Gen X: The Generation That Never Existed

I think probably gen x people are less invested in the idea of cultivating an image or a social media presence as a personal brand.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Saturday, October 19, 2019 3:34 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
personal brand is definitely not a gen X concept

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie),

All this shit makes me gag

I don't know if this is part of my Gen X ness or not but for sure I experience a flannel shirt as the shirt equivalent of blue jeans, something utterly neutral that I can wear on any day in combination with any other garment.

part of my marked lack of early-life success, beyond my own internalized self-loathing, was my horror and disgust at "selling" anything. One of the top reasons I didn't get into writing professionally (along with my growing belief that writing is, or was for the writers I liked, an emotionally and economically ruinous "career").

otm. I experienced this generalized revulsion toward sales as a mid-late boomer. because a sales career is legit horrifying. also, I noticed that writing for popular consumption was confined to careers I knew I'd hate, like advertising/marketing and almost all of it was predicated on meeting such vague criteria that no one knew in advance whether your writing would satisfy their need to generate profits. Whatever you wrote, you were at the mercy of the wind. lastly, an academic was so hotly competed for, that the process of getting one was likely to drive me insane. so I punted.

I think none of these lame pieces about generational trends mention gen X because these days they're mostly written BY gen Xers, and thus gen X is the implied subject that is looking at and describing all other generations.

I think probably gen x people are less invested in the idea of cultivating an image or a social media presence as a personal brand.

See: my ongoing and unabated disgust at selling in general. Selling myself as a brand makes me ill.

I'm technically a millennial and I feel the same way. It's part of the reason I don't have any social media accounts (except ILX, I guess).

I'm an, errr, X-ennial and I feel the same way (I relate a lot to the intersection rushomancy pointed out between the slacker ethos and learned helplessness; that section of the Venn diagram is definitely my niche, sigh) - but that started becoming the accepted default when I was in my 20s and the earliest true millennials were barely in the workforce yet, so I'm not sure we can absolve our generation of blame for that

I think it was still in the Myspace era when a friend said that his band had had interest from record labels but they'd said they wouldn't sign him unless he could get n thousand Myspace friends and they'd need to see daily activity from him on there plugging his band and ~working the fanbase~? and I was just like, stop the world, I want to get off

I know I'm shooting myself in the foot professionally by not advertising a self-aggrandizing version of myself online but it's simply not going to happen. I'd rather abide in obscurity forever than relinquish the notion that what one makes is infinitely more valuable than its so-called maker.

First time I was aware that my generation was being moved on from was around 2008 when the singer from New Young Pony Club was asked in an interview how she felt about her song being used in an advert and she was very surprised at being asked, like of course, why wouldn't you do that?

1980 is X, right? Bc that's when Kim Kardashian was born.

mil-cusp/Xennial

but entertainers/pop figures are always weird because they mean the most to people a generation or half-generation below them (e.g. the beatles were not boomers). kardashian setting the tone for what social media branding would look like can also be read as, ppl born in 1990 eating it up and encouraging it.

McCauliffe, Henson, and Cobain were like the pivotal gen x deaths afaict.

― Go-Gurt Ops (Old Lunch), Friday, October 18, 2019 2:28 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’m just a wee millennial, but what about Budd Dwyer?

I'm late gen x but only became aware of Dwyer via pop cultural associations.

All the talk about self-branding and sales seems like a v v good metric for sniffing out a gen x-er because, yeah, I hate all that shit with fiery intensity. This is why I have no money. But boy do I have my integrity, by gum.

god i wish someone would buy all my excess integrity

I'm extremely averse to branding/advertising/promotional/PR shit, but it's possible I was more influenced by boomers & gen Xers that other millennials were?

It's also possible that it is hard to make accurate generalizations about entire swaths of the population based on year of birth.

That's not what my horoscope said.

🤯

It's also possible that it is hard to make accurate generalizations about entire swaths of the population based on year of birth.

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r)

And then again, it's possible that our unique shared experiences go beyond "We are the freakies and this is our freakies tree"

lol sez sund4r the 4v4nt g4rde c0mp0s3r and gui+4r t3ach3r yer such a gen-xer dude you can't hide your ~integrity~

gen-x betrayal!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nine-inch-nails-head-like-a-hole-anthem-900750/

But nobody could have predicted the song’s most recent iteration. On an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror, Miley Cyrus played the pop star Ashley O, whose biggest hit was “On a Roll,” a hilariously upbeat redux of “Head Like a Hole.” “I’m on a roll,” she sings over sleek pop production. “Riding so high/Achieving my goals.” Instead of “Bow down before the one you serve,” Cyrus sings, “I’m stoked on ambition and verve.” It’s such a magnificently perverse interpretation of the song that even Reznor approved of it, tweeting out “Feels like I’ve been here before” and even offering NIN–Ashley O crossover merch for sale.

Another 78'er here. I also abhor branding and selling. Although I am fine with making money.

personal branding is repulsive

Did wearing shirts/carrying bags with company logos skip Gen X? I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something that had words Supreme, The GAP, Hollister, etc, emblazoned on the front or a logo'd bag. I find it embarrassing but people actively seek this shit out.

what about hard rock café t-shirts

first time threadster was this done cause uh huh

One reason people my age get so bent out of shape about “generations” is that Gen X is the only one that fully KNOWS it sucks. Boomers and Millennials cry “Stop picking on us!” while Gen X has forty-five years of self-hatred cued up and ready to go! Stop ignoring us! WE’RE AWFUL!

— john roderick (@johnroderick) October 19, 2019

People my age did it back in the day but I'd bet dollars to donuts that those people would never have self-identified as gen x.

OMG, what if gen x is actually a form of self-selective branding, shoot me now.

xxpost

also there are those shirts that I think say stussy but until like 3 years ago I thought they said satanism. nb I am not very visually perceptive

Yeah my general irl steez is 'don't pay excessive attention to me' which is almost certainly rooted in some degree of free-floating self-loathing but I don't know if that widely applies to my age group.

Hard Rock Cafe gets a pass since it has a music link.

Skating and surf shirts get a pass too.

NOT SUPREME THOUGH.

Maybe I should make a powerpoint on this.

Did wearing shirts/carrying bags with company logos skip Gen X? I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something that had words Supreme, The GAP, Hollister, etc, emblazoned on the front or a logo'd bag. I find it embarrassing but people actively seek this shit out.

No, especially not if bands count as companies. But yeah, I've always found it strange when brand logos take over almost the entire surface of a garment. These days (say, the last 10-15 years) I prefer to wear logo-less clothing as much as possible. I make an exception for sneakers, because the ones I find comfortable - DC skate shoes, mostly - are heavily branded, but they do a pretty good job of making the logo a design element.

despite my sense that private property is the root of all evil I also wonder if I am a capitalist to my bones because I think Risky Business is the coolest movie ever, but maybe that's more a boomer flick than gen X? time of your life, huh, kid?

xpost I also completely hate attention but I have always really liked myself.

I have always really liked myself.

ILX post least likely to be cosigned since the site's inception.

I also really like myself and am mostly positive about attention, at least positive attention.

Omg I wouldn’t be caught dead in a branded t shirt — Hard Rock Cafe? Are you kidding? No. Absolutely not then and not now.

Like I said, this is the one thing I feel so strongly that I think it connects me to “a generation” whereas most other parts of my belief system remain relatively idiosyncratic.

I mean like corporate branded tees not band tees. Those are fine but within reason.

Yeah band t's or things for unique restaurants don't count. I completely don't understand a plain top that just has OLD NAVY or POLO on the front. Or those years that LV monogram bags were huge.

Omg I wouldn’t be caught dead in a branded t shirt — Hard Rock Cafe? Are you kidding? No. Absolutely not then and not now.

This is more aligned with cultural class than generation -- like Paul Fussell wrote about this at least as far back as 1980 -- he termed it "legibility" and it was a sign of the lower classes. According to Fussell, people from higher classes avoid and often abhor clothing and accessories that have visible branding. The next step down is very subtle branding.

Though not wearing visibly branded clothing because you are providing free advertising to shitty companies is not the same as not wearing visibly branded clothing because "it's tacky"

Though not wearing visibly branded clothing because you are providing free advertising to shitty companies is not the same as not wearing visibly branded clothing because "it's tacky"

I’m in box #1 — I fullyunderstand the cultural implications but for me it’s the free advertising I object to, not “it’s tacky”

I understand why people do it I just object to doing it myself.

agree with this assessment. feel like we have got to point where if u where anything heavily branded the autoresponse is “what does she mean by THAT”?

so im hip and wear things that say I REALLY DONT CARE DO YOU

Omg I wouldn’t be caught dead in a branded t shirt — Hard Rock Cafe? Are you kidding? No. Absolutely not then and not now.

Like I said, this is the one thing I feel so strongly that I think it connects me to “a generation” whereas most other parts of my belief system remain relatively idiosyncratic.

Not every Gen xer is or was a slacker anti corpratist. There were plenty of preps too! And what they'd call "basic" now. They wore this shit.

xpost LV monogram bags are still huge!

There was a time period in my genX suburban hell when Coca-Cola branded rugby-style shirts were a big thing. Awful.

Guess jeans. Reebok high-tops with the velcro closure. Branded items were certainly a Gen X thing.

I see a lot of people wearing that Obey and Pink garbage who seem old enough to know better

I am looking at the reeboks because I love velcro shoes and the 'Reebok' is very small?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cf/49/1f/cf491f0156e53da2613507928bc3538c.jpg

that is definitely not an ironic Z Cavaricci shirt -- though we were also the ironic t-shirt generation