sumber : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X dikutip 18 Mar 2015
Generation X
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
For other uses,
see Generation X
(disambiguation).
Generation X, commonly
abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western Post–World War II
baby boom. Demographers, historians, and commentators use beginning
birth dates ranging from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.
Contents
- 1 Origin
- 2 Characteristics and demographics
- 3 Economy
- 4 United Kingdom
- 5 Canada
- 6 Australia and New Zealand
- 7 See also
- 8 Notes
- 9 Further reading
The term Generation X was
coined by the Magnum photographer Robert Capa in the early 1950s. He used it later
as a title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately
after the Second World War. The project first appeared in Picture Post
(UK) and Holiday (US) in 1953. Describing his intention, Capa said
"We named this unknown generation, The Generation X, and even in our first
enthusiasm we realised that we had something far bigger than our talents and
pockets could cope with." [1] The term was used for various subcultures or countercultures after the 1950s.
The name was popularized by Canadian
author Douglas Coupland's
1991 novel, Generation
X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, concerning young adults
during the late 1980s and their lifestyles.[2] While Coupland's book helped to popularize
the phrase Generation X in a 1989 magazine article [3] he erroneously attributed it to English
rock musician Billy Idol.[4][5] In fact, Idol[6] had been a member of the punk band Generation X
from 1976 to 1981, which was named after Deverson and Hamblett's 1965 sociology
book Generation X[7] – a copy of which was owned by Idol's
mother.[8]
Characteristics
and demographics
Gen X is the generation born after
the Western post–World War II baby boom describing a generational change from
the Baby Boomers.[9][10][11][12][13][14]
In a 2012 article for the Joint Center
for Housing Studies of Harvard University,
George Masnick wrote that the "Census counted 82.1 million" Gen Xers
in the U.S. The Harvard Center uses 1965 to 1984 to define Gen X so that
Boomers, Xers and Millennials "cover
equal 20-year age spans".[15] Masnick concluded that immigration has
filled in any birth year deficits during low fertility years of the late 1960s
and early 1970s [15][16]
Jon Miller at the Longitudinal Study
of American Youth at the University of Michigan
wrote that "Generation X refers to adults born between 1961 and 1981"
and it "includes 84 million people" in the U.S.[16][17]
In 2011 "The Generation X
Report" (based on annual surveys used in the Longitudinal Study of today's
adults) found Gen Xers, defined in the report as people born between 1961 and
1981, to be highly educated, active, balanced, happy and family oriented. The
study contradicted the materialistic, slacker, disenfranchised stereotype
associated with youth in the 1970 and 1980s.[18] Various questions and responses from
approximately 4,000 people who were surveyed each year from 1987 through 2010
made up the study.[19] Clive Thompson,
writing in Wired in 2014
claimed that the differences between Generation X and its predecessors, and
followers had been over-hyped, quoting Kali Trzesniewski, a scholar of
life-span changes, as saying that the basic personality metrics of Americans
had remained stable for decades.[20]
In 2012, the Corporation
for National and Community Service ranked Gen X volunteer rates in
the U.S. at "29.4% per year", the highest compared with other
generations. The rankings were based on a three-year moving average between
2009 and 2011.[21][22]
In the preface to Generation X
Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion, a collection of global
essays, Professor Christine Henseler summarizes it as "a generation whose
worldview is based on change, on the need to combat corruption, dictatorships,
abuse, AIDS, a generation in search of human dignity and individual freedom,
the need for stability, love, tolerance, and human rights for all".[23]
In cinema, directors Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, Jane Campion, Steven Soderbergh,[24] Kevin Smith,[25] Richard Linklater[26] and Todd Solondz[27] have been called Generation X
filmmakers. Smith is most known for his View Askewniverse films, the flagship film being Clerks, which is set in New Jersey circa 1994, and focuses
on two bored, convenience-store clerks in their twenties. Linklater's Slacker similarly explores young adult
characters who were more interested in philosophizing than settling with a long-term
career and family. Solondz' Welcome to the
Dollhouse touched on themes of school bullying, school violence, teen drug use, peer pressure and broken or dysfunctional
families, set in a junior high school
environment in New Jersey during the early to mid-1990s.[28] While not a member of Gen X himself,
director John Hughes
has been recognized as having created a series of classics "that an entire
generation took ownership of with films like The Breakfast Club,[29][30] Sixteen Candles and Weird Science".[31]
Gen Xers are often called the MTV
Generation.[32] They experienced the emergence of music videos, new wave music, electronic music, synthpop, glam rock, heavy metal and the spin-off glam metal, punk rock and the spin-off pop punk, alternative rock, grunge,[33] and hip hop.[34]
Compared with previous generations,
Generation X represents a more apparently heterogeneous generation, openly
acknowledging and embracing social diversity in terms of such characteristics
as race, class, religion, ethnicity, culture, language, gender identity, and
sexual orientation.[32]
Unlike their parents who challenged
leaders with an intent to replace them, Gen Xers are less likely to idolize
leaders and are more inclined to work toward long-term institutional and
systematic change through economic, media and consumer actions.[35]
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that
Generation X statistically holds the highest education levels when looking at
current age groups.[36]
Pursuant to a study by Elwood
Carlson on "how different generations respond in unique ways to common
problems in some political, social, and consumption choices", the Population
Reference Bureau, a private demographic research organization based
in Washington, D.C., cited Generation X birth years as falling between 1965 and
1982.[37] On the first page of the study,
authors William Strauss and Neil Howe's definition of a "cohort
generation" is cited.[37] They define Generation X by the years
1961 to 1981.[38]
Furthermore, there are sources
defining the Generation X period between 1965 and 1983.[39]
In 2008, Details magazine
editor-at-large Jeff Gordinier released his book X Saves the World -- How
Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking.[40][41]
Economy
Studies done by Pew Charitable Trusts,
the American
Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution,
the Heritage Foundation
and the Urban Institute
challenged the notion that each generation will be better off than the one that
preceded it.[42][43][44]
A report titled Economic
Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well? focused on the income of
males 30–39 in 2004 (those born April 1964 – March 1974). The study was
released on May 25, 2007 and emphasized that this generation's men made less
(by 12%) than their fathers had at that same age in 1974, thus reversing a historical
trend. It concluded that per year increases in household income generated by
fathers/sons have slowed (from an average of 0.9% to 0.3%), barely keeping pace
with inflation. "Family incomes have risen though (over the period 1947 to
2005) because more women have gone to work, supporting the incomes of men, by
adding a second earner to the family. And as with male income, the trend is
downward".[42][45]
Generation Flux is a neologism and psychographic designation coined by Fast Company
for American
employees who need to make several changes in career throughout their working lives because of the chaotic
nature of the job market following the Financial crisis
of 2007–08. Those in "Generation Flux" have birth years in
the ranges of Gen X and Millennials.
Entrepreneurship
According to authors Michael Hais
and Morley Winograd, "small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit that
Gen Xers embody have become one of the most popular institutions in America.
There's been a recent shift in consumer behavior and Gen Xers will join the
“idealist generation” in encouraging the celebration of individual effort and
business risk-taking. As a result, Xers will spark a renaissance of entrepreneurship in economic life, even as
overall confidence in economic institutions declines. Customers, and their
needs and wants (including Millennials) will become the North Star for an
entire new generation of entrepreneurs".[46]
United
Kingdom
A 2008 article by The Observer, cites the Generation X birth
years as falling between 1965 and 1982; the same article later describes Millennials as being born between 1982 and 2002.
The writer states that Generation Xers were "labelled by some" as the
me generation of the Eighties."[47] Another piece written by a Guardian
journalist in 2011 uses 1961 to 1981 for this generation.
The Telegraph cites Gen X birth dates as falling between a longer time
span (1965–1985),[48] In 2007, The Independent estimated an earlier range of
birth dates (1963–1978) compared to other writers or researchers.[49] However, the newspaper's 2010 article
titled "Generation X: A mid-life crisis" uses the 1961 to 1981 date
range.[50] The BBC News article about a lack of
"mid-career volunteers" in their 20s provides a Generation X age
range, which, being written in 2007, would suggest birth years that fall
between 1962 and 1982.[51]
A Daily Express article in December 2013
discusses the impact the recession has had on the generation "born between
1961 and 1981." Despite "a good degree" and desired job skills,
"they discovered that there is no job security and everywhere there are
cutbacks on staff, salaries and benefits," Jan Etherington writes.[52]
In 2014, The International
Business Times UK edition reported that top British graduates
today were "more likely to be attracted to working independently as a freelancer
for multiple companies, than looking for a job for life with one
employer."[53]
Canada
One author, and professor at the
University of Toronto, David Foot, divides the
generation born after the Baby Boomers into two groups in his book Boom Bust
& Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift:[54] Generation X, born between 1960 and
1966; and the "Bust Generation", born between 1967 and 1979.[55] In his opinion, those born between the
periods of 1947–1966 were the Baby Boomers, where in
Canada they were the largest boom of the industrialized world (relative to
population).[56] This large boom complicated the job
market for the upcoming generation.[57] However, it is also common in Canada
to represent Generation Xers using the date ranges 1961–1981 or 1965–1981.[58][59]
Australia
and New Zealand
A Sydney Morning Herald
article defined Gen X as "those born roughly between 1963–1980."[60] The Australian Bureau of Statistics
use a 1965–1981 birth range to define Generation X.[61] According to generational demographers
Bill Strauss and Neil Howe, "shorter birth year definitions are shorthand
for fertility rates. Gen Xers (as a cultural generation) look beyond
demographics to define themselves by a shared location in history, common
beliefs, attitudes and values (and a common perceived membership). Defining Gen
X purely by demographic bulges and busts (like the Census) misses key cultural
indicators that a very different set of young people has come along.
Commentators who set Millennial birth boundaries starting in the late-70s often
make the same assumptions using fertility rates to define birth dates rather
than shared beliefs, attitudes and values. Children born in the early 1960s and
after had a very different coming of age experience than those born in the late
1950s. Some of the most influential cultural definers of Gen X were born during
the period between 1961 and 1964."[62]
Sources in New Zealand, including
the country's labour statistics, define Gen X between the years 1965 and 1981.[63][64] According to a December 2013 article
from The New Zealand Herald,
a study done by researcher Dr. Kristin Murray of Massey University claims to
have "debunked stereotypes about workers of different generations"
who "may have more in common than we may think." She found that
though there were cultural differences between those in their twenties and
those in their mid-thirties, "those cultural differences weren't reflected
in underlying values and motivations." But, she found that Generation
X-ers (1965–1981) and Baby Boomers (1946–1964) were "most alike."
However, Dr. Murray clarifies that her study "focused on values, so there
could still be differences in behavior between age groups." Jason Walker,
who is the New Zealand managing director for job recruitment company Hays,
disagrees with Dr. Murray's findings. His company's research showed that
Generation X members worked their way up the corporate ladder, advancing by
learning new job skills. The Baby Boomers were dependent on their employers to
take care of them if they worked hard. The "technologically savvy"
Millennials, on the other hand, were "more risk-taking in their
careers" and expected "fast-paced results." If they weren't
challenging enough, or if they felt like they were in a dead-end job, they
would move on.[65]
