Hi everyone. Wow, we’ve arrived at the dreaded letter X! Now let me tell you X, by recommendation of one of the founders of the #AtoZChallenge (I don’t remember who) several years ago, was the first letter I decided on a topic for. This topic isn’t necessarily related to personal growth or even psychology, more to sociology. However, it’s fun nonetheless.
My topic for today’s post is generations. The idea that people of one generation have similar traits that differ from those of another generation, is tempting. Like, we all grew up at different times in history, so doesn’t it make sense that the technology available to us, the major world events of our teen years, etc. affect our personality?
The short answer to this though is “No”. Yes, young people (Gen Z currently, those born between 1995 and 2010) have a different attitude to life than older people like Gen X (birth years 1965-1980) or Boomers (1945-1965). They, for example, tend to have a more laid-back work ethic (also known as them being lazy) and a more relaxed view towards the future.
I see this myself in all the temp workers who are self-employed, most of them in their early to mid twenties. They clearly are in there for the quick money (self-employed temp workers get nearly twice as much as regular employees) and have a rather short-sighted attitude, such as not having disability/sick leave insurance.
If you read this, you may wonder why I said generations don’t have different characteristics. The reason I said so is it’s not their generation, but their age. When other generations were in their early twenties, they had a similarly laid-back attitude towards work or school. As an example, I’ll give my father (Boomer): he was in college for ten years free-wheeling through different majors and never finished anything. As he got older though, he did develop a more serious work ethic.
So what generation am I? I was born in 1986 so am none of the generations mentioned in the title. Xennials, after all, are on the cusp between Gen X and Millennials, roughly birth years 1977-1983. Instead, I’m a core Millennial. And it’s definitely the best generation to be in. After all, in our teens, we got a world-shattering terrorist attack to adapt to, in our twenties, we survived the Great Recession, and in our thirties, we survived COVID. If that doesn’t make us resilient, I don’t know what does. Just joking.
A Multitude of Musings 
that was a fun post Astrid! I was born in 1980. Does that make me a gen Z? X
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No, you’re a Xennial, right between Gen X and Millennial like me. I’m glad you liked my post.
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This was interesting and a fun read
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Thank you! 🙂
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Gen X likes to act like we’re this scary generation. I don’t know about that. But I notice you barely mentioned us in this post. That seems to be the way of it. We’re generally ignored.
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LOL you’re completely right about me barely having mentioned Gen X and that with the fact that they are the ones having grown up during the end of the Cold War. That certainly should be significant.
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It’s an ongoing joke. A news broadcast did a thing on the generations, creating a graphic of when each gen was born. They omitted Gen X.
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Ah, interesting.
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Astrid, I’m really surprised at how young you are (same age as my kids.) You’re very mature for your age. I think my generation Boomers had it pretty good compared to what young people today are going through. You named several of them. I think the greatest threat to young people today is maintaining a sense of individuality. There is so much “groupthink” going on in the digital world, I can see where a young person would get lost in it.
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Thank you for your kind comment. Yes, I agree that in general Millennials and those after us have it harder than older generations. I mean, societal pressure seems a lot worse nowadays. For one thing, my father never had to pay back any student loans because back then college was practically free here (I know this isn’t the case everywhere). I don’t know about the Internet affecting us negatively. I honestly think that’s more Gen Z who suffer.
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You’re welcome. Student debt seems to enslave people here, not sure how it is there.
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I snuck into Gen X back in 1966. Always wish I had been born earlier… I could have really fit in with the peace and love generation. The music was awesome in the 60s. I would have made a great hippie. Ha, ha!
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Thanks so much for sharing! I think indeed sixties music was great.
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You’re welcome.
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Whatever people say, those of us who experienced the 90’s, those were the days! Bliss! A proud 1982 born here.
Astrid, that’s such a beautiful name; I know only one other person with that name, not as common as some others.
Nice to meet you, Astrid 😊
– Savio
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Thank you for commenting and yes, I agree, the 90s were fab.
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