Generations, micro generations and generational trends are some of my favorite topics.
I was born on the cusp of Generation X and the Millennial Generation. I am part of the micro generation often labelled as Xennial or Cold Y Generation. As a result, I can identify with certain aspects of both generations. I tend to "click" most with or speak a similar generational language to younger Xers and the older half of the millennials. So bear in mind that I might speak in generalities, for instance if I say "X tended to be more apathetic" I don't mean every single Xer was apathetic.
I actually find my micro generation to be rather significant. We were likely the last age group born in the twentieth century to have any strong memory of growing up in the cold war under the apparent constant threat of nuclear annihilation (obviously the threat never really went away, but that very distinct cold war mentality where it was on the forefront of people's minds and influenced pop culture very heavily sort of did fade away). Most of our cultural idols as youth were Xers like Cobain, Wu Tang, et al. We tend to be mixed on how we feel about the ewoks. More often than not, Xers tended to dislike ewoks whilst millennial kids thought they were cute. I didn't mind them, but they were far from my favorite thing in that movie.
We were the first to be exposed to video games in masse and from a relatively young age--even those of us who didn't have a game system or couldn't afford one likely knew at least one kid in their neighborhood with a Nintendo, Sega or even something like an old Commodore system. So it was a distinct part of our youth even if we weren't active participants in gaming.
Similarly, we were the last to remember homes before home PCs were common, and the first to use the internet as children or teens. Even if we didn't have a computer or the internet, we'd very likely used a computer at school or a friend's house, and we probably saw and used the internet at school even if we didn't have it at home from the beginning. We are a group that overall tends to be fairly tech savvy about the newer tech, but at the same time we don't seem quite as connected to that tech as younger millennials and gen Z.
We were some of the last students to come out of high school and college into a fairly strong and vibrant economy. It seemed like we were all going to get degrees and storm the world like our guidance councilers told us. But then multi-decade wars began and the economy crashed. While I think a lot of Xennials and older Millennials may have started out as young adults very optimistic and perhaps even a bit naïve, many have eventually come to share the cynicism that seemed to characterize Gen X in the late 80s and 90s. Although I'm not really sure it expresses quite the same as it did when the Xers were coming of age and experiencing the world as young adults. The reason being that the world changed so much--the Xers were coming up in a time that was very affluent, the economy a lot stronger than it is now. But the boomers never really died off very fast, and there were so many of them, that I think X just kind of got slotted as one of those less impactful generations, not unlike the earlier Silent Generation. I don't mean to say that there aren't many important and influential people born in that range, just that the overall X cohort sort of got marginalized in how much they have influenced culture overall--although it's fair to acknowledge they made a huge impact on popular culture, particularly in music (most of the great innovaters in hip hop, grunge, electronic music etc were born in Generation X and brought their unique perspectives of the world into their art). Gen X really did suffer middle child syndrome in that regard and I do think being the younger "sibling" to the larger, louder boomer generation strongly influenced how the Xers saw the world and the art and impact they themselves would make.
I thought we would see a lot more Gen X political superstars and influencers, but it seems like it's really been a lot of boomers up until now, with occasional Xers like Obama (and even he is arguably on the cusp with the Boomers), and now a lot of millennial politicians like Ocasio-Cortez and Buttigieg are starting to share the spotlight. Still relatively few Xers in politics. Poor folks really did become the new silent generation between the boomers and the millennials, although they gave us Kurt Cobain and 2Pac--what have the millennials given us? Kanye and Jonas brothers? Most of the interesting newer musicians like Billie Eilish are not millennials but Gen Z or whatever that group is eventually going to be labelled.