When Gen - Xers were very young , they roamed unbelted across the backseats of their parent ’s cars –child guard seatswere optional . No one call 911 when they discern kids alone in a vehicle . Unsupervised 10- and 11 - class - sure-enough kids babysat their younger brethren . While their parents toiled at the role , latchkey Gen - Xers of the 1970s grade freely , a ruck of wandering cyclists with sprinkler - moist hairsbreadth , Popsicle finger and playing cards thread through the rundle of their motorcycle .

When Xers were stripling , their parent bought the first home information processing system and marveled as kids learned to program in BASIC . Carbon paper was out ; joysticks were in . Gen - Xers were the first gamers , the first kids to be weaned on transmission line TV , the first fellow member of the MTV generation .

carry of unprecedented freedom into an epoch of infinite technical promise , Generation - X seemed , at first , to have been born into a golden age . Xers soon encountered some uneasiness , however . As they became sexually active , AIDSappeared on the prospect . As they graduate college , the 1987stock marketcrash swallow the job market . Then , the dotcom bubble burst in the mid-90s , and the job Gen - Xers had tried to make for themselves evaporated like smoke .

Some Xers traveled the world – " Generation X " author Douglas Coupland dub this group the " poorness jet-propelled plane set . " Some , like Kurt Cobain , started bands and created the soundtrack of a generation . Others lived in their starter apartments well into their 30 , playing TV game and holding down menial caper . Films like " Singles , " " Reality Bites " and " Clerks " paint a exposure of Generation Xers as overeducated nonachiever , slackers and losers .

But is the image of lazy , grease - y , tartan - wear down twentysomethings an precise picture of Generation X ? Behind the aggregated - spiritualist stereotypes , Gen - Xers were ( and still are ) quiet changing the world .

Generation X Characteristics

Jeff Gordinier , author of " X Saves the World , " indite that Xers are " say to be the defiant demographic , dedicated to shredding whatever raiment the selling apparatus try out to drape us in ; because we ’d favor not to be categorize at all , thank you very much " [ source : Gordinier ] . Still , like other generation before them , Xers share a common past and sure characteristics . Here are just a few :

adduce YouTube , Google and other Gen - X triumph as evidence , Jeff Gordiner writes that " GenXers are doing the quiet work of keeping America from lactate . " While the spiritualist focus on the challenge Baby Boomers face as they enter one-time age and the triumphs of untried Millennials like Facebook ’s Mark Zuckerberg , the contribution of Gen - Xers go mostly unreported .

Generation X Facts

believe you know all there is to know about Generation X ? Some of these X - fact might surprise you :

Now that you ’ve got your X - facts uncoiled , explore everything else Generation X has to offer . You ’ll find related to articles and lots more selective information after the jump .

Lots More Information

Sources