVERYTHING being politicized, fruitless protests and/or outright rioting, a government that either didn't really care all that much about really helping society at large or was just "accidentally" doing a bad job of it, an economy in the toilet, breakdown of the more traditional family & societal values in favor of a much more "open" and liberal approach to things, and parents with blinders on because they were too busy trying to keep food/clothes/shelter going for their families. Sure, we Gen x kids had some of these worldly problems too, but we were parented way differently than the boomers and zoomers. Most of us had a lot of responsibilities at home and no time to worry about petty things, and our parent(s) had no time or desire to hear complaints from us. The boomers see in the zoomers who they used to be (or maybe still are Inside) and realize how ridiculous they may have been in youth, and the elder zoomers are possibly looking at their bleak future selves in the boomers, and both are in angry denial.
Interesting point. I had a sister. We were never close and that is the case to this day. I felt like I was an only child growing up.
😂I got the Nirvana joke, that was a good one actually.
"Tried to come up with a Nirvana joke but, nevermind"
Album title.
That Kurt Corbain, he really blew my mind ! Too dark?
I'm a gen x. I was a antisocial kid & now I'm a 53 year old antisocial adult. I've been on my own since 15. Anything that I wanted in my life I went out and earned it. I bought a rundown house & renovated it myself and own it outright. Since this pesky pandemic hit life hasn't changed for me much. The only thing I miss is going to see punk rock bands who came through town on their 40th anniversary tours that I originally saw back in the 1980s.
bullshit
I'm, also missing the old man punk shows. We have similar life experience. Out @ 15. Bought 1st house At 23.
Punks not dead it just goes to bed early these days.
. based -
Hey man, so you are absolutely the right age to be Gen X, but I’m going to peg you as more of a late ‘Gen Jones’ which is kind of in between boomers and Gen X, they are more of the edgy punk rock type…
I say that with total respect, kind of feel like that might be more you….
1:43 I was born in 84 but I moved out when I was 14 and I went to prison when I was 18 and I didn’t get my first cellphone till I was 21. I like to think I’m Gen-X at heart. Like most of y’all in this comment I was antisocial when I was young, still anti social… I bought a cheap 2 story rundown house and fixed it up. I don’t rely on other people for shit, I work to get what I want and what I need. All these newer generations are leading us right into the shitter🤦♂️
As a Gen X... I can honestly say I'm so proud of being from the last generation to grow up without tech as we know it today. We watched it all. I also feel we are the last generation to grow up with a good sense of humor, and common sense. None of us saw what was coming... It just wasn't conceivable to us. All the political correctness and sensitivity... Honestly... We never saw it coming.
Someone raised these little motherfuckers that all we "Gen X'ers" are complaining about.. and it wasn't me.
So true! A sense of humor... The next generations lack that.
We wanted the political correctness to go away, but internet trolls ruined all that.
The greedy Boomers saw it coming, especially those in politics and they played everybody like a well-tuned violin.
Me, too. As a Gen X dude I agree
Why is the Stranger Things show so popular amongst all generation groups? answer: Because Gen X was the bridge generation for all groups!
VERY TRUE GEN X WAS THE COOLEST. EVERYONE IS TRYING TO REDO THE 80'S WITH MOVIES LIKE WONDER WOMAN 1984, STRANGER THINGS, AND OCTOBER 1983
This is a true statement.
AMEN
There's no creativity anymore. They have to keep going back to the 80s well.
We took care of ourselves. We learned from being outside, and we were OUTSIDE a LOT! We respected our elders. We learned how to lose so we could know how to win. If you weren't good enough, you didn't get a ribbon. It made us stronger and try harder. We had jobs at 10, 11, 12 years old. We saved our money if we wanted to buy something. We weren't coddled, we learned the hard way, and the hard way often came with a good smack to the face. We survived and in fact, we overcame.
WE'RE NOT FINISHED YET-- signed, GENX
We have a lot left to do! 🍻
Greg Allen 💕
✊✊✊
This year...we're crawling out from the woodwork, from our deep long tunnels, from the dark night, to bring the flame of transcendence.
Greg Allen right born in 1969 and thanks to hard work and years of sacrifice my husband and I are doing better than ever financially, mentally and spiritually. We still have a lot to give that’s is unless A bus 🚌 takes us out sayonara 😉
From the late 70’s to the late 90’s were the greatest times to be growing up in North America! Great music , great movies.
In the UK too! A great time to grow up.
@@person.X. You guys had UK82 and the NWOBHM. Love that shit!
damn the early 2000s are overlooked.
People forgotten about the generation x parents silent generation from jazz Doo wop rock and roll soul to hip hop grunge tribute s cadillac records nas and his great father olu dara jazz rock. Overlap between the silent generation and generation x both were unique in movies music.
Animation was still in its dark age, but after Ducktales it because one of the high points.
The Gen X childhood was the best time in history to be a kid. Goonies, NES, Garbage Pale Kids, The A-Team. We had the best of everything and how I wish I could relive it again.
It was better times back than!!
@* Social media has screwed everything up.
NES ... my best friend and I playing co-op games on the NES, trying to beat Double-Dragon II, and later III by playing together. "Jackal", or "Contra" ... oh Contra. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select Start (had to hit "select" because it was a 2P game).
-
Bonded of that.
-
Later went to High School together and kept it up with the SNES.
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We'd be 16 or 17, go into a convenient store back when they had nude-magazines on the rack behind the counter, and ask to buy a scratch off ... if the clerk allowed it (meaning that he didn't card us), then try to casually say, "Hey, uh ... go ahead and throw on that Hustler, too."
-
We'd get sodas from the vending machine in front of the grocery store, and it was legit 25-cents -- just a quarter. Always walked everywhere.
Karate Kid!
True
Gen Xers acted 35 at 14 yrs old, and will still be 35 at 70 yrs old.
i'm from the UK. We were the gen who played and hung out in the streets and parks after school and in the holidays and had next to 0 parental supervision. We pretty much sorted out our own issues, and we were all well aware who the local weirdos were. being in the real world so much meant we were really tuned into what was going on around us. Growing up in the 70's and 80's was just the best. The music, the freedom. fantastic !
The malls.
Malls in the UK were generally modest in size and only became wide spread in the later years of the 80's (There were a small number of exceptions) but especially in the 90's so we didnt hang out in them. we had a local mall built in 1992 i was in my 20's by then. We only got our first large super market store in my town in 1978. before that there were just small family owned shops along the street.Each shop had its own smell the bakers the butchers the hardware store the grocers shop, the chip shop and the sweet shop. milk was delivered by the milk man every morning at about 6 o'clock in his electric milk float. i still remember the clinck of the bottles when he would deliver. We gen x were responsible for the .com bubble burst.
@@Jade-pd3wm We had them everywhere in the states starting in the late 60's. There's lots of "dead mall" exploration videos on youtube which are fascinating. Latchkey kids were always hanging out at the mall. It was the thing in the 80's.
not were i was. like i said there were some malls in london, Essex birminfgham but in deepest Dorset we didnt get one till 1992.
you all were the kids from Grange Hill!
(the best tv show EVER; this Xer yank would happily pay tv tax for GH!)
and even tho i don't think the bbc intended it that way: the two returns of Tucker Jenkins for his struggling nephew are about as genX as it gets. healthy disrespect for authority and all. : - >
I am of Gen X and our childhood was rough. We had to grow up quickly, we did not complain because we would get beat and told "I'll give you something to cry about!" when we showed emotion. To this day I don't ever complain about an injury, I just suck it up and brush it off. We took care our ourselves and learned to be self-reliant. We weren't allowed in the house so lived outside, rode our bikes and skateboards everywhere, and explored our surroundings. It was the best childhood but then a lot of us did not make it because we were the test dummy for child safety seats and bike helmets. I love my Gen X crew because we are fiercely loyal and looked out for each other.
Indeed 👍
And we wear our scars proudly
Gen x is sandwiched between 2 cadres that love hearing how amazing they are.
@T Mox for real bro. It's a fight on who is the most special. Gen x is smaller by date than others for some reason too. We just want to be left alone to do what we do. Earn that trophy of we deserve one .
@@darkhighwayman1757 gen z born of gen x parents. Their quietness help mine
Well I mean...
Millennials are being spoken about, it’s not them boasting about how great they are, it’s older generations blaming millennials for destroying industries/companies/dating etc. I was born in 84 so I’m technically a millennial, but my childhood was very Gen X. Bikes. Building dens/forts etc. Very little technology. I relate to both generations and there’s even a “micro generation” from like 78-86 or something called Xennials for this very reason.
I do however think Millenials get a hard time. We can’t get on the property ladder. University degrees don’t lead to jobs in the relevant field very often. University loans are massive. Rent is extortionate and wages are low so we can’t save money or travel as much as previous generations.
But the only thing boomers focus on is that we aren’t buying fabric softener and we’ve stopped eating at shit chain restaurants.
Being Gen X and not being talked about is better than being a millennial or boomer and being constantly dogged on with idiotic negative stereotypes that aren’t even true. Most people aren’t obsessed with hearing how amazing they are. Most people are just trying to survive.
I am Gen X, and we are the Lost Generation, and we want to stay lost, don't bother us.
Being a Gen-X ER I'm in a unique good place I can see the past and see the future and take advantage of both. Couple years ago I was at my son's High School graduation where are the commencement speech included references to how Tech literate the Millennials were compared to their Gen X parents. I yelled out who do you think invented it?
@ABRAXAS To go even further than that, thats how Human knowledge came to be. Generation after generation. A culmination of thought and idea. Without the past, there is no future.
I once heard that the difference between Gen X and millennial was that millennials don't know what "format c:" means. I tested it. It's true. Ok why would they, but it's still mind-boggling.
ABRAXAS you're completely right of course, all the greats of any generation had to do their stint standing on the shoulders of giants - from the previous generation.
@ABRAXAS Dude people that grew up in 70s and 80s are genX.
Gen x invented it, but milennials mastered it.
That's how things work. One day, future generation is gonna teach millenials about tech that they ironically invented. The cycle will go on so all the credit goes to the earliest of the earlier human so nobody alive gets to have the right to say any of that atleast.
Born in 1978 and my life was like Lord of The Flies. I raised myself and my brother and how we are still alive is amazing. The stuff we did and got up to should have had Gen X be weeded out by attrition. Yet, somehow we survived.
Lol I agree and also wonder how I made it to 45😂
@@kiwidiesel I'm going to be 54 in August and yes, I often wonder the same...
We used to climb the power towers and seriously considered trying to zip line between two on the guide wires
I also remember the sissy tests. Where your friend would come up with something fairly dangerous to do. Do it then if you didnt you were a sissy!!
@@kiwidiesel Climbing trees, going miles from home with no way to contact anyone if we got hurt, jumping in creeks and rivers, builind crude ramps for our bikes, clay dirt rock fights, pine cone fights, Throwing people in the air and hoping they land on the schools gym mats.....We did a lot of stupid stuff.
Proud Gen X'er, here. Latchkey kids, free range kids, M-tv generation.. Super independent, self sufficient, disciplined, responsible, mature beyond our years, made the first playlists (all we needed was a boombox and a blank tape or 2), and took rock n roll and hip hop to supersonic levels. We're wise, we're artistic, we're innovative, we're freakin' AMAZING. And we're just getting started. The best is yet to come. 💗💗
He'll yeah !!!! ♡♡♡♡♡♡
and many of us got off to a ruff start
Smells Like Teen Spirit in here.
Yes! I couldn't have said it better myself..
you nailed it kimsteel366
We rarely CHOSE to stay home to play video games. We chose to play them once we couldn’t go out anymore or we were staying at a friends house. We were out playing until the street lights came on.
We Xers remember life before the internet and cell phones. We used land lines and met up in person to actually talk to each other.
To be fair, it is better in the end to have a face to face meeting rather than just texting or some other electronic means. I'm a Gen Z kid and I am trying to limit my phone time a little more.
and could find a place 100s of miles away without google map...
Siculus Hort I thumbed you up but I’m actually very grateful for gps. I suck with directions. I get sentimental about all the books I read from frequenting the local library. AND we can write in script.
LegOver Lass that almost seems like a Great thing. But... I digress ☺️
Gen zs do that. I am a millenial myself though.
To ignore Gen X is to ignore the eighties. Why would anyone do that?
Definitely the coolest decade.
Shhhh I want society to ignore me lol
Hello zombie apocalypse ! We may still lead the world in preparation !
exactly!
@Mike Hunt Dude there is nothing I didn't understand in that comment. I had the amiga as well. It was a frikin gem
Shout out to all my other Gen X ers ..... we will , we will rock you ! ♡
Hey sweetie! Doesn't it feel good to finally be mentioned in a video?! I'm 42.
Damn straight we will rock you and in the same token ride the Crazy Train, and all the while thinking We're Not Gonna Take It while Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Lol ok I'll stop now.
thats boomer music not GenX
Dave, even though
I was only in grade school, nobody could escape that song.
God I hate queen. Wasnt Freddy Mercury a boomer
Proud Gen X'er here. F*** off. Don't want none of the drama or discussion. When the s** hits the fan we will take care of our own. Good luck to the rest of you.