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Pros and cons of the generation you were born into

Stigmata

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What do you think are the best/worst parts of your generational group? Are you out of place with your generation? Is there another you feel more aligned with?
 

ceecee

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Pros: Independent, self-reliant, practical and pragmatic.

Cons: Apathy, skepticism, uninterested.

Not at all out of place. I can't even begin to list the number of people I know of my generation that have made a 180 on that apathetic and uninterested, especially in politics, outlook. We have never known anything but post Watergate, Iran/Contra, war criminals pardoned and elevated to administrative positions, neoliberal all gas no brakes military industrial complex, endless war hellworld when it comes to politics. We don't have any issue with hooking up with Millennials and Zoomers because why would we? If it makes a better world I'm for it.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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I fit my generation better than I fit any other generation, but I would say I'm still out of sync with it in some respects. Usually what I'm out of sync with it on are not the actual values, but perhaps optimism vs. pessimism and attitudes towards institutions (although that was really much more the case in 2008 than now). I find myself tending to feel optimistic when everyone is pessimistic, and pessimistic when everyone is optimistic.

I have a hard time thinking of negatives that I feel like would come close to describing the generation as a whole, or even the subset I interact with as a whole. A positive I think is actually the attitude toward gender roles, at least among most of the people I interact with. I don't think people should be hobbled by arbitrary constraints, so it is refreshing to see those discarded. I even think wokeness at its most annoying or single-minded is preferable to the alternative, which is tossing around pictures of flags and bald eagles and using the word "freedom" a lot without any regard for what it actually means. One group is trying to understand people not like them and be respectful towards everyone, and the other one is, at best, just throwing around a bunch of signifiers that have long been drained of meaning (to my mind) anything of value.

I also don't see why using a smart phone a lot is any worse than watching the TV a lot. I'd actually argue it's better because there are a lot of different things you can do with a smart phone.... you can't look at an encyclopedia with a TV, for instance. I guess people can talk disdainfully of social media, but most of the really stupid things I see on social media are not made by millenials.
 
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I am absolutely a prime example of my generation. I do me you do you. If you try to tell me how to live I’ll tell you in what manner you can go fuck yourself.

Positives: Independent, distrustful of so-called trusted institutions that have been corrupted by career politicians (something our forefathers weren’t trying to promote, don’t ask lifetime crooks if they want to ratify term limits for themselves, tell them they will have term limits and like it), a generation that questions if something should be done simply because it’s always been done.

Negatives: We’re a smaller generation and other generations simply forget about us. That coupled with our suspicious nature when dealing with authority can make us bitter and leads to us throwing our hands up and walking away when we should be digging in (I’ve certainly been guilty of this), the need to overcompensate for being latchkey kids and becoming helicopter parents. I know a few Gen Xers that just take that crap to it’s limit. A smothered kid will only be resentful and unprepared for solo life.

On a personal level, I try to not condemn entire generations for the actions of some.
 

Red Memories

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So... Honestly, I am not actively sure what generation I am part of. Some things suggest I am the final year of the millenials, others suggest I am the very beginning of Gen z. Since I in fact am more likely Gen Z, I will be using it as my guideline.

PROS: I think Gen Z has found many new ways to utilize influence, social media, and form things within their individual style more... They are persistent. They want to understand themselves. They want to hold corporations more accountable for what they do.

CONS: Gen Z is a trend magnet that does little critical thinking. They read a textbook or MSM journalism and discuss it as fact. Too trusting of the internet. Narcistic about internet fame. Think being a youtuber is a real career. Obsessed with labels because they feel it validates them or makes them special. Use boycotts and cancel culture as a weapon of destruction for anyone who disagrees with their opinions. Lack the desire to have empathetic discourse since text messages don't have a lot of feeling. Feeling of entitlement.

Honestly because I get along little with those of my own gen, I struggle greatly to find positives here because all I see from my gen is a sheer lack of empathy and growing entitlement. But then, to be honest, I mostly got along with people 35 to 60 when I was a teenager. A few 80 year olds mixed in there. Now my age group is a little higher since millennials are now in their 30s.
 

highlander

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I think I had a lot more freedom as a child than people do these days. On the flip side, values were more traditional and diversity of thought or being was not not so appreciated and thus I felt a bit out of place in the way a martian would, secretly living on the planet. With a few exceptions, I didn't meet people I could talk to until college and even then, since it was in the traditional midwest, I wasn't exposed to enough diversity of thought.
 

Siúil a Rúin

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I'm GenX and just as lost as the rest of them. The Friend's theme song is a bit apt for my life, so that's the con, but the pro is that I kinda dance around full of fun anyway.
 

Maou

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"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." - Bruce Lee

I had a blend of three generations resulting in an abomination of obsolete beliefs and virtures. But I made the best of it, and wouldn't really change it. The most negative aspect had to be caring in a world that doesn't care anymore.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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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.
 

yubitzu

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My favorite is internet and easy access to information.
What I don't like is hypersexualization and excess of attention seeking behavior.
Having said that,I don't think I'd fit in with any other generation.I'm fine having been born a Gen Z.
 

cascadeco

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I was always kind of out of place growing up, and I'd probably always be kind of out of place no matter what my generation, except I sometimes think in certain other cultures I would have been fine (example: I sometimes think I would have meshed better in native american cultures five hundred+ years ago).

Like a few others who have already posted, I was at the tail end of Gen X. Born in the late 70's. Pros -- I will always cherish the fact I grew up pre-internet. I didn't even experience the internet until my first year of college, which is when I got my first email account. Also, I was pre cell phone -- only a very small minority of people by early 2000, my final semester of college, owned cell phones. Thus no one whom I interacted with growing up, in high school, and through the entirety of college, had a phone in their pocket. My mind is still in that time -- I find the current age disgusting, if I'm totally honest.

Also, I'd say a pro was my living in a 'golden era' (or at least the continuation of / end of a golden age)of many things, at least in terms of freedoms and quality of life, in the states at least - little to no war, terror, whatnot. And, I at least believe I may have been at the tail end of those who still had some hope for future prospects and the future of the country. Also I could be part of the golden age of travel - which I was able to partake in, thankfully. I don't think it'll ever be the same any longer. And, I grew up before all of the gun nonsense and our society really became whacked and riddled with mental unwellness - though arguably there was violence growing up -- I always heard the WGN Chicago news on gun shootings, etc. But the nature of it has changed.

So I count myself lucky for having grown up when I did, now that I see where things are now.

As such I can't think of many cons. I suppose my main ongoing Con is being resentful/ cynical / totally no-nonsense pragmatic to the point of never having dreams in the first place or being able to concoct dreams -- 'good' jobs even when I graduated were not a guarantee and were already dwindling, and I've been mostly in a perpetual state of what's-the-point and disillusionment around 'Career' for the entirety of my adult life. It's unclear to me though if that wouldn't be the case no matter what time I was in; it very well could or would be.
 

Morpeko

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The only thing I like about my generation is the first three seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants.

I feel out of place with my generation, but I feel out of place with all generations. I just don't really identify with big groups of people.
 

Saturnal Snowqueen

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Being a zillennial(or zoomer), my generation is alright overall. One thing though, living on the cusp of the 90s and 2000s is trippy. I feel this emotional connection towards Y2K things like CD burning, PDAs, old snacks, Limited Too, when I haven't even experienced them for myself. I think it's the shows I watched as a kid exposing me to that sort of stuff, or having some Y2K experiences that had some correlation with other experiences but weren't the same(I love the mall, but have never been to a Limited Too). Also, I watch stuff from that time period now, then start to think what it was like when it first came out at that time, and that emotional connection increases. For example, Ouran High School Host Club-that came out in 2006, but I definitely wasn't watching it when I was 6. But what if I was a teenager in 2006, watching that for the first time and being an early anime fan? I really do feel like I was born in the wrong generation sometimes, even though it's only a little out of reach. Also, I think people forget how we really grew up. Sure, we were young, but we knew a time when internet was still only a novelty and wasn't taking over, when Netflix was a rarity and it was on the Wii. When they say technological progress, they mean progress. We saw so many game consoles, so many ways to watch things on screen, so many ways to shop. Also, I kinda miss when we were defined on Divergent and One Direction and not TikTok, even when I actively avoided those things back then. One thing I do like is how cartoons are being made to appeal to all audiences and have richer lore and are including diversity. People being not nearly as judgmental as they used to be about things that don't matter, and how involved we are in the environment.
 
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