What was Generation X?

Answer 1

Generally, Generation X in the United States covers those people born starting in the early 1960s through the late 1970s. That is, about 1961 - 1980.

Perhaps the major defining characteristics of the Generation are that they were children of those who were children during WW2 - that is, few GenX-ers had a parent who was a WW2 veteran. GenX is NOT the children of the Baby Boomers, for the most part.

As a Generation, they went to high school during the late 1970s through early 1990s, and thus, their major formative years encompasss several seminal historical events in that timeperiod:

• 1970s recession and the Oil Crisis
• Iranian Embassy Hostage crisis
• Election of Ronald Reagan and the rise of the Christian Right as a political force in the Republican Party
• high-tide of the Anti-Nuclear movement, which was tied to:
• the end of US-Soviet Detente, and the deep worries of a possible WW3 during the 1980s.
• Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense program
• The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
• Collapse of US-based manufacturing sector and the blue-collar jobs that were lost because of it (in particular, the steel and auto industries)
• Popularization of the Environmental movement as a part of significant national important
• Significant awareness of the extent and impact of environmental pollution (e.g. the Love Canal and other toxic waste disasters)
• The War on Drugs (and the explosion of hard drug use and the crime it dove)
• AIDS and the end of the sexual revolution
• Gutting of many of the Federal social support programs, resulting in a significant increase in the permanent underclass and a rise in homelessness.
• Final collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War
• Rise of the micro computer and the Internet

While many other things happened during the teenage/young adult years of GenX, the above are perhaps the most influential in shaping the outlook of the generation.

While it can be dangerous to talk in generalities, there are certain characteristics that surveys and statisticians have shown about GenX:

• It is much smaller than the generations on either side of it: less than 50% of the size of the Baby Boomers, and less than 75% of the size of GenY
• On average, GenX is poorer (at comparable age levels) than the prior generation, the first time this has happened in US history
• A higher level of education than any prior generation, though the GenY folks may surpass this.
• Significantly less optimistic than average about society's ability to solve major problems facing the nation; in particular, very much less than GenY and the WW2 generation.
• More apt to belong to small-scale charities and non-profit organizations than larger ones.
• As a result of the prior two, GenX-ers are much less likely to challenge authority with the intent to replace them (e.g. less likely to run for office) - however, they are much more likely to belong to organizations attempting to make radical structural changes in society (e.g. alter government institutions themselves, rather than who controls them)
• Lowest "traditional" church membership than any other generation (though, this does not include GenY, and mainline church membership is on a historical decline)
• Very low levels of support for the Drug War and high levels of support for (some) legalization and regulation similar to alcohol.
• First generation to be impacted by the radical increase in the divorce rate, and, as such, vastly more likely to have divorced parents than any other generation (including those afterward)

Answer 2

Generation X refers to the demographic cohort born approximately between 1965 and 1980, following the Baby Boomer generation and preceding Millennials. Often characterized as independent, skeptical, and adaptable, members of Generation X have experienced significant social, economic, and technological changes during their formative years.