Gen-X Is The First Generation To Fully Age Online And Nobody Knows How This Will End
fizkes | ShutterstockI had an epiphany this week: Gen-X is the first true generation to fully age online. Boomers, please don’t take offense. We see you, but in my humble opinion, there is a larger portion of your people who are in a deep hippie state that want to live “off-grid” than us Atari 2600-playing, hose-drinking, latchkey kids.
We like playing with others, and we aren’t afraid of speaking our truths out in the open, while much of my big sister’s generation wants to hide in the shadows. I think this is why we are all now well aware of what perimenopause is. We can thank Gen-X for going through it in a very vocal, very public way.
My Greatest Generation parents use their PCs mostly for email, playing the Publishers Clearing House games, and still trying to avoid being scammed by the King of Nigeria, while their kids (me) are screaming about how mood swings and hair loss start as early as age 38.
Nobody told us about the freaking hair loss. That’s why the eyebrow industry is booming. Not because of the Kardashians, but because the ladies of Gen-X looked in the mirror one day and went “What the actual?” And we can’t keep quiet about it.
I’m not dissing Boomers at all. My big sister was one, but she didn’t think her business was everyone else’s, and many of her friends felt the same.
shurkin_son / Shutterstock
My Facebook feed is now packed with “In the 80s, we….” videos performed by preteen kids through an orange-y filter that makes me think of dropping my film off at the Fotomat. We long for the past.
Gen-X isn't necessarily the best or most resilient generation; we just are. We exist among the rest of you, just louder than everyone else because, well, aging sucks, so we are visually hanging on to our youth — and yelling about it digitally while we still know how.
News flash: Gen-X gave birth to the internet and watched it leave diapers and start walking. Now we've basically become experts at it, and now, we’re chasing after it on a full-tilt sprint we didn't expect it to reach.
And now, as will happen to you, we are getting left behind like an aging grandparent hanging on to that “classic” (rusting) car for dear life. To say any generation is “stronger” and “more resilient” than anyone who lived through World War II is just offensive.
And to say “The world is worse than ever” without reflecting on the same is equally offensive: 60 million humans died in WW2; I repeat, 60 million. So your mis-made latte and egg inflation aren't quite as bad, IMHO.
Eventually, Gen-X will get older and probably be the last generation to hang on to Facebook. We remember its birth, are desperately trying to keep it alive, and will likely be buried right next to it wearing our Esprit separates, an armload of rubber bracelets, and be anointed in Colors by Benetton or Drakkar Noir.
Until then, bear with us Millennials, Zellenials, and Alphabetenials or whoever else I’m missing. And pay attention, because what we are doing is preparing you for the harrowing years to come that your great and great-great-grandparents didn't prepare us for.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled life (cue ABC After School Special theme music).
Kristen Crisp is the founder of Not Even Wine With Dinner. A community/mission for those looking for peer support with sobriety, self-esteem, mental health, aging, and all the things that come with being human. She is also a frequent writer on Medium under the handle @notevenwinewithdinner.
