Generation X

The Generation Stuck in the Twilight Zone of Media

Quick intro: welcome to my new Substack. Here I will write stuff about subcultures, mainstream culture, media, philosophy, sociology, all the stuff that culture vultures usually crave to grow their hungry, self-serving thirst for all things that are at a comfortable aesthetic distance!

Lately I have been curious about Generation X. My generation. Particularly, why does Gen X’s contributions seem to not weigh as much as the boomers that came before or the Millennials that came after. Now read the footer again and guess why. That’s right: Generation X was at the very twilight of old and new media.

The Boomers that came before saw Gen Xers sipping Jolt cola and doing all sorts of weird 90s web creative stuff like webcamming, MUDding, message board fighting, ASCII art, which all sounded like “Bleep Blorp Computers” to aging Boomers that revitalized TV and movies in retaliation.

As Millennials came into the spotlight, they were the Internet Generation. Xers had way too many memories of Ancient Media (doesn’t that sound cooler than “Legacy Media”) relics like “Gilligan’s Island” reruns and VHS tapes to really tune into the same wavelength (see, radio terminology *sigh*).

Generation X was also known as The Blank Generation and, considering the openness to ancient and newfangled media, it makes sense that the two forces would cancel each other out. We are the last of a certain time and the first of another at the same time. Most major narratives are more concerned with the definitive end or beginning of an era. Meaning you are more likely to watch a show either about an aging Hollywood boomer striving to stay relevant in the digital world (Hacks) or a Millennial trying to scrape past all the other content creators (also Hacks).

So does that mean Gen X has nothing to offer now? Pretty much, unless they can find a way to successfully merge their warm analog youth to the dizzying, ever-evolving present.