Friday, March 26, 2010

Talkin' 'bout My Generation

My urge to rant shows no signs of abating.

My entire life has been overshadowed by the Baby Boomers. Their freakishly huge generation continues to distort cultural trends like the gravitational pull of a black hole, even as they edge into old age.

OK, they had a LOT of cool music--I'll give them that.

But still! To this day, I can't call myself a thirtysomething without having a flashback to an 1980s, angst-filled TV series. BTW, does anyone else feel an existential similarity between that show and MAD MEN? Or is it just me?

The 1980s don't seem that long ago for me. But they were. Molly Ringwald now plays a grandmother on TV. Those thirtysomethings from the 1980s are now starting to retire. And that's giving me a midlife crisis--what have I accomplished with my life? And what can I accomplish in the next thirty years?

Gen-X stereotypes aside, it's not like I've been a slacker. I've been busy with jobs, books, kids, etc. But I feel like my group is slipping from the cultural sphere without ever really having had a turn to influence it properly. Heck--"Gen-X," an intentionally meaningless term, was actually the nicest thing we've been called. Remember "Baby Bust?" Do ya?

Plech.

So, I need to do something to feel good about my generation. Let's make today a celebration of Gen-X. Fill the comment section with waves of nostalgia and generational pride.

7 comments:

Disgruntled Bear said...

J.K. Rowling. One of us.

Disgruntled Bear said...

Stephenie Meyer.

Disgruntled Bear said...

Is John Cusack still making movies? *sigh* no one holds up boom boxes in the street anymore.

Brenda St John Brown said...

Jerry Seinfeld. All of those "Friends".

Disgruntled Bear said...

That's true! We had "Friends!" Thanks, Brenda!

ann foxlee said...

Gen X-ers: the last generation to have to learn to actually do things manually.
I didn't use a computer until college-- and even then it was a computer cluster that you had to use for one English paper! Home computers, what?

When the world gets hit by a devastating super-virus (a la BBC's 'Survivors'), we'll be the only ones left who know how to do anything, bwaahaaahaahaa! It's our evil plot!

Disgruntled Bear said...

I love it, Ann.

Conspiracy theories rule!

...or so they want us to think.