Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

who here is a Gen-Xer?

I have an anthropologist friend who like to draw upon this social theory of Straus & Howe, here's the Amazon page with their books:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688119123/104-6467002-5753567?v=glance

According to their theory the Xers, roughly those born between 64 and 79 (I think) are the most recent "nomad" generation, characterized by wanderlust and an "out of the box style of thinking"... supposedly the Xers will be more informed and responsible than the outgoing Boomers and will form the new establisment... etc. I dunno, seems like an interesting idea, just thought I'd take a sampling from some current ex-pats to see if it pans out.

[MissT]

I am

[On the other hand]

I was born in 1968.

[Konundrum]

I am a Gen-Xer and seem to fit most of the stereotypes that come with being one...or rather, I did when I was a high school/college student.
It's really odd- as you grow older, you can see that the stereotypes involved with certain generations (Babyboomers, Gen-x and so on) seem to hold water.
BTW..what would the generation that is in university now be called?

Cuz I'm telling ya, after working with university students here in Boston, they sure seem to be a "I want everything but work for nothing" bunch.
You should hear some of the inane, selfish requests and complaints they make.

[Zyzyfer]

'79, that's actually considered Gen X? Teachers in school who discussed the subject always mentioned to my classes that we were Gen Y.

[Ody]

[Real Reality]

I am generation XY.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Not sure that we'll form the new establishment-- not if we spend our lives here in Korea paying off student loans because the previous generation octupled college tuition rates on us in the 80s and 90s. I'm not bitter.

Furthermore, the nomadic nature of Gen X precludes, I think, us being establishment. If we're all such wandering and introspective people, it seems unlikely that we'll gel into some cultural mass. It's more likely that Boomers will transfer their wealth and values to Gen Y, and Gen X will forever be those eccentric older people who never embraced 'normal' values.

But so be it. I think in thirty years, the best poets, musicians, artists, and thinkers will be those Gen X people who never fit into the machine. Misfits often tend to be successful in a different way. Of course, they might also blow up the world..

I hope I get some reward for being ignored by society for my adult life.. and then being told by Madison Avenue that I'm too old.

These are just my random thoughts. I wish the link was to a book excerpt and not just a sales pitch.

Ken:>

[Wangja]

[little mixed girl]

after. 1983.
tho, when i was in school we were randomly trying to figure out who was and wasn't.
we're like gen y or some retarded ish like that.
what happened to the rest of the alphabet?

[Demophobe]

[bucheon bum]

[chaz47]

my anthro-friend likes to say that the Xers will have a fount of real world experience coupled with techno know how, the current university age generation... the Yers or the Millenials in the Strauss & Howe model are very techno savvy in their own right being raised with things like cell phones and the Internet but they are wrapped up in a shroud of illusory media that the Xers (how many Xers do you know that are addicted to video games) managed to avoid... a lot of Xers were also latchkey kids and have learned independence at an earlier age... etc.

he also goes on to say that we are going into what the author's call a "Winter" and the Millenials are destined to be the next generation of draftees in a war as culture decays... anyway... every generation has its characteristics, that can be likened to season... and just as seasons repeat on a yearly basis so do generations and cultural epochs... the Millenials are supposed to be like the WWI generation or the "greatest generation" (? not sure on this reference to the greatest generation ?)

there's other stuff online by the authors, i think a good deal of "Generations" can be read online (Google), at least enough to understand the theory... they attempt to trace it back into the colonial era

it's interesting that so far the poll seems to be indicating a large percentage of expats are Nomad Xers...

[eamo]

I'm a typical Gen-Xer. Born 1969.

One difference I notice about the X and Y generations is their opinions on politics. X-ers remember ideology. We remember when politics was all about right-wing versus left-wing.

Y-ers don't get that at all. They are issue-driven. They jump from one issue to the next without really seeing their political rationale in one unified theory. One year they are all about WTO protests. The next year they have moved on to pro-choice demos.

[hypnotist]

'78 here, but I feel like I got stuck at the age of 25.