another poll!

[lauralh]

I was arguing with someone about the Gen-X cutoff, that is, I read if you were born in 1975 you're Gen X but not later, but someone insisted that it was 1977. But I think it's a little less about when you were born and more about whom you hang out with, or at least what tastes coincide with your own. Like Gen Xers saw Star Wars in the theater and it was a really big deal.

[Poll #104535]

Comments

[katyakoshka.livejournal.com]

I was born in 1977 (shortly after you, I believe); my younger brother was born in 1980. We are definitely members of different "generations". And he's more likely to be Gen Y than I am.

Also, in college, I had a hard time relating to the people who entered in fall of '96 and afterwards -- the people born in 1978, while most of my friends were either close contemporaries or older than me. Still the case, too.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I tended to hang out with the older kids too, but I did hang out with sophomores my entire senior year of college. So I dunno. I decided because of them that 1980 was the absolute cutoff of people I could relate to.

[vyacheslav.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about it depending less on what year you were born and more on who you hang around with. If you're comparing someone from 1958 and 1973 then there's a easy line to see, but 1977 and 1979 is a little blurry. Some people born in 1980 can be more like X and some people born in 77 can be more like Y. For me, I was born in 1976, but my two friends were both born in 1982, and I get along with them more than I've gotten along with anyone. Another factor for me is that I don't look my age, people always think I am 17-21, so I think that may affect how I feel about my own age.

[asabass.livejournal.com]

"Generation Y" = Stupidest Term Ever.

Yeah but...

[sarahbliss.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be kinda funny if Generation Z came along and then *poof*, we wiped ourselves out as a species?

I'd laffff.

[jozafiend.livejournal.com]

Yeah, let's admit it, they're really the Pepsi Generation, or so I'm told

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

Were generations named at ALL, before the Baby Boomers?

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I know the immediately preceding one was called "the greatest generation (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Greatest_Generation.html)" because of the WW2 stuff.

[drisrael.livejournal.com]

generation BUKKAKE

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

or possibly "The Goatse Generation"

[cpf.livejournal.com]

I voted '75 'cause that's when I was born, and once I got to high school I noticed that everyone younger than me were posers. I don't want to be part of the nu rawk / whyt wrapp / retard riot generation.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

It actually has less to do with when you were born than with your cultural experiences and memories.

If you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot, then you're a baby boomer. If you remember when it was safe to have sex without condoms, because the primary worry was pregnancy, you're a baby boomer. If you graduated college before the stock market crash of 1987, you're a baby boomer. If you remember double-digit inflation and gas lines, you're a baby boomer. If you remember when being caught with pot meant you didn't lose your house, your car, and everything else, you're a baby boomer.

If you graduated college and worked crappy retail and temp jobs because you graduated into the recession of 1988 onwards, you're Gen X. If you remember where you were and what you were doing when the Challenger exploded, you're Gen X (especially if you watched it on TV, in school). If seeing Star Wars in the theater was a big deal for you, you're Gen X. If you remember being glued to MTV after school back when the bands had funny haircuts and Michael Jackson still had a nose, you're Gen X. If Seattle was the hip place to go when you graduated college, you're Gen X. If you remember being pleasantly surprised by the first place where you went to work in a long while that didn't ask you to pee in a jar to get a job, you're Gen X. If your mom drove a big horking 9-passenger station wagon, and you remember sitting in the "tail gunner" seat looking out the back window, you're Gen X.

If you graduated college and immediately went to work for a tech-related startup, you're Gen Y. If you were too young to remember seeing Star Wars in the theater, you're Gen Y. If it was inconceivable to you that the stock market could go down before the dot-com crash proved you wrong, then you're Gen Y. If Boston was the hip place to go when you graduated college, you're Gen Y. If MTV has always been there, you're Gen Y. If your mom drove a minivan, you're Gen Y.

The next generation is being referred to as the "Millenial Generation" and starts with people born about 1980, so-called because they started coming into adulthood in 2000. If you can't imagine life without the internet, you're Millenial Generation.

I'm on the mid-60s boomer/Gen-X cusp but my experiences are definitely Gen-X: I had a hard time finding a job in the late 80s-early 90s, everyone I knew moved to Seattle, and I remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard about the Challenger explosion (although the fact that it happened on my birthday might have something to do with that). I tend to hang around with a combination of younger Gen Xers and older Gen Yers, mostly because my girlfriend is ten years younger than I am and is definitely Gen Y.