Where's muh Gen X'ers at? 40-54 Y/O brahs checking in

[shunyata]

LOL not really hah. Just pointing that out from the article. I'm sure it'll bring on some butthurt.

I mean................ Rage Against the Machine released the song "Wake Up" in 1992 so yeah that was a thing.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Haha yea, our first microwave looked something like this. You set the power and the time but you better know your shit because that's a small nuclear device.

This is what I remember. This was the main phone in the house until 1990, and was the phone in my sister's room until 1994.

This phone was bought sometime in the early 70's. Imagine having a phone for 20 years.

Poor millennials will never know the feeling of wrapping that cord around your fingers.

 

[MusterX]

Wait, I thought that was Boomers?

It kinda trips me out that Madonna is a baby boomer. If the 80's was your jam then you grew up watching MTV and subsequently, Madonna. Bitch is 61 years old now.

I came across this article this morning when thinking about Gen X and some of the stuff was pretty interesting. Excerpts and cliffs below.

Generation X — not millennials — is changing the nature of work

The generation that is quickly occupying the majority of business leadership roles is one that’s grown up playing video games, spends the most time shopping online, and uses social media more habitually than any other generation.

If you were thinking it’s millennials, that’s probably because they’ve dominated the media’s focus for the past decade. But it’s actually Generation X, which covers those born between 1965 and 1981 by our definition.

As Pew Research unflatteringly referred to them in a 2014 report, Gen X is “America’s neglected ‘middle child,’” and we don’t hear much about the group. It seems that all eyes are on the slowly retiring baby boomers or the ascending millennials, now the world’s majority generation.

We found that Gen X now accounts for 51 percent of leadership roles globally. With an average of 20 years of workplace experience, they are primed to quickly assume nearly all top executive roles.

That finding is backed up by research by Nielsen, which revealed that Gen X is the most connected generation. Nielsen found that Gen Xers use social media 40 minutes more each week than millennials. They were also more likely than millennials to stay on their phones at the dinner table and spend more time on every type of device — phone, computer, or tablet. And, as it turns out, Gen X is bringing this connectivity to work.

We found Gen X leaders on average had only 1.2 promotions in the past 5 years, significantly lower than their younger millennial counterparts (1.6 promotions) and more senior baby boomers (1.4 promotions) during the same period of time.

While Gen X leaders are often under-recognized for the critical role they play in leadership, they are typically expected to take on heavy workloads. On average, Gen X leaders have 7 direct reports, compared to only 5 direct reports for millennials. While their advancement rate is slower and their teams larger, Gen X remain loyal employees. Only 37 percent contemplate leaving to advance their careers — five percentage points lower than millennials.

The oldest Gen X workers will likely still be in the workforce for at least 10 years, and the younger members of the generation may still be working for more than 30, meaning that Gen X will be forming the backbone of organizations’ leadership for quite some time.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/generation-x--not-millennials--is-changing-the-nature-of-work.html

Cliffs:
Majority of business leadership roles being assumed by Gen X'ers.
Gen X'ers grew up playing video games, shops more online than any generation, and uses social media more than any generation.
Pew Research refers to Gen X as "America's neglected middle child."
Gen X now accounts for 51% of business leadership roles worldwide.
Gen X uses social media on average 40 minutes more per week than Millennials.
Over the last 5 years, Gen X has had a slower promotion rate than Boomers or Millennials.
Gen X is expected to take on heavier workloads and are more loyal to their companies than Millennials.
Gen X'ers will be in the workplace for the next 10-30 years and will be in control of business and government.

 

[MusterX]

Yep, i had a smoking section at my first high school.

I remember this kid who lived on a farm got a carton of Marboro's for Christmas when he was 9.

My first office job had ashtrays on the desks. This was also back in the days when you could smoke on an airplane. You would think there was groaning and complaints but there wasn't. People just didn't seem to give a shit.

 

[VivaRevolution]

My first office job had ashtrays on the desks. This was also back in the days when you could smoke on an airplane. You would think there was groaning and complaints but there wasn't. People just didn't seem to give a shit.

Yep. Remember when you could smoke everywhere, to getting moved to smoking areas, to getting moved outside, and then completely banned in some areas now.

Nazi's.

 

[MusterX]

This is what I remember. This was the main phone in the house until 1990, and was the phone in my sister's room until 1994.

This phone was bought sometime in the early 70's. Imagine having a phone for 20 years.

Poor millennials will never know the feeling of wrapping that cord around your fingers.

Bro, not just phones, everything lasted for a long time. Televisions used to run for 20+ years, now if you get 6 out of one you did good. Washing machines was a motor and a belt, MF'er would run 30 years. Now they put computer chips in everything and it breaks in 3 years. There was a time when things were built to last then the idea of "planned obsolescence" pretty much changed everything because businesses could just literally design shit to break so you would have to buy another one.

On phones you had to get that long cord bro. Remember everyone's kitchen phone would reach about 25 feet?

 

[tonysmasseuse]

54 in less than 2 months. I was born right on the cusp between Boomer and Gen-X. That being on the cusp shit is difficult but it also gives insight into both.

You're in very good company then - Douglas Coupland was born on the cusp too, he'll be 58 in a couple of months.

"Hipster of all hipsters" is actually a good description for proto gen x'ers - we were "hipsters" before there even was such a term. Ur-hipsters. Perhaps not surprising, after all...with a weird, gay, Canadian writer as our founding father.

Douglas bless.


Oh yes, a shopping mall really is one of the more depressing places on earth. The feeling of artifice is unnerving. No amount of plants and fountains is gonna fix that... The inventor must be plagued with regret like Einstein and the splitting of the atom.

 

[Andy Capp]

My first office job had ashtrays on the desks. This was also back in the days when you could smoke on an airplane. You would think there was groaning and complaints but there wasn't. People just didn't seem to give a shit.

Ditto. I don't miss overflowing ashtrays, and it's true if I didn't have to go outside to smoke I would almost certainly be still doing it, and I am very glad I quit. But when I did smoke, I longed for those days. I watched a British program call the Sandbaggers in the 70's and on one episode, they were on a BA flight when a woman comes along with a tray and all these guys reached in and grabbed literal handfuls of cigars and packs of cigarettes and then lit up. I still fantasize about doing that.

Some of the oldest planes still in commercial service around here still have ashtrays in the armrests even though you haven't been able to smoke on a plane here for almost 30 years.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Bro, not just phones, everything lasted for a long time. Televisions used to run for 20+ years, now if you get 6 out of one you did good. Washing machines was a motor and a belt, MF'er would run 30 years. Now they put computer chips in everything and it breaks in 3 years. There was a time when things were built to last then the idea of "planned obsolescence" pretty much changed everything because businesses could just literally design shit to break so you would have to buy another one.

On phones you had to get that long cord bro. Remember everyone's kitchen phone would reach about 25 feet?

Yeah, planned obsolescence is a real problem, whether talking pollution or income inequality.

 

[Andy Capp]

You're in very good company then - Douglas Coupland was born on the cusp too, he'll be 58 in a couple of months.

"Hipster of all hipsters" is actually a good description for proto gen x'ers - we were "hipsters" before there even was such a term. Ur-hipsters. Perhaps not surprising, after all...with a weird, gay, Canadian writer as our founding father.

Douglas bless.


Oh yes, a shopping mall really is one of the more depressing places on earth. The feeling of artifice is unnerving. No amount of plants and fountains is gonna fix that... The inventor must be plagued with regret like Einstein and the splitting of the atom.

About the inventor:

Architect Victor Gruen had an interesting idea..

As cities started expanding to the suburbs, he wanted to create a place where shoppers could run errands without the drawbacks of driving downtown.

A revolutionary idea. (Image Source: thefoxisblack)

He wanted to model these communal areas like the old town squares of yesteryear with promenades, green spaces, fountains, supermarkets, schools and post offices. He prioritized pedestrians over cars.


Gruen's creation became known as… the Shopping Mall.

The first one Gruen designed was in suburban Detroit in 1954.

Greenery was important to Gruen. (Image Source: architakes)
It caught on, and Gruen quickly became one of the busiest architects in the country.

But other cities took Gruen's idea and began twisting it into something he hated and opposed. They took out the green spaces, enclosed the malls, packed them with stores and surrounded them with seas of asphalt parking.

The average driver spends 106 days of their life searching for a parking spot. Probably in malls. (Image Source: reurbanist)
Over time, Gruen went from being the shopping mall's inventor to its most vocal critic.

He called them harmful, hideous, soulless shopping machines that alienated people instead of bringing them together.

The "father of the shopping mall" refused to claim paternity.

To his dying day, Victor Gruen despised what became of his invention.

He wouldn't be the first inventor to feel that way.

 

[MusterX]

Ditto. I don't miss overflowing ashtrays, and it's true if I didn't have to go outside to smoke I would almost certainly be still doing it, and I am very glad I quit. But when I did smoke, I longed for those days. I watched a British program call the Sandbaggers in the 70's and on one episode, they were on a BA flight when a woman comes along with a tray and all these guys reached in and grabbed literal handfuls of cigars and packs of cigarettes and then lit up. I still fantasize about doing that.

Some of the oldest planes still in commercial service around here still have ashtrays in the armrests even though you haven't been able to smoke on a plane here for almost 30 years.

Taking a flight in the 1980's was a different sort of experience. Now because of terrorism you have the TSA and a serious environment where if anyone even slightly gets out of line they are thrown off the plane. I can remember taking flights in the 1980's that were like a party. People were smoking, and drinking, laughing loudly, walking up and down the aisles talking to people. We were still calling them stewardesses, not flight attendants.

 

[SammyPops]

While Boomers and Millennials are constantly at each other's throats over who's ruining the world, Gen X sits back and laughs. The ageism in the workplace thing is funny because it reminds me of this article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/style/gen-x-millenials.html

Granted I'm on the cusp being born in 1979, but still I think that it's funny how millennials in the workplace get so high and mighty about how they are on the cutting edge of tech when it was Gen X that truly started the digital revolution in the 90s and invented all things millennial. Have any of you guys come across this ageism b.s. before? Especially any of you that work in the tech industry?

"Were we not apathetic so much as app-athetic. Sorry, that was lamestain. Whatever! The digital natives of the millennial generation would hardly be drowning in 1s and 0s without Xers like Elon Musk (b. 1971), Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google (b. 1973), Jack Dorsey of Twitter (b. 1976) and even Tom Anderson of Myspace (b. 1970), who for a brief, shining moment was everyone’s friend."

"Who’s sorry now? Between 2010 and 2016, Generation X saw its median household net worth skyrocket 115 percent. Boomers were still mired at pre-2007 levels.

Maybe that’s the thing about being a generation without any particular identity or belief system: We are adaptable, a weedy species, like rats or cockroaches, built to survive any environment. We are hard to stamp out."

"We invented “woke”
We were never an afterthought of American politics if you take “politics” to mean the all the real stuff that goes on outside the Beltway, in terms of gender politics, racial politics and environmental politics.

It might be a cliché to say that we are a generation of iconoclasts and mavericks, wired to challenge authority. But when Apple unveiled its “Think Different” campaign in the ’90s, they were selling to us. And we bought it."

I lived the movie Clerks from 1993 to 96

 

[TeTe]

I lived the movie Clerks from 1993 to 96

I rented that movie after it came out and renewed the rental twice after. I think I watched it six times in a week.

 

[tonysmasseuse]

About the inventor:

Architect Victor Gruen had an interesting idea..

As cities started expanding to the suburbs, he wanted to create a place where shoppers could run errands without the drawbacks of driving downtown.

A revolutionary idea. (Image Source: thefoxisblack)

He wanted to model these communal areas like the old town squares of yesteryear with promenades, green spaces, fountains, supermarkets, schools and post offices. He prioritized pedestrians over cars.


Gruen's creation became known as… the Shopping Mall.

The first one Gruen designed was in suburban Detroit in 1954.

Greenery was important to Gruen. (Image Source: architakes)
It caught on, and Gruen quickly became one of the busiest architects in the country.

But other cities took Gruen's idea and began twisting it into something he hated and opposed. They took out the green spaces, enclosed the malls, packed them with stores and surrounded them with seas of asphalt parking.

The average driver spends 106 days of their life searching for a parking spot. Probably in malls. (Image Source: reurbanist)
Over time, Gruen went from being the shopping mall's inventor to its most vocal critic.

He called them harmful, hideous, soulless shopping machines that alienated people instead of bringing them together.

The "father of the shopping mall" refused to claim paternity.

To his dying day, Victor Gruen despised what became of his invention.

He wouldn't be the first inventor to feel that way.

a+ informative post.

 

[MusterX]

He called them harmful, hideous, soulless shopping machines that alienated people instead of bringing them together.

The "father of the shopping mall" refused to claim paternity.

To his dying day, Victor Gruen despised what became of his invention.

Yea its interesting because of the internet information age, everyone shops online now and all the malls are closing down one by one.

Growing up the mall was a big deal in the 80's. You went there to socialize with your friends and also to hit that arcade.

Look at these guys guarding the entrance of the local arcade. That shit behind them was the promised land.

 

[Andy Capp]

a+ informative post.

Under the Influence is a great radio show. I can't recommend it highly enough.

 

[tonysmasseuse]

Under the Influence is a great radio show. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Cheers, will seek it out.

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

Taking a flight in the 1980's was a different sort of experience. Now because of terrorism you have the TSA and a serious environment where if anyone even slightly gets out of line they are thrown off the plane. I can remember taking flights in the 1980's that were like a party. People were smoking, and drinking, laughing loudly, walking up and down the aisles talking to people. We were still calling them stewardesses, not flight attendants.

I flew once as a kid in the 80s. I don't remember it being a party. I do remember the "No Smoking during takeoffs". People couldn't smoke for 10-15 minutes and they were bitching and moaning about it like it was inhumane or something.

 

[Dinotective]

 

[MusterX]

I flew once as a kid in the 80s. I don't remember it being a party. I do remember the "No Smoking during takeoffs". People couldn't smoke for 10-15 minutes and they were bitching and moaning about it like it was inhumane or something.

HAHA, yep, you couldn't smoke until the no smoking light went off. Here is another one for you. The drinking age up until 1984 was 18 not 21.

 

[lostdog000]

48 here