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Generation X
Tuesday February 09, 2010 |
How did Generation X gets it's name?The name "Generation X" comes from the title of a book by Douglas Coupland of British Columbia, Canada. This was also the name of a British Punk group in the 1970s featuring 1980s soloist Billy Idol. In a 1995 interview, Coupland denied any connection, saying: "The book's title came not from Billy Idol's band, as many supposed, but from the final chapter of a funny sociological book on American class structure titled Class, by Paul Fussell. In his final chapter, Fussell named an "X" category of people who wanted to hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and social climbing that so often frames modern existence." -- Whatever you say, Doug. When Coupland wrote his book in 1991, the phrase was picked up by marketers desperately seeking a name for the "generation without a name". Of course there's been much wrangling about this term, and many others have been offered, not all of them complimentary. The term "slackers" comes to mind. Other popular terms are "Thirteeners" or "13th Generation", which come from a book by Neil Howe and William Strauss called "Generations", in which we are listed as the 13th generation of the USA since 1620. |
Who exactly IS Generation-X?This question is in hot dispute. In the mid-1980's the Gen-Xer's had been labeled "Baby Busters", due to the low birthrates of the 1965-75 age bracket. Demographers noticed as early as 1966 that the "boom" was over, and began planning and budgeting downward for this massive change from the "boom" in births between 1946-1964. (These "Boomer" dates, by the way, have never been in doubt nor have they been doubted or tampered with by the media.) Today, however, many people lump those born in the years 1961-81 together. Why 1961? Despite being Doug Coupland's birthyear, it more likely began with the Howe & Strauss book "Generations", which used those years. The 1961-81 years are also being accepted and popularized by media like TIME magazine, which has used those years in a Gen-X cover story. The years 1965-79, 1964-82, 1960-1970, 1966-1977, and 1970-1983 have also been used in articles on Gen-X, but these all seem very arbitrary, and as you can tell, are all over the map, demographically. |
How many of us are there?Not many. Using the '65-'75 dates, there are about 47 million of us. Census Bureau figures show that we will finally outnumber the Boomers, in 2040, by 39.6 to their 37.1 million. |
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