One thing I find really interesting:

Pew Research counts 77 million boomers and 83 million millennials—two generations marketers have long viewed as ripe for targeting. By contrast, there are only 65 million Xers

This is part of why GenX feels so powerless. It's a lot easier to foment change with an extra 12-18 million people in your demographic.

Jenn -- yes, quite. I think I read somewhere once that 1971 (or possibly 1973) was the lowest birthrate year in the USA since the war. I'm sure Canada was similar. I was born in 1972. There just aren't that many of us!

I finally watched that video you posted, btw -- it's quite long, but good. I agree that the whole Strauss-Howe generational theory thing is unscientific because it's unfalsifiable (plus, it's easy to find trends if you're looking for them). But the numbers are real, at least. There are a lot of boomers and millennials, and not nearly as many of those of us between those two huge groups!

There's still this huge age span between early boomers like my oldest siblings and late boomers like me and my DH. I simply can't relate to their intolerant beliefs, and wonder how we can possibly be lumped into the same generation. We are too different.

Gaylene, thanks for sticking up for Baby Boomers. It's not my fault there are a lot of us.

Jenn, I got laid off the week I found out I was pregnant. On Friday the 13th. I'm not making this up.

Jenn, while I agree that Gen X is the commonly used label used to describe the group who were born during the years when the US birth rate plummeted, I think it's much trickier to associate numbers with these labels since there is no universal agreement on which years can be assigned to each label. The picture gets even muddier because, as many on this thread have mentioned, there are "hinge"groups. Late Baby Boomers often identify more closely with Gen X than with the early Baby Boomers and the same can be true for early Millennials.

I also think it's important to remember that the individuals who actually lived during these decades did not all think the same way or experience the same conditions. Roe vs. Wade was a landmark case in the States but had no influence past its borders. For Canadians, the important players were Henry Morgentaler who continually broke the law and the juries who refused to convict him despite the repeated efforts of the Crown to lay charges. For every Boomer who fought against segregation, there were others who supported it. Most of us didn't join communes nor burn our bras because we were too busy trying to get through university, start families, or keep our jobs. The actions and events influenced us, but the number of Boomers who were actual participants were a relatively small group.

I think, as early Boomers, we lived through a pivotal era but I'm not sure many of us realized it at the time. We didn't know we'd be lucky enough to ride a wave of prosperity into a secure future, and I don't think many of us thought about our future in terms of six figure incomes and big houses in the suburbs. What united many of us was the conviction that equality, peace, and justice were worth fighting for after we'd witnessed what inequality, injustice, and war did to our grandparents, our parents, and our peers. That was the future we wanted for our kids.

To clarify, being a boomer did not guarantee job safety, being well paid, etc. even with a college degree. Most of my friends/fellow boomers have had layoffs, financial challenges, etc. A lot are actually getting by because they were left some money when their parents died.

If you were a worker bee, even with a college degree, your job disappeared because good companies were swallowed up and often sold off for pieces. Your retirement plan was lost. Jobs were sent to areas of the country that were less expensive, and then overseas. Even the ones with programming skills were left in the dust. One friend had a well paying job for many years with a utility company. She was laid off and ended up working retail 17 hours a week. She tried to work two part time retail jobs, but she never had enough notice of when she would be scheduled to work. She couch surfed with friends for many years.

...So I'm interested now how many in these various generational categories have been laid off, how regularly/how ritualized the layoffs, and what percentage of one's adult professional working life has been spent not as an employee but a contract worker or an employee of a contractor/temp agency?

Also, another salient point, Gaylene, about the odds people were at with one another - in what strikes me as a big way. The newsreel of demonstrations are quite visceral to my mind. Quite a tug of war that hasn't ended by any means. Ripped right open. Although I do think it amazing The Donald could get up and talk about gay people at the convention at all.

Gaylene, thanks for pointing out that those of us who lived through the baby boomer years did not all think the same way or experience the same conditions.

Barbara Diane, I agree that being a baby boomer did not guarantee job security. That was the one thing my parents drilled into me. One of the main things my father said was, "The government does not owe you anything. If you want something, you have to go out and work for it."

I was born in 1980 (so some people call that the tail end of GenX, some very early millennial, and some the elusive GenY) and to be honest I have never felt like I belong to ANY of those groups. (My parents were born in 1938 and 1945, so too early to be boomers, and in any case both are first generation immigrants so American generations don't really apply here). But for the record I've never felt like I NEEDED to have a generation.

Re: talking on the phone. I hate it. Hate it so much. I remember when I was a kid (in the 80's and 90's) everyone talked to their friends on the phone to their friends ALL THE FREAKING TIME (so it was definitely the norm back then) and I hated it even then.

Amen to EVERYTHING Gaylene has written, especially the history of the times. And I'll add being terrorized by the potential of the Cuban missile crisis. We boomers also came of age when it seemed natural to protest when you wanted change. I find it puzzling now when protesting is frowned upon.

I loved 70's clothes! To my eye at the time it was all new, not a rehash of prior times, it felt good to be on a new path.

Of course, layoffs were also part of the Great Depression. What has been changing back and forth is not the fact of layoffs, but the nature of them and the nature of worker compensation. The theory of employing people. And also public education...The University of California system has gone far away from its root principles and its always in the news here about how to get it back on mission.

I identify strongly with Gen X.  To rachy's question, I've been laid off twice in tech (once was a shorter term contract), husbands' jumped ship before layoffs once or twice. 

Nodding my head to Barbara Diane's points as well. 

My follow up question is how many are (or know among their generation) self employed or contract workers - i.e. unsalaried and no benefits?   I am and know a lot of Gen X and millennials in this category all along the income spectrum.  On the one hand, lots of entrepreneurship, on the other hand, lots of lack of stability, hopping from position to position as needed, continual reinventing, etc.

To rachylou and rabbit's question: I've never been laid off, but I left my tech job in 2000 to raise a family (which turned out to be just one child) and am now self-employed.

Not counting contract jobs and time he spent self-employed, programmer-hubby has worked for eight companies (I think) since we got married in 1997. He was laid off from four of those, and jumped ship on another two just before massive layoffs or a company shutdown. We've learned to have backup plan on top of backup plan with multiple income streams (husband wrote a book and does contract work on top of his full-time job; I combine online sales, handmade shows, and wholesale) to see us through, because you just never know. For us, and for most of our friends, a layoff isn't so much a tragic and life-changing event anymore, as a tragic and life-changing inevitability you should expect to happen every few years. "Hard work" these days still feels a lot like playing the lottery. 

I'm chiming in as a very happy Gen Xer! I'm not bitter about any of the generations. It is what it is. We all see the world a little differently and can learn from each.

Rachy, my parents aren't Boomers. They were the generation before that growing up during WW2. Their perspective has enriched my life too.

We have very close Boomer friends who we adore. They are always looking out for us in the best way. They are wise and wonderful.

In turn, I hope that Millenials can learn from us Gen Xers.

Diana, I too hated talking on the phone. I remember getting aggravated when I was a kid, at my *sister* for yakking for hours on the phone. It just annoyed me so much. But it was prevalent.

I remember a guy I met in college (mid-80's) telling me how he and his friend had this loooooooong phone conversation wherein both of them ultimately fell asleep while talking, at night. Imagine. What did everyone have to talk about?

I'm going to have to get to all the other comments when I have time, but this is really an interesting dialogue. Thanks! Novel-worthy material here!

Late to the party...late boomer (b. 1960) DH 1957. Similar to many who have posted, both our parents had War Stories and Immigrant Experiences. Our parents were conservative vs hippy, but with open/liberal views. Both of my parents had careers (though I remember my mother (a high school teacher at the time) so angry that she was paid 2/3 what a male peer, with less experience/seniority was paid!)

We were expected to be independent adults by our teens. DH and I were out of the family nest before our 20's. I worked my way through university, like Suz (no student loans) and on graduation earned little more than minimum wage in the terrible early '80's economy where 'there were no jobs' and interest rates shot up to 18%. In my 20's I didn't think we would ever own a house or be able to afford to support children. I worked as a writer, using a typewriter, in an office where people smoked! Our first car did not have a radio or A/C. We played records, and read books. LOL! Many of our age-mates who 'made it' became economic immigrants, like us, and went where the jobs were.

By our 40's I am sure we were a marketing cliche. DH Doesn't want to admit it, but I'm pretty sure, with a few exceptions, we were! 2 careers, 2 kids, a dog, a cat, an SUV (true, we lived in Northern Ontario!) a nice house, nose to the grindstone and saving hard for 'freedom 55'.

Regarding technology - We had a landline phone and a 12 inch black and white TV in the early '80's. DH gifted me with a Walkman that played cassette tapes Christmas '85 for when I went running. It wasn't until '97 that we had a home office and our first computer, mainly so DH could work from home - after he came home from work! My Millineal son's got me an IPad 4 years ago, and DH made the cell phone mandatory 2 years ago when I started the long commute for work.

Interesting, DS#1 says texting is the return of communication via the written word!

I get the New Yorker and this came up in today's offerings:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor.....ional-diff

How apropos, I thought.

For the record, in case I wasn't clear, I'm not a bitter Gen-Xer at all.

Haha, Az! Just so.

I am totally bitter. Because the whole New Yorker thing reminded me how annoyed I am. I wanted to do Snapchat but my stoopid Gen-X peeps aren't on. My bff won't get a smartphone. We don't communicate because he won't text and I don't talk on the phone. In fact, his tube tv finally burned out and he's talking about getting another on Craigslist. Craigslist! My other bff, she keeps emailing me. Instead of texting, she now CC's my mother, who tells me I have an email. Like she can't text because we're not in the same local area.

At the same time, I'm sorry: I completely refuse to do a video to apply for a job. Learn to read!

Who are all you people?

Lol

My parents were somewhat conservative. Ironically, though, they were a lot more liberal than my oldest siblings. My brother and I scratch our heads and wonder how they got that way. You could say generation gap, but that doesn't account for our parents being more liberal than they are.

I don't talk on the phone to amount to anything. I didn't do it even when I was a teenager. I do text and use FB Messenger.

Our household didn't get a home computer until 1998, and that was with dial-up internet that was as slow as molasses. We didn't get cell phones until our oldest DD was a sophomore in high school. Our 2 older DDs used their cell phones a lot, but our youngest DD (now 18) hardly uses hers. She prefers her laptop. If I want to get in touch with her, FB Messenger is better than texting or calling.

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Rachy -- What, a video to apply for a job?? Nooooo! I'm not doing that, haha.

But pretty much everyone I know, of every generation, uses text messaging. I can't think of any "refusers". It's just how we communicate now. Even my baby boomer inlaws text me regularly, although their use of the tech is different -- more formal, longer texts, more like email messages. (Although, oddly, they are much less restrained than I am in their use of emojis!). My 76-year-old dad has an iPhone and even an Apple watch, but he won't get a texting plan simply because he has trouble with his vision and can't read the print easily. But he's up with the technology. I do use the phone sometimes, but I often give people a heads-up by text, asking them if it's a good time to call. It seems rude to interrupt someone by phone when you can text instead, and they can reply in their own time. (I used to spend HOURS on the phone as a teenager, though).

My oldest siblings can't handle email attachments, and don't text or use FB Messenger. Two of them do use FB, but rarely post anything.

My brother and I, on the other hand, are prolific FB posters.

BC, now that you mention Facebook, I do know a small collection of "objectors" in my age group. For some reason there seems to be a few Gen-Xers who resist the whole idea of social media, even though they take full advantage of the convenience of text messaging on their smartphones. The older Millenials in my social sphere use Facebook to some degree, but the younger Millennials (such as the students I go to art school with) are way more likely to use Instagram and Snapchat.

On my feed, the heaviest Facebook posters are (a) professionals, both male and female, who work on computers all day and post links or short videos about current affairs/news/art/technology; or (b) stay-at-home moms who post mostly pics of their kids and the meals/crafts they make. But there are a surprising number of retired baby boomers who enjoy keeping in touch with friends and family on Facebook, too! Go boomers.

I never posted pics of my kids when they were growing up. I have a real problem with that. Even now that they're grown, pics are only posted with their permission.

I like to have fun with FB and keep up with family and a few close friends. I love to post funny stuff, share recipes, and occasionally post something political (the political posts are sent to certain people; not everyone).

Heh, I am one of the Facebook conscientious objectors. Actually, it's more like I started out as a conscientious objector and now it's just inertia. I used to be very opposed to so much personal sharing online, but apparently now I'm the sort of person who plans meetups with random strangers on a fashion site.

Although lately I've been thinking that I might have to join fb for professional networking reasons.

My DH and I met a couple on a cruise who met each other online and had not met face-to-face until they boarded the ship. That was weird, and they were both professionals - she a professor and he an eye doctor.

I didn't join FB until last year, and it was to keep in touch with family. I have purposely limited my "friends" to family and very close friends. I use LinkedIn to network, not Facebook.

I'm another Facebook CO, but if I'm being honest, it's more to avoid people (hello family, I love you, really) who raise my blood pressure than any real moral stance, since I'm on Instagram, which is owned by FB.

BC, my husband and I met online in 1992. That wasn't really a thing people did back then. People didn't quite know what to make of it.

I can understand meeting online, but not taking a cruise together before meeting face to face. That seems too risky to me.

I went to the wedding of a couple who got engaged online before meeting in person. I'd never met them in person before either. Shared a hotel room for the wedding with a girl also whom I'd never met in person before and who hadn't met the couple either. Lol. It was just like getting together with old friends. But then we were. We had all spent years online together arguing religion. Haha! Maybe that helped. Had gotten to the nitty gritty upfront