In my book if I could write a book my thesis would prove that Generation X represents and embodies a massive turning point for humankind. A tide has turned with X. The world is forever changed and maybe there's something truly terrifying about it. We are history in a much larger way than, say, one might refer to "The Beat Generation." Oh, so much more so, and I would explain how and why.
Generation X is changing things in another way, in that X departs from the age-old definition of "generation" and remakes the entire idea of what a "generation" means, so there'll be a lot about the details that in my book, if I could write a book. I have stories. Personal stories, defining references to pop culture and other key images that bind a generation, maybe the last generation in a certain way. The book would be about what happened to us in the fifty-or-so strange years between 1970 and 2020, give or take half a decade at either end.
In my book if I could write a book there would be a lot about how weird we are, and why Generation X brains are wired so weird. I would explain in real terms, no fancy language. Warts and all.
Here's something to consider. Think about the arc of our technology. Think about phones alone! Generation X was the last generation to possess an actively tactile memory of making a call on old desk or wall phones. To know the feel of the weight of the receiver in your hand, the springy coiled phone cord that threatened to clothesline passers-by. The heft of the dial mechanism as you stuck your finger and the exciting zzzzing as it twirled. I loved calling people with 9s in their numbers.
Technology is one of the things that binds us to the younger generations. My niece regularly sends me video greetings or texts. She's eight and we're on the same tech. She keeps in touch with her grandparents in Florida! Imagine that for us! That was not the case for us when WE were the kids. MY grandparents were absolutely flummoxed by the simplest tech. All their VCRs blinked 12:00. My grandmother marveled over the little buttons on my school calculator. These days, whole families keep in contact on their phones, and Follow each other on social media.
In bold type, Gen X went from analog to digital in a blur of fifty weird years. I think we deserve some freakin' credit.
There's something comforting in that shared experience of taking a flying leap across a great technological chasm, from childhood when our highest-tech toy was an Etch-A-Sketch to the very first iPads, from wall-tethered telephones that served an entire family, to everyone having a smart phone, even a lot of kids. How old were YOU when you first got rights to partake of the phone? We remember waiting until after 7pm so the rates would go down. We have stories.
To Generation X, technology advancing rapidly is comforting. We have been part of it. We had a big hand in building the cloud, and if not directly then indirectly by using it. Anybody remember all those AOL CDs that came in the mail? If you ever popped one of those things, or had an AOL AIM account, you were part of building the cloud, too. Personally my role was more direct. I worked in telecommunications after college. I have stories from the cubicle throughout the 1990s.
Technology moved fast since our childhood. We climbed the mountain, we surfed the wave, we sped along the information superhighway with all the windows open. We optimized for mobile like champs. Ours was a triumphant grand jete across the great digital divide, and I tell ya, we're doing a pretty good job of keeping up. Some of us have grandchildren already. We understand their technology and adopt it for our own use. Gen X is on Twitch, man. (note: update with whatever's after Twitch)
There would be a lot about mental illness in the book.
That's the book that I would write. ∎
*It would not really be a Trapper Keeper. But I would like to do a coloring book.
