Replies

As Don W wrote above, originally, the term ‘Generation X’ started with 1960 births.

I never identified with a “generation,” but I’d say ‘Generation X’ starts in 1960 and ends in the mid-1970s.

The term “Generation X” was around a long time - for example, a book about “Mods” in the 1960s, and Billy Idol’s punk rock band in the late 1970s.

But, as Don W mentioned, there was a 1991 book, “Generation X,” written by Doug Coupland (born 1961). Maybe you all read it. I never read it - only read about it. Coupland is credited with naming “Generation X,” but he was writing about people his age. He is said to have been writing about people born in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. But the book description says Generation X is 1960 to 1978.

A few years before he wrote the book, he wrote a magazine article in 1987 about people his age, which he called ‘Generation X.’ Then, he had a comic strip called ‘Generation X.’ All about people his age in their 20s at the time.

Then, his 1991 book caught on. By the early 1990s, when I returned to college in my mid-20s, there were posters about ‘Generation X’ on campus. The posters said (for example): “Generation X is the first generation with a retirement age of 67.”

A retirement age of 67 refers to everyone born 1960 and later. There were many other indicators that matched 1960 and later, too.

But, sometime in the mid-1990s, someone decided Gen-X should start later in 1965. That is, our younger siblings took the term “Generation X” because they liked it, and they cut us out. (lol)

So, then, Jonathan Pontell came up with the term “Generation Jones” for 1950s and early 1960s.

But, really, 1960-1978 (at most) should be known as Generation X. Or, at the least, 1960-1975 (since later generations are 15-year periods).