# Anybody here from generation X or generation Y here?



## siliconpoetry (Jul 8, 2014)

I recently hooked up with a client who is self-publishing a book that is his memoirs but geared towards the Baby Boomer Generation. It reminded me that my generation (Gen Y) 1980-2000 is somewhat similar to Gen X (except for the 70's :afro: ). I myself have been through some things from being born in another country and coming to the states at a young age, Junior High Sports, photographer, a professional skateboarder, Skateboard company owner, working on building repair, Alcoholic, in-mate, 5150, Web programmer and now returning to finish college as a 30 something student. It's not just about me either, I grew up in the burbs in the same city Facebook and HP started. There is a new movie by James Franco about "Palo Alto" which was recently released. I was wondering if some people who are from Gen X or Y could share some resources, books, websites or thoughts they have about growing up during these times. Maybe comparing the similarities between the two or anything you want to add. Thanks.


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## Pidgeon84 (Jul 8, 2014)

I'm generation Y. Though I've never really related to the kids in my generation. For some reason, my generation catches a lot of flack, including me until recently. I think we got served a kind of shitty hand and blamed for stuff out our hands or for being apathetic, but given the state of things it's easy for me to see why. I don't know if this pertains to what you were saying but I'm too over stimulated and  caffinated to care.


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## Riptide (Jul 8, 2014)

Gen Y, how was it growing up? Eh... fun, I guess. I dislike the comments about my generation, but every generation gets attacked. Um... I liked the cartoons, now they suck, but the other ones were good. I do have to say I take things pretty easy. Everyone says I radiate confidence and don't care what others think, I do, but its good others don't realize that. I prefer being the calm in the storm, as long as it doesn't directly relate to me. 

Um, check out that nineties t.v shows I think they were called, unless it was only one and not collectively. Um... the end of the worlds that've hit at least three times already. IMportant stuff, ya know? I'm pretty tired, I'm sure others could give a better answer


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## siliconpoetry (Jul 8, 2014)

Thanks for your reply. I agree, I definitely didn't feel apathetic growing up but it kind of turned out to seem like that. If apathetic means littering a little bit and missing a state election now and again the I guess I could see that. Still if you look at who the President, the Governor, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or other mainstays like that they are probably baby boomers or at the tail end of gen X. Although, the Silicon Valley has a lot of younger people with influence, even if it is in engineering or software.


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## Pidgeon84 (Jul 8, 2014)

Riptide said:


> Gen Y, how was it growing up? Eh... fun, I guess. I dislike the comments about my generation, but every generation gets attacked. Um... I liked the cartoons, now they suck, but the other ones were good. I do have to say I take things pretty easy. Everyone says I radiate confidence and don't care what others think, I do, but its good others don't realize that. I prefer being the calm in the storm, as long as it doesn't directly relate to me.
> 
> Um, check out that nineties t.v shows I think they were called, unless it was only one and not collectively. Um... the end of the worlds that've hit at least three times already. IMportant stuff, ya know? I'm pretty tired, I'm sure others could give a better answer



We had the best cartoons! lol 



siliconpoetry said:


> Thanks for your reply. I agree, I definitely didn't feel apathetic growing up but it kind of turned out to seem like that. If apathetic means littering a little bit and missing a state election now and again the I guess I could see that. Still if you look at who the President, the Governor, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or other mainstays like that they are probably baby boomers or at the tail end of gen X. Although, the Silicon Valley has a lot of younger people with influence, even if it is in engineering or software.



I shouldn't really generalize because there are people half my age doing twice the amount of things. We're by far the most educated generation. We're the most progressive. But a lot of us are numb to the world around us as well though. Which isn't their fault! But I used to think it was. But I think we have the potential to be a vital point in history. We just have to get young people inspired and older people's wheels out of the mud.


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## garza (Jul 8, 2014)

Having been born in 1940, I'm of the generation that built the world that you of the x and y generations live in. 

Aren't you ever so proud of what we left you?


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## Apple Ice (Jul 8, 2014)

It was your generation's children who left the problems, garza, although maybe you lot caused their problems. I think your generation is the nicest one we have, personally. We are going to be leaving the world in a sorry state when we're through, too. It just comes down to who's the last generation to get the butt of the cigarette with everyone else's sloppy saliva on it. That's the generation I don't want to be in.


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## garza (Jul 8, 2014)

After I'd been in Belize a few months I was complaining to a friend, a native Belizean, that Belizeans have no sense of time and don't know how to wait on line. He said, 'This is Belize. It is what it is. Live with it.' 

We can extrapolate that principle and apply it universally. 

This is the world. It is what it is. Live with it. 

That can sound harsh, but really it's not. Go outside, look around, realise that this is the world as it is, in this present moment. We have to live with it today, but we don't have to live with it forever. We can work to make it better, even for our own generation and for the ones that follow. 

And you are correct about the generation after mine. My son is a builder, and most recently built a library for a small town that lost its library in Katrina. In a very literal sense he is building a part of the world his children are living in and his grandchildren will live in. 

So even as we live with it, we can live to make it better.


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## InstituteMan (Jul 8, 2014)

Good ol' Gen X, a generation so nice they made a movie about us. Repeatedly.

The teenage coming of age movie has always been popular, but there were a ton of movies that did a decent (even if over the top) job of depicting life growing up as Gen X kids. Some that I have even re-watched since I was a wee Gen Xer in a movie theater that do a decent job are:

The Breakfast Club
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Say Anything
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Sixteen Candles
Pretty in Pink
Footloose
Heathers


I am sure that I am forgetting some. But I cannot forget the more recent epic look back at the times and the movies, Hot Tub Time Machine -- a highly entertaining film, for those of us who were there.

There are tons of resources on who us Generation X people were, but really the movies would be the first place to go to learn about our generation.


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## Schrody (Jul 8, 2014)

Pidgeon84 said:


> I'm generation Y. Though I've never really related to the kids in my generation. For some reason, my generation catches a lot of flack, including me until recently. I think we got served a kind of shitty hand and blamed for stuff out our hands or for being apathetic, but given the state of things it's easy for me to see why. I don't know if this pertains to what you were saying but I'm too over stimulated and  caffinated to care.



I'm Y too, and agree with everything you said.  Btw. what's with kids nowadays? Everybody's criticizing them (for a reason, apparently), could they be the gen Y what we are to gen X?


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## Schrody (Jul 8, 2014)

InstituteMan said:


> Good ol' Gen X, a generation so nice they made a movie about us. Repeatedly.
> 
> The teenage coming of age movie has always been popular, but there were a ton of movies that did a decent (even if over the top) job of depicting life growing up as Gen X kids. Some that I have even re-watched since I was a wee Gen Xer in a movie theater that do a decent job are:
> 
> ...



I don't know why, but I always wanted to grow up in the '60's, it seems like a great decade.


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## InstituteMan (Jul 8, 2014)

Schrody said:


> I don't know why, but I always wanted to grow up in the '60's, it seems like a great decade.



I figure, why grow up in any decade?


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## Pidgeon84 (Jul 8, 2014)

garza said:


> Having been born in 1940, I'm of the generation that built the world that you of the x and y generations live in.
> 
> Aren't you ever so proud of what we left you?



Oh... Well,  this is awkward. Because not really lol.


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## garza (Jul 8, 2014)

_Ferris Bueller's Day Off_ is mentioned above as a generation x movie. How many times, on average, does a generation x or generation y need to see the movie to figure out who Ferris Bueller is?


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## Kevin (Jul 8, 2014)

ok... who the is he? Jesus? satan? mahatma ghandi? the guy who said there's no room at the inn? Refris Reulbler? Sriffer Bruelleb? !!!

pidgeo- 'ever so' are the key words here. Slow it down and read it again...


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## InstituteMan (Jul 8, 2014)

garza said:


> _Ferris Bueller's Day Off_ is mentioned above as a generation x movie. How many times, on average, does a generation x or generation y need to see the movie to figure out who Ferris Bueller is?



Once. It's right there in the movie. "He's a righteous dude."

:tears_of_joy:


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## Morkonan (Jul 8, 2014)

garza said:


> Having been born in 1940, I'm of the generation that built the world that you of the x and y generations live in.
> 
> Aren't you ever so proud of what we left you?


*
IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!*

I'm a Gen X'er and we tend to blame everyone else for our own problems...


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## garza (Jul 8, 2014)

Is there a Ferris Bueller? Or is he Cameron's alter ego, part of Cameron's desperate attempt to be anyone but Cameron?

Watch it again. Pay close attention all the way, but especially to the end.


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## Schrody (Jul 8, 2014)

InstituteMan said:


> I figure, why grow up in any decade?



I meant grow up physically, not mentally  I'll never grow up :mrgreen:


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## garza (Jul 8, 2014)

No No, Morkonan - It's all the fault of the generation before mine. They're to blame for everything.


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## Blade (Jul 8, 2014)

Schrody said:


> I don't know why, but I always wanted to grow up in the '60's, it seems like a great decade.



"Anyone who remembers the 60's clearly wasn't there"

A rather perplexing but formative time overall. Would like to forget about it myself.:05.18-flustered:


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## Tettsuo (Jul 8, 2014)

garza said:


> Is there a Ferris Bueller? Or is he Cameron's alter ego, part of Cameron's desperate attempt to be anyone but Cameron?
> 
> Watch it again. Pay close attention all the way, but especially to the end.



In the movie, Ferris is a separate individual.

But, one could totally look at it, read into it, and see the bigger message.  But, on it's face, Ferris has an entire family, set of experiences (Cameron having a much more wealthy family) that separate from Cameron.

Both viewpoints are correct.


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## garza (Jul 8, 2014)

I only now noticed _The Breakfast Club_ mentioned up above. I wouldn't have thought any x or y youngsters would ever have heard of _The Breakfast Club_. I'll bet your grandparents told you about it. 

In my mind I can to this day hear some of the routines. Don McNeil was like a member of the family or a friendly neighbour dropping by every morning for breakfast. It ran on the Blue Network, which was part of NBC and which became the ABC Radio Network when the FCC made NBC sell it off. We heard it over WGCM, Gulfport, 1240. I can remember being four or five years old and marching around the breakfast table every morning on the call to breakfast. And I can remember laughtng at Aunt Fanny even as she was being introduced, knowing her skit would be funny. 

Thanks for that memory.


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## Schrody (Jul 9, 2014)

garza said:


> I only now noticed _The Breakfast Club_ mentioned up above. I wouldn't have thought any x or y youngsters would ever have heard of _The Breakfast Club_. I'll bet your grandparents told you about it.
> 
> In my mind I can to this day hear some of the routines. Don McNeil was like a member of the family or a friendly neighbour dropping by every morning for breakfast. It ran on the Blue Network, which was part of NBC and which became the ABC Radio Network when the FCC made NBC sell it off. We heard it over WGCM, Gulfport, 1240. I can remember being four or five years old and marching around the breakfast table every morning on the call to breakfast. And I can remember laughtng at Aunt Fanny even as she was being introduced, knowing her skit would be funny.
> 
> Thanks for that memory.



I love Breakfast Club, and no, my (grand)parents didn't tell me about that movie either. I'm just an '80's movie and music fan


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## Schrody (Jul 9, 2014)

Blade said:


> "Anyone who remembers the 60's clearly wasn't there"
> 
> A rather perplexing but formative time overall. Would like to forget about it myself.:05.18-flustered:



:-s I see what you did there :mrgreen: Come on, admit it. What did you do? :mrgreen:


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## Schrody (Jul 9, 2014)

Breakfast Club


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## garza (Jul 9, 2014)

Schrody - We may be talking about two different things. 'The Breakfast Club' I'm talking about was a radio programme that ran weekday mornings beginning in the 1930s and continuing into the 60s. During the 40s we listened to it every morning for an hour. It was a variety show with music, comic skits, and such. After 1948 we began watching TV in the morning. 1948 was the year WDSU-TV in New Orleans came on the air and they began fairly early on, I think by around 1950, to have a morning show. WDSU-TV was an NBC station and picked up the _Today_ show with Dave Garroway when that began around '52. That was the end of listening to _The Breakfast Club_ on radio at our house. 

Looking at the link you provided I gather that there was a movie called _The Breakfast Club_. I did not know that. As it was with TV, my regular movie going ended when I started university in June of '55. In the past year I've started downloading old movies from Youtube. I'll check out _The Breakfast Club_ movie.

I believe the x and y generations could enrich themselves by studying a bit of the history of the entertainment media that has been such a big part of their lives.


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## midnightpoet (Jul 9, 2014)

Blade said:


> "Anyone who remembers the 60's clearly wasn't there"
> 
> The above statement has always bugged me.  It makes the arrogant assumption that if you experienced the 60's you must have been too stoned to remember it. I remember the 60's and I was there.  I guess because I didn't take drugs I wasn't there, so to speak.  It also shows the dangers of over generalization.  Life is what it is, deal with it.
> 
> ...


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## spartan928 (Jul 9, 2014)

midnightpoet said:


> Blade said:
> 
> 
> > "Anyone who remembers the 60's clearly wasn't there"
> ...


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## Schrody (Jul 9, 2014)

garza said:


> Schrody - We may be talking about two different things. 'The Breakfast Club' I'm talking about was a radio programme that ran weekday mornings beginning in the 1930s and continuing into the 60s. During the 40s we listened to it every morning for an hour. It was a variety show with music, comic skits, and such. After 1948 we began watching TV in the morning. 1948 was the year WDSU-TV in New Orleans came on the air and they began fairly early on, I think by around 1950, to have a morning show. WDSU-TV was an NBC station and picked up the _Today_ show with Dave Garroway when that began around '52. That was the end of listening to _The Breakfast Club_ on radio at our house.
> 
> Looking at the link you provided I gather that there was a movie called _The Breakfast Club_. I did not know that. As it was with TV, my regular movie going ended when I started university in June of '55. In the past year I've started downloading old movies from Youtube. I'll check out _The Breakfast Club_ movie.
> 
> I believe the x and y generations could enrich themselves by studying a bit of the history of the entertainment media that has been such a big part of their lives.



Oh, LOL. Yeah, I guess we were talking about different Breakfast Clubs :mrgreen: Anyway, I never heard for radio edition of the Breakfast Club, mainly because I live in (Eastern) Europe, and I assure you my grandparents don't know a word of English 

You should see a movie, it's really good. I must say you lived in a very interesting era (except wars), past always fascinated me. I sometimes wish I can go to '20's and '50's, I like the mood of that decades, but of course, I'm seeing only good things, and don't think about the bad ones (racism, women couldn't vote, etc.)  I like to consider myself an "old soul" 

EDIT: Has anyone watched "Turn Back Time:the Family"? It's a BBC show where families with their children gets to live the life of their grandparents and parents. Time span is 1900-1970, and it's very interesting.


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## Emily Logan (Jul 9, 2014)

Not sure I have much to add. (80's girl) I started school a bit late (Mom didn't put me in til I was 7) and kids started harassing me after the first year or two. Then I started to learn to read and became more and more withdrawn. I wasn't much one for the news either.

One thing I do remember is seeing school counselors- not joking when I said I struggled in school. All I got from the adults was, "sticks and stones" crap as if it were scripture. To this day, that saying is like nails on a chalk board for me. One example of sticks and stones I have is when our desks were arranged facing each other into tables. My desk and the desk of the kid next to me were faced away from the teacher's desk by mere inches. I was sitting, quietly doing my school work, but the kid next to me (a boy) was harrassing me without mercy. I asked him to stop. When he didn't, I told the teacher. She just told me to ignore him and would not budge further on the subject; I tried, hard, but in the end- WHAM! I slammed the kid into the teacher's desk. That was self defense; the ONLY one to get in trouble was me! Apathetic? You bet! It was a time before people realized about mental abuse or knew any thing about mental disorders.

Don't get me wrong, there were good times too. Playing out in the country side, going outside feeling the early morning dew on the grass between my toes and hearing my grandfather wood working in the garage, watching the rain and the sun rise and set, honking semi horns with my grandfather, watching cartoons and Wheel of Fortune with my grandparents, among others, watching movies and eating brownies, popcorn and tomato soup with my family as a treat in the evening. There were good times, but people could also be very cruel and misunderstanding back then. No sympathy or proper help. Now we know better, but these days are also worse in its own way. Kids killing kids, drugs, etc. We seem to get further behind the more we "progress".


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## InstituteMan (Jul 9, 2014)

midnightpoet said:


> To answer the OP's question, I think you can find a lot of sources online; however, using Hollywood movies as a source (seeing how they usually distort things) seems to me a bad idea.



I certainly wouldn't end with the movies. They certainly do not tell the whole tale. In my own little cultural backwater the movies were not a mirror so much as a signpost. We -- at least some of us kids -- tried to create the culture we saw there. That was not always healthy, in fact it was rarely healthy, but it happened. You do have to take those movies in the larger context, though. The Cold War was reaching a climax and then winding down; we had MTV; punk music sort of died and came back in a resurrected form, then grunge happened; our parents (but not mine) were divorcing; mothers were entering the paying workforce; the manufacturing economy in the US was drying up, but we didn't realize it yet. Things were afoot.


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## Blade (Jul 11, 2014)

midnightpoet said:


> Blade said:
> 
> 
> > "Anyone who remembers the 60's clearly wasn't there"
> ...



I think that statement is broad brush stroke though it does point to one rather striking element in the overall situation. I think society went from stable and monolithic to divided and fragmented in the course of a few years contrary to anyone's expectations at the time.:icon_compress: Now that we are well into the twenty-first century everyone has 'gotten used to it',, adapted and moved on.

I think that even if if your recollection of the era is clear it will contradict the experience of many others and result in a rather insoluble dilemma of perspective. Much more profitable to deal with the present IMHO.:sunny:


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## Kingstonmike (Jul 14, 2014)

Personally I don't think any 'generation' is better or worse overall than any other...I was born at the very end of the Baby Boom...I find it funny that I am portrayed a certain way or ascribed a certain set of philosophical outlooks, all because of being born barely within the catchment era for the BBs. Having a 21 year range in ages really makes no sense if we are trying to say people are a certain "generation"; My sister was born in 1949 and I was born in 1964 and we are supposed to have the same outlook on life?


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## dale (Jul 14, 2014)

i'm generation x. i'm the product of both extreme capitalism and extreme socialism. i've had a conflict of atheism and theism
bombarding my mentality since childhood. i've watched my society go from a generally safe environment, to one i'm scared to
let my daughter outside in. i am generation x. i am conflict. i am angry. i love. and i am empty.


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