The Difference Between Generation X and Millennials | TMI

By the way, I want to recognize that this is a major oversimplification of the problems that Millennials face, I was just thinking about the effect of upbringing and the environments that shaped us.

I will say one thing about being Generation X. We had the best music culture ever. 🤘🏻😎

My take as a Gen-Xer is we're the cynical middle child generation, the one that got no attention and resultingly had to be self-sufficient. We automatically cringe at trends, commercialism, and any kind of general ego puffery. Cynical but easygoing.

I’m a Gen x kid .. 53 now and I remember a lot of my friends being devastated knowing their parents were divorcing. Also that we raised ourselves. No one stayed inside. You were expected to just be home for dinner and come home for the night when the porch lights were on. It was a awesome time to grow up . We all were for the most part successful in life achieving our goals. I wish the younger generation could feel what it was like to have true freedom and no cameras watching your every move. Vinyl was an experience and not just a push of the screen.

As a late Gen X’er (‘78) I like to think about it this way, I’m hopefully pessimistic. I hope things well work out, but I’m in no way surprised when they don’t, and really rather assumed they wouldn’t.

"Latch-key kid" - for those that don't know - We came home to a locked, empty house after school and had to let ourselves in with our own key, because both parents were at work, made our own lunches and took care of ourselves - unlike previous generations that came home to mom. I don't think the expression is as common now because it's just normal to be that way.

I’m a boomer and all I can say is that if 1% of the stupid stuff I did and said was recorded on the internet and available to be repeated and played for the entire planet, nobody on the face of the earth would talk or even sit near me. Younger generations have no space to grow and learn about the world in a modicum of privacy. I was learning how to “adult”. The standards for everyone is so much different now. There is no room for youthful indiscretions. It sucks. That standard is impossible to attain.

Boomers were pretty rough on a lot of us. It definitely toughened us up. The term "child abuse" started becoming a thing during our generation. We didn't want our kids growing up like we did but therefore didn't know what was too much or to little when raising kids. We didn't whine or complain, still respected our elders, and looked forward to the day we could get out on our own

Things that I miss the most about growing up Gen X: --your friends weren't flakes ... if you guys made plans it was in stone --riding on my bike with 15 other friends throughout the city --smoking weed out of an apple (ifykyk) --pranks we played on each other (without a MF hashtag trending full of whiny offended ppl) --Blockbuster video --/\/ / R \/ /\ /\/ /\ --the pool hall --FRIENDS THAT WEREN'T FLAKES --internet chat rooms where we cursed each other out (no bans, no mods) --smoking out with friends and talking about conspiracy theories --fingerless gloves and denim vests --"Skinemax" on the cheater cable box --cheezy 80's movies --going out all day with $20 as a kid and coming home with change --calling 411 on the payphone and pranking the operator --riding the city bus around the whole city at 10pm at 13yo --booty / bass music (growing up in SoFlo this is mandatory) --Mustang 5.0 --the roller skating rink

As a Gen Xer, I think the most important and persistent sentiment that was ever imposed upon us as kids was that we didn't really matter. Whatever we may have done ,or may have said, or may have thought, was unimportant at best or completely irrelevant at worst. Like you said, we grew up with the prospect of WWIII kicking off at any moment which meant that we were almost an afterthought to most discussions and talking about a 'future' was practically an act of arrogance. This is why the battle cry of Gen X was, is, and shall always be 'Whatever' because we just felt like we were the collective punchline of a bad joke.

Young Gen-X here, and it's definitely been a weird go watching the world change so drastically in our lifetime and I think this is the problem. I do feel bad for the Millennials as well. The boomers really set them up for disappointment. That was the advantage to growing up Gen-X. As you said, we had no expectations of tomorrow. The "F - it, what do you want me to do about it" attitude has served us well for the transition. The boomers set the Millennials on a path that would have been the ideal path for a boomer. So the millennials lives were on this rigid rail and they were told go to get good grades, go to college and graduate and get a good job and you will not just be successful, but you will be prosperous. BUT, at the same time they were setting them up for this pipeline, they were strip mining their futures. They shipped off all of the good manufacturing jobs overseas so we could make cheap junk to sell at WalMart. So now the good paying jobs were replaced by low paying retail jobs. Then with all of these kids in college, they guaranteed the student loans. With that college tuition ballooned, so the cost of getting that "good office job out of college" just became cost prohibitive, but they also now demand that bachelor's degree as the floor to even get your foot in the door. Now you have to get an even higher and more expensive education to get a job JUST to be middle class....but now you're also saddled with debt. So millennials were sold the promise of the boomer life track all the while the boomers were taking a wrecking ball to that reality. So basically, the millennials were unplugged from the matrix of their childhood and expected to become adults in a world they were wholly unprepared to deal with. Them now being adults, the boomers had no sympathy for them...after all, they're adults now and should just deal with it, that's life. This, again, is where the Gen-X upbringing differed so much. We were left to our own devices. We learned by trial and error. We were allowed the freedom to make mistakes where they had helicopter parents and participation trophies and soccer practice and karate lessons and they were just kept on a hamster wheel with the promises of a great future if they followed the rules. All the while the boomers, who are STILL in charge, mind you, changed the rules.

I was born in 1981, right on the dividing line between the two generations. My parents were boomers who had kids late, which meant a whole extra decade of dual-income-no-kids in the 60s and 70s to build up. I'm just old enough to remember duck-and-cover drills in school, but was still quite young when the Berlin wall came down. My upbringing was all about getting the best grades in school to get a college degree so I could get a job paying six-figures. Meanwhile I grew up absorbing Gen-X culture, and I saw my parents' ideas of success being conformity to a corporate consumerist culture as a shallow, empty way to live, and being funneled down that path was awfully gloomy. Then 9/11 happened. Then the financial crash of 2008 happened. And then, and then, and then.... Whether or not us Gen-X / Millenials actually wanted it, the life of the Boomers has been pushed out of our overall reach. On the rare occasion that the lucky few of us are able to get out of student debt, move beyond the gig economy, climb to the top of the bucket of crabs and begin to live the life of their parents, then congratulations, welcome to shallow, empty corporate consumerism. These are the lucky ones. I hate that I can't remember the YouTuber who said it, but they had a great essay that summed it up really well. "Things have been terrible for so long, you miss when they were merely bad."

I am one of the earliest millennial (82) and I think it might be good to mention another formative thing that happened: I was 19 during 9/11. It was one of the first things that happened in my adult life. And we all watched it live. It's like, yes, I matured in the 90s with grunge music and stuff, but we were indeed promised stuff at that time and then it's just been tragedy after tragedy after tragedy.

as a pissed off elder millenial, this is a helpful mindset to keep in mind. The world is shit, full of systems that are completely rigged to fuck most involved. That being said, it's also a fascinating time to be alive, we are interconnected in a way never before possible. The flow of information is insane. The world may be terrible, but it is equally amazing. I think if I could forget the promise of opportunity promised to me by everyone guiding me, and could just take things as they are....things are not so bad. They are not great, but they are not so bad. great perspective, thanks for the video. hope we don't all die in a fireball.

Latch/ key kids were the first generation that overwhelmingly had two working parents. We got home and no one was there. We either unlatched the gate and went in through the back door( usually a key was either under a planter or in our pockets.) We entered through the back door in an attempt to keep our business our own.

GenX circa 1968 here. When I first read "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk back in '96, then saw the movie, well damn... it screamed out GENERATION X, STAND UP! The quotes in that movie are spot on clear depictions of GenX life. "Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." "On A Long Enough Timeline, The Survival Rate For Everyone Drops To Zero." “It’s Only After We’ve Lost Everything That We’re Free To Do Anything.” I hold no hate for boomers (my parents), millennials (friend's siblings), or GenZ. I respect people who respect me. It goes both ways, and is earned. I wish that some of us could all sit in a group, sharing stories, fears, hopes, goals, and futures. We all have things to learn from each other. Wisdom and insight come with age and experience, imagination and innovation come with youth and hope. I know we can see the good in this mess of a world. Cold War (again), recession (again), disenfranchisement (again). We have much to learn from each other. The only answer I can even venture for this, and future generations? Stop allowing others to separate you, stop allowing the division between ourselves. As a whole, this generation, right here, right now, has the real opportunity to make changes that will benefit all. My closing thoughts come directly from George Carlin. One of the greatest minds that graced the Boomers and GenX... we really need to push his wisdom forward. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. "The reason education sucks and will never, ever, ever be fixed is... because the owners of this country don't want that... I'm talking about the real owners, the big, wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate and Congress, the statehouse, the city halls. They have the judges in their back pockets. They own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear... We know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking - well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking... That doesn't help them. That's against their interest... They want obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly sh*ttier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now, they're coming for your Social Security money... They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something, they'll get it... It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I ain't in the big club... They don't care about you at all, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on... It's called the "American Dream," because you have to be asleep to believe it." -George Carlin

As a Millennial, my expectation was to be able to work a full time job and afford a place to live to call my own. I also live in Dallas, like you joe, but even with me and my fiancé, we can barely afford rent with both of us making over double minimum wage with minimal other expenses beyond surviving and paying back loans we took to survive (like insurance, medical bills, cost of cell phone required by jobs, but not payed for by jobs, car loans to be able to travel to the jobs to afford the money, ect). This basically means no savings for getting out of this situation, and in a house where we aren't throwing our money away with no future return. And this money goes to people who are already set for life with multiple properties and want to afford that next yacht.

As a Gen Xer I really related to this. I had my own house key from the time I was 8. Before all the laws about not leaving kids home alone. I'd get home from school and most of the time I was alone until 7 or 8 at night. In my teens I took care of my two younger brothers. Mom was a single parent and worked 3 jobs so she was never home. Even on weekends. We learned how to be really independent. We also learned that nothing is promised to anyone. Ever. The world doesn't owe you anything. You want something? Go make it happen.

Yes. I’ve had a few conversations with Millennial friends about this. They grew up with different expectations than I did. I expected to die in fiery annihilation. When I was a kid we’d talk about Red Dawn and War Games on the elementary playground. I lived in fear all the time but it means I was pleasantly surprised when I made it to the age of 20 STILL ALIVE

Oh wow. The "we weren't promised a tomorrow" is EXACTLY that feeling. I was tail end (1980) but older siblings really made me identify with Gen X. People tell me I'm a millennial, I'm not.