Generation X (Sociology)
Since the early 1950s, Generation X has been used as a catchphrase for a number of different generations or population cohorts , each of which is assigned different characterizations by the respective authors.
The term Generation X , also abbreviated as Gen X , now mostly refers specifically to the generation following the baby boomers . It is mainly used in the Anglo-American language area for people born between the mid 1960s and the early 1980s . The most common definition covers the years 1965 to 1980, but there are also deviating positions (for example, Gen X, according to the American authors William Strauss and Neil Howe, covers the years 1961 to 1981). The expression was particularly popularized by Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X , which described the situation of teenagers and young adults at the time.
In the USA in particular, the members of this age cohort are referred to as Gen-Xers . In Germany, Generation X is often not precisely delimited in terms of time and characterization compared to Generation Golf , which can therefore also be regarded as its specifically German expression. According to popular belief, Generation X is followed by Generation Y (also millennials ).
Concept history
The term "Generation X" was coined in the early 1950s by the American photographer Robert Capa . He used the catchphrase as the title for a photo reportage about young people who grew up after the end of World War II. The report first appeared in 1953 in the renowned British magazine Picture Post .
Also in the early 1950s, the American Holiday Magazine published a series of articles under the heading Generation X about the American youth of the time. Mid-1960s, the two British sociologists led Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson by a study in which it comes to mods and rockers went in the UK and under the title Generation X was released. The British punk band Generation X was founded in 1976 .
characterization
According to the author of the above-mentioned novel, Douglas Coupland, it is characteristic of that generation that for the first time without the effects of war they have to be content with less prosperity and economic security than their parents' generations, but on the other hand atone for their economic and ecological sins. Originally, the term "Generation X" was intended to indicate that this generation has so far successfully escaped the naming frustration of the advertising and journalistic industries. Coupland's book hit the bestseller lists and the title became a catchphrase for the generation that had not been named before. Coupland also coined the term McJob in his book , defined in the novel as “a low paid job in the service sector with little prestige , little dignity, little use and no future. Often referred to as a satisfying career by people who have never had one ”. Coupland is the ingrained lifestyle of social and economic pressures a " Lessness " (of English less = less) philosophy called over that does not measure the value of life to the accumulation of status symbols. The “new” value system is also ironically referred to as “exhibitionist modesty”. Because of this attitude towards life of refusal to consume , Coupland's Generation X (e.g. by the Seattle Times ), based on Gertrude Stein, would also be referred to as the “Lost Generation of the Nineties”. Coupland supports his observations at the end of the book with some statistics and quotations from various journals.
Sociologists point out that the members of Generation X were the first children in the 20th century with both parents who regularly worked without (at least in Western countries) outside childcare options for them. The phenomenon of key children , who after class often spent several hours without adult supervision, was therefore unusually widespread in western industrialized nations in the 1970s and 1980s. Music and movies played an important role for many of the adolescents at the time, while television programming was limited and computer games were still in their infancy. In the 1990s, Generation X were often accused of cynicism and nihilism ; What is correct is that popular culture at the time was heavily influenced by irony .
literature
- Martin Gloger: A generation to end all generations. To demythologize the generation label " 89er " . In: Operations . tape 182 , no. 2 , 2008, p. 139-147 .
- Edmund Fröhlich, Susanne Finsterer: Generation Chips . Hubert Krenn, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902532-30-5 .
- Jürg Pfister: motivation of Generation X . Publishing house for theology and religious studies (VTR), Nuremberg 2003.
- Guido Jablonski: Generation X. Self-description and external description of a generation. A literary study . Düsseldorf 2002 ( full text [PDF; 1.3 MB ] Phil. Diss.).
- Inken Bartels: Generation X. On the inflationary use of the term “generation” in the current media discourse . In: Vokus. Folklore and cultural studies writings . No. 1 , 2002 ( Generation X. On the inflationary use of the term “generation” in the current media discourse ( memento of October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )).
Web links
- Bernd Weisbrod: Generation and Generationality in Modern History In “ From Politics and Contemporary History ”. February 16, 2005