What makes a Gen X-er, anyway?

When I get e-mails from readers, they often preface their comments with things like, "I don't know whether I fit into Generation X or not, but..."

Like many cultural concepts, the notion of "Generation X" is somewhat fluid. People often apply a range of birthdates to it, for the sake of establishing parameters. You will often see definitions of Generation X as consisting of people born between 1965 and 1982, for example.

That's more pragmatic than anything else. It allows Gen X-ers to fit neatly between the older Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and younger Millennials (born between 1983 and 2001).

Sometimes a definition based on population demographic is attempted. Baby Boomers really do have a statistical identity in this regard: They are the children of the World War II generation, and there are a lot of them. Birthrates soared in the postwar years, and they didn't begin to fall off until the late 1950s.

It turns out, though, that there isn't a good demographic trend to chart for Generation X. There's also no monumental event (like the end of World War II) to mark the generation's birth point.

But I don't think a Gen X definition should be rigidly tied to specific dates. Trying to do so misses the point of the term in the first place. Here's why:

The problem with a definition based on statistical categories has to do with the way we use the term "generation." It is simply not scientific. It's cultural. And so its meaning should have cultural (rather than scientific) relevance.

I have a different concept of how Generation X should be defined. For those of you who consider yourselves to be Gen X-ers, see if this resonates:

A Gen X-er is someone whose childhood, adolescence and young adulthood were shaped by experiencing the radical change in practically all of the basic technologies that surround daily human life. (The exceptions, of course, would be the automobiles and domestic technologies such as the washer and dryer, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner.)

Think about it.

Remember rotary dial phones? Seen one of those lately? What kind of phone do you make most of your calls on now?

I bet it's a cell phone. Just like I bet the last letter you sent was via e-mail rather than snail mail.

How about the shift from toaster ovens to microwaves as the preferred way to heat up your leftovers?

I remember the clackety-clack-clack of my mom's fingers pounding away on our Royal manual typewriter when I was a kid. By the time I was a college freshman, I was writing my papers on a Macintosh computer networked to a laser printer in a lab.

You can do this with the technologies that surround our lives ad infinitum. But it begs the question: Why use a technology standard to define our generation?

It's because our peculiar experience of technological change has done something to our minds and our hearts. Our parents experienced all these changes, but they did so later in their lives.

We, on the other hand, were shaped by rapid technological change smack-dab in the middle of our most formative years. And that molded the way we understand the world in which we live.

The disconcerting rapidity of contemporary life is part of why we call our present time the "postmodern age." Change, rather than stability, has become the norm. Relativity threatens to vanquish Truth. The whole world feels like shifting sand beneath our feet.

We recoil at the rampant materialism of our time. And yet we chase after each new creature comfort with an impulse born out of a lifetime of upgrading from Atari to Nintendo to Sega to X-Box.

I've been told that focusing on a notion as vague as "Generation X" is just a word game. I disagree.

If we don't take stock of who we are and where we are in history, we will pass away without ever really knowing ourselves. We need to examine ourselves critically in the light of the culture that has shaped us.

Self-knowledge is a first step in realizing the grace that is already within us. It is a first step toward finding true faith. And it is in such faith that the hope of our salvation lies.

The Rev. Andrew C. Thompson is an ordained Elder who is working on a doctoral program at Duke Divinity School. He blogs at www.genxrising.com. e-mail: andrew@mandatum.org.

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