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I was suburban leaning towards urban (DC sprawl.) I've always preferred smallish cities as my favorite kind of place to live.
But hey, you remember pagers? Some of my friends had pagers. I remember the school banned them because they thought only a drug dealer would carry one in school. hehe
I didn't really get into the internet until the early 2000s because we were too poor as young adults to afford computers. But I remember Myspace. Learning some basic HTML to make my page all pretty and junk, and how disappointing it was when you build this glorious monument to your own unique sense of taste (ego), and literally no one gave a crap. Humbling, that's what Myspace was. lol!
I feel like I was part of the last generation to really learn how to navigate the real world around me, without interfacing with it through a screen in my hand. No Google maps! Learn where you're going, or get lost. No cell phones, you have to write down or memorize phone numbers. I still prefer paper books. Especially old ones that smell nice.
Oregon Trail...lol...yep. I remember thinking that Super Mario Bros 3 had "amazing graphics." I remember the California freaking Raisins, and I was down with Fraggle Rock!
I'm in Toronto, Canada so city centric and thus generally more 'early' in adoption.
Of course! I'd say the pager is quintessential 'Xennial' technological marvel. But it was effectively used for such a short time primarily in the 90s and some early 2000s (basically had to be a teenager). Many of us here in Toronto had pagers as a social tool.
The City and Canada in general with lower crime, higher tolerance for recreational drugs, hanging out at pool halls/arcades didn't cause a bad rap for pagers in schools. Though when I think about it, the highschool kids that 'hung out' alot mainly had them. I had one for a couple of months in high school when some of my more street savvy friends gave me one somehow, and actually officially signed up for one in University (1998/99 or so). In high school, we would leave collect messages or numbers as a 'code'. There were other ones "I43". Yea, few might have had a phone but it was more of a novelty and kids trying to show off (I paid $300 for this.. then after a month, it was gone).
I got my first email address at U of T in 1998 and have this distinct email with some freshmen friends "hey, this email thing is cool!". We knew it was around but many of us too, didn't have internet able computers. Most of my exposure was from the lab. Got my first 'real' email in 2000 with Hotmail which I STILL USE. Yupp, HTML was the rage when the first social media sites came out (I'm Asian so Asian Avenue around 1998... talk about a game changer), and people would take time to learn them. In my first 2 years, we had to line up.. yes line up at the Admissions office with paper forms to get into certain classes, or drop them. Then it switched to 'digital' online which no longer required a paper. That's the stuff and abrupt change that occurred after we turned 18, but also early enough where it felt like we were still developing.
I fully agree... we're comfortable and have vivid memories of having to rely on ourselves as the last generation in 'adolescence' to be analog, and needing the memory/physical things. Listening on the radio for your favorite song, recording it if possible, then out of nowhere, napster. Going on road trips with no GPS or Mapquest and using actual maps. But just a few years later in our early 20s, having some form of access.
The reason I do agree with this 'micro' generation is almost in unison, we can talk about it so clearly with common experience, vivid memories of changes, but also looking at it with a sort of wonder "yea, we actually lived like that and through it". Outsiders will say "big deal, we all went through change" but I bet when I mention the early 90s, during those Tween years, it felt like so much was going on and the 90s really did feel so different than the 80s.
My opinion, only good thing about Generation X is/was the music..
But in defense of X, it was a generation raised & shaped by the chronically divorced, free-loving & unprecedented casual drug-using, virtue-signalling, self-absorbed Boomers..
I've always wondered what the WW2 greatest generation did to produce very screwed up, rebellious kids (Boomers & hippies) (?) It seems to be a blind spot in the celebration of the greatest generation.. I guess Vietnam conscription was a big part of the Boomers' rebellion, but..
The "Greatest" generation was very bigoted - segregation was in full force during their time. Military units were segregated. Collegiate athletic teams were all-white. Interracial couples were assaulted verbally or physically. Homosexuals were ostracized or also physically assaulted.
On the positive side, their divorce rate was low, church attendance was unusually high relative to modern times, and they were fiercely patriotic (e.g. "Saving Private Ryan"). But their social norms led to rebellion in the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Protest, etc.
The irony is that the grandparents often got along with the grandchildren of Generation X. A good example is the series "Family Ties" where the parents were 1960s hippies set as middle-aged in the 1980s. They struggled to get along with the grandfather. But the teen grandchildren got along with him great. It's ironic.
The "Greatest" generation was very bigoted - segregation was in full force during their time. Homosexuals were ostracized..their social norms led to rebellion in the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Protest, etc.
The irony is that the grandparents often got along with the grandchildren of Generation X. A good example is the series "Family Ties" where the parents were 1960s hippies set as middle-aged in the 1980s. They struggled to get along with the grandfather..ironic.
GS, I basically agree w/your assessment of generational attitudes. But I think your assessment is missing context. Many generations prior to the 'greatest' had negative views on homosexuality & dating/socializing outside of one's own tribe. (Many cultures, especially outside of the West, still hold these values). So the question (for me) is: after hundreds of years of cultural continuity, why did the Boomers suddenly reject traditional American views on race, sexuality, etc. (?)
I think the Vietnam conscription was a big wedge that (understandably) made young Boomers question the wisdom of their parents' (& America's) values in general.. but the hippie world view was such a stark break.
Boomers seem uniquely self-righteous & self-centered when I evaluate their rejection of their ancestors' beliefs
The 60s were a strange schism.. A part of me also wonders if it was just part the natural decline that every civilization experiences. And the Boomers are/were just the unfortunate pawns of those natural forces of decay.
As far as your greatest generation grandparents loving their Gen X grand kids more.. I think that dynamic always applies. More fun being a grandparent, than being a parent..
I'm same age, and noticed my peers generally lean to GenX but have notable differences. Some have GenY traits. I had previously come across the 'Xennial' term which I would agree with. I find the variances can generally depend to on where you lived, mainly urban or real suburban/rural.
To me, the defining difference is how one communicated with friends/peers during the formulative years. Having to call personally friends or people you were 'interested' in high school (something about being live on the phone is humbling and patience inducing) than as soon around 18 yrs, (college years), electronic communication became the norm overnight. Social media even around 1998-1999. So can take your time, ignore people, 'pick-up' people, basically treat others with a type of 'yea, whatever'.
This definitely sounds like me.
We played Oregon Trail as early as first grade (worst was when your kids died of dysentery or you had to cross the river with your horses).
Cellphones didn't become commonplace among students until I was nearly done with high school. Basic flip phones for some kids while others didn't have a cell phone.
Social media....I think my college freshman class (Fall '04) was among the earliest adopters of Facebook. This was back when you had to know someone already on it and/or have a college email address. We all complained when high school kids were allowed on it and then later it was opened up to the public. My Space allowed a lot more customization but the glittery screens and interface would load so slowly..even with a fast connection. FB was rather plain but much more effective when searching for people, events, loading your page etc.
Somewhat artificial divisions. There was a "baby boom" following WWII, but starting around the year I was born, 1947 (it took awhile to demobilize and gestate), and didn't fully get rolling until around 1952 (when graduates from the GI Bill began starting families).
Another way of looking at this is through technological change. I and my sister (born in '49) were part of the last Radio Generation and the first (Black & White) TV Generation. The second (Color) TV Generation could be said to run from 1972, when sales of color sets first topped sales of black & white sets. In reality, the divisions here are not strict, but overlap. NBC went "all color" in 1965.
Read Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Message to see how this matters. Radio is "hot", while TV is "cool". Black & White TV is "abstract", while Color TV is "concrete", the first lending itself to Idealism, the second to Hedonism. McLuhan, born in 1911, was part of the last Telegraph Generation and the first (Crystal) Radio Generation, as well as the first (Silent) Movie Generation.
A generation is roughly the number of years required to grow up and reproduce, but over time that span has progressively expanded, as being single has stretched out and getting married and starting a family has been increasingly delayed. At the same time, technological change has accelerated.
The Personal Computer Generation arguably started with the marketing to families and children of the Commodore 64 in 1982. Prior to that, the users of personal computers were largely adult hobbyists. I got my first computer, a Morrow MicroDecision, a CP/M desktop computer, around 1984/85, primarily for writing (WordStar). A few years later, I got my first MS/DOS machine, a Leading Edge "IBM clone" (WordPerfect).
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