A instructor requested seventh graders what 40-year-olds do for enjoyable and their solutions are cruel

Every technology has collective experiences in its youth that assist outline it. Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) had the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, and the Moon touchdown. Millennials (1981 to 1996) lived by means of 9/11, the Great Recession, and the social media revolution. What about Gen X (1965 to 1980)? In their youth, they skilled the autumn of the Soviet Union, the rise of popular culture within the ‘80s, and Kurt Cobain’s suicide.

Gen Xers had been additionally born in an in-between period after girls entered the workforce and earlier than the arrival of helicopter parenting. They fell by means of the cracks and had been usually left on their very own. That’s an enormous purpose why they’ve a popularity for being resourceful and independent. They are additionally identified to be a bit cynical and sarcastic, a trait that comes from the financial and social tumult they skilled as kids.

The technology additionally occupies an attention-grabbing level in historical past the place many Gen Xers had analog childhoods and digital adulthoods. This offers them an attention-grabbing perspective on the function that expertise ought to have in our lives and a nostalgia for lengthy summer season days using bikes and not using a telephone in sight and staying exterior till the road lights got here on.

But what had been another Gen X experiences that different generations could not perceive? A Reddit person asked the Gen X forum, “What’s THE most Gen X thing?” and over 5,000 individuals responded with recollections of their childhoods that helped to outline them.

15 of the ‘most Gen X’ issues individuals have ever skilled

1. Whatever

“Whatever.”

“I’m 46 and will take my jaded apathy to the grave, thank you very much. Now everybody leave alone cause everything sucks.”

2. Taping songs off the radio

“I’m just on that border between Gen X and the oldest Millennials, but my sister is 8 years older than me. We would call the local rock station to request a song, then sit there with a tape at the ready to hit record as soon as they played our song. Repeat that about 10x and you’ve got a nice mixtape.”

“I spent months making a tape that had ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston on repeat (both sides) and gave it to my stepsister as a gift. She listened to the whole thing, hoping for a different song. Cause she hated that one.”

3. Arcades

“Video arcade. Before Gen-X, graphics weren’t good enough, and after Gen X, you’d play the games on your own home console. No other generation claimed them like we did.”

“I remember being indignant when the first 50-cent games came out. What, you think I’m MADE OF MONEY?”

4. Being forgotten

“Never getting mentioned in the news. It always goes from Gen Z to millennials to boomers.”

“My sister watched a video that was supposed to be about every generation from the greatest generation through Gen Z, and they left out Gen X. Just skipped right over that time period.”

This is in reference to a information story that CBS News ran in 2019 about Millennials being the “burnout generation,” the place they put up a graphic of each technology from Silent to post-Millennials, now often called Gen Z, however they forgot to incorporate Gen X. It was an ideal instance of how Gen Xers have been ignored for years.

5. Music movies

“Watching MTV Headbangers Ball Saturday morning, ready to record on the VHS when my favourite bands came on.”

“Yes, 120 Minutes- but also, Yo! MTV Raps.”

6. Swatch watches

“With the rubber guard on the face.”

“Swatch Guard, to keep you from telling time on the face with no numbers, of course. Yes, I had both at 14 in 1985.”

7. CD circumstances

“Massive CD collections neatly stored in binders for easy access.”

“Claiming shotgun in the car so you had access to the binder and could play DJ for the night.”

8. Last technology to stay with out the web

“Being old enough to remember (and appreciate) life before the Internet and cellphones but being young enough to transition into that world without a hitch.”

“Old enough to remember life before the ubiquity of the internet (and computers to a lesser extent), yet young enough to still be able to understand newer tech like modern smartphones and computers.”

9. The Young Ones

10. Being unreachable

“Being the last unreachable generation. There were hours where no one knew where we were and our parents had zero way to contact us.”

“Be home before the street lights are on.”

11. Garbage Pail Kids

“I bought a pack once, and my mom thought they were Cabbage Patch Kid cards. When she saw them, she made me return them to the store!”

12. Blockbuster on a Friday night time

“Hanging by the door to see if any good movies were just returned.”

“Checking your answering machine messages to see if the video store called to say the movie you wanted was in.”

13. Trapper Keepers

“I loved my Trapper Keeper. Everything fit in there, didn’t need a bookbag.”

14. Hypercolor shirts

“I sell the sh*t out of hypercolor shirts in my vintage store. I’m the only one who actually knows to look for them. The younger set is completely amazed by vintage hyper color.”

15. Payphone scams

“Using a payphone to make a collect call with the intent of the call being declined. It’s a messaging system that notifies your ride that you’re ready to be picked up from the movies, where you watched Back to the Future. Or from the arcade where you just blew a roll of quarters on Super Mario Bros.“

“Calling your out-of-town friend collect from a payphone to another payphone to avoid long-distance charges. Successfully did this with an overseas boyfriend, too.”

“We used to call the payphone on the corner by 7-11 just to see who would answer.”