what generation do you hail from?

[jefhatfield]

as far as i know, there's the:

world war II generation who fought in the war
and those who came after who were too young to go to war
and the kids born shortly after the war from 1946-1964, aka the baby boomers
generation x
generation y or y2k
...and what's after that?:p

[Alte22a]

generation X?

1974... is that right? the kids that grew up with MTV.

[jefhatfield]

when does one qualify to be generation y or y2k?

my guess are those who were born after 1980 and graduated from high school around the year 2000, and came into adulthood, went to the prom, dated, etc during the turn of the millenium

...but then again, that could be generation z or whatever the kids call themselves these days who are under 21

i admit i am way out of touch with pop culture since in my day, kennedy got shot, the vietnam war escalated and then subsided, watergate happened, and the last major event before i was an adult was the iranian hostage crisis..and all this happened before many macrumors members were born

i think there is a regular poster here who remembers eisenhower and the space program, but i won't name names :p

with 20,000 members here, there has to be at least one lurker who remembers dewey defeats truman...and if you remember that, please come forward...these kids here on macrumors don't bite:D

ps - in the 1948 election, the press believed new york politician john dewey was definitely going to beat an unpopular sitting president, harry s. truman...so they printed the newspaper with the headline of the likely event, "dewey defeats truman"...truman won, but barely

political watchers and the press used the relatively expensive technology called the telephone to do a survey not knowing that the working class and poor could not participate because they couldn't afford to own a phone and participate in the survey...the survey was skewed towards the upper middle class and rich who have traditionally been republicans

imagine today if the pollsters interviewed only mercedes owners in america and asked who would they vote for in the 2004 election...bush would take all 50 states easily...but do that same poll in the poor inner cities and the democrat would win

in california, in the 2000 election, the bush people got their bumper stickers out first so it really looked like bush would easily win california as one of my friends pointed out...i didn't see any gore stickers then because they did not make them yet...so i thought gore may lose california:p

[wdlove]

Thank you Jef for your kindness.

I was born in 1948, before the Truman election. I'm a baby boomer.

Watched President Dwight Eisenhower give his speech live on TV on the last night of his presidency. My father used a Polaroid Camera to take a picture of him. I remember seeing the space flight of Allen Shephard. Our history teacher had a TV in her room, so got to see it live. I watched the 1st landing on the Moon in July 20, 1969, live on TV.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by wdlove
Thank you Jef for your kindness.

I was born in 1948, before the Truman election. I'm a baby boomer.

Watched President Dwight Eisenhower give his speech live on TV on the last night of his presidency. My father used a Polaroid Camera to take a picture of him. I remember seeing the space flight of Allen Shephard. Our history teacher had a TV in her room, so got to see it live. I watched the 1st landing on the Moon in July 20, 1969, live on TV.

ike won the presidency because he was a top ranking flag officer...certainly it helped

it helped u.s. grant and george washington

colin powell could have won in 92 and 96 and even 2000, no doubt about it

what do you think about 4 star general wesley clark entering the ring? first at west point like macarthur, supreme commander of europe like eisenhower, and a rhodes scholar like clinton...clark seems to have it all but i am sure the press will find something in his past that will haunt him

in the old days, eisenhower came across cleanly, only years later it was found he had a mistress who was an army captain in world war II and one of his aides...either the press didn't know or they felt that was not related to the job he was running for

i am afraid the press will try to crucify general clark since they love to see someone fall from very high places...ie) nixon and clinton of watergate and monica-gate fame

[TEG]

Check out the Wikipedia Page on when before Posting:
http://www.wikipedia.org/

Anyway I fall under the Generation Y, now known as Millennials of Childern of the Millennium. Something that won't be reused like Generation X!!

TEG

[vollspacken]

I'm from the notorious "Generation Beer"

;)

vSpacken

[CMillerERAU]

Being born Jan. 1st 1983 I guess I'm in the middle between X and Y generations. I can identify a lot with X'ers just as well as Y'ers. Go fig.

[Schiffi]

Born in 1985, you all can figure it out cuz I can't.

[rainman::|:|]

i'm a gen-y. i think the cutoff is about 1980, since i'm gen-y (1982) and my partner is gen-x (1976). 23 or maybe 24 would qualify.

pnw

[TEG]

According to the Wikipedia, these are the most recient Generations (Following standard Legnth 18) With my Interpretation of years, a little more realistic than Wikipedia's.

G.I. Generation 1908-1925
Silent Generation 1926-1944
Baby Boomers 1945-1963
Generation X 1964-1982
Generation Y (Millenials, etc) 1983-2001
Unknown Generation 2002-2020

This should clear up any confusion

TEG

[tpjunkie]

That makes me a Gen-Y being born in 1984. Although, it still amazes me that the current generation of kids in middle school grew up never watching teenage mutant ninja turtles (not the crappy revival), thundercats, GI Joe, Voltron, and Transformers, shows that every kid, boy or girl watched almost religiously when we were little.

[bennetsaysargh]

dude! i remember TMNT! they were awesome!.
me? i was born in 1989. too lazy to figure is out.

[eyelikeart]

1989...wow...

I was born in 1977...so I'm Generation X...

who remembers those terrible Pepsi commercials with "Generation Next?" :eek:

[bennetsaysargh]

i remember those pepsi commercials. i've seen them somewhere. they are horrible.

[Lyle]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
I admit I am way out of touch with pop culture since in my day, Kennedy got shot...Ted Kennedy got shot?

Just kidding. Little reference to "When Harry Met Sally", a movie which I, as a Generation X-er, actually saw in its original release at the movie theater ;)

[Stelliform]

Gen X here, born in 1976.

My wife hates the term Gen X, but I like it.

What generations go between the boomers and the Xers?

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by TEG
According to the Wikipedia, these are the most recient Generations (Following standard Legnth 18) With my Interpretation of years, a little more realistic than Wikipedia's.

G.I. Generation 1908-1925
Silent Generation 1926-1944
Baby Boomers 1945-1963
Generation X 1964-1982
Generation Y (Millenials, etc) 1983-2001
Unknown Generation 2002-2020

This should clear up any confusion

TEG

that seems to make sense

but i think 1964 is still baby boomer

and my father , born in 1927, was at the tail end of world war II, but the last major "full" year of world war II soldiers came from 1926 since world war II didn't make it to the end of 1945

[wdlove]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
ike won the presidency because he was a top ranking flag officer...certainly it helped

it helped u.s. grant and george washington

colin powell could have won in 92 and 96 and even 2000, no doubt about it

what do you think about 4 star general wesley clark entering the ring? first at west point like macarthur, supreme commander of europe like eisenhower, and a rhodes scholar like clinton...clark seems to have it all but i am sure the press will find something in his past that will haunt him

in the old days, eisenhower came across cleanly, only years later it was found he had a mistress who was an army captain in world war II and one of his aides...either the press didn't know or they felt that was not related to the job he was running for

i am afraid the press will try to crucify general clark since they love to see someone fall from very high places...ie) nixon and clinton of watergate and monica-gate fame

I agree that Ike won because of his prominence in WW II. His fame came from being a 5 Star General, which is the highest rank possible. Also being Supreme Allied Commander, the planner of D-Day, and our eventual victory in Europe. I really believe that he was faithful to Mamie. He or his aide didn't really speak on the matter.

I agree that Colin Powell could also win the presidency for the same reason.

I don't think that the media will turn on Clark any time soon. The Clinton's fully back him. He is in full agreement with the media. The current beliefs fo the Democrat Party puts fear in me for the future of America. :(

The Democrat Party of JFK was more along the line of my beliefs!

[WinterMute]

I was born in 1964 and have always though I was a baby-boomer, but I've met a lot of people my age who think they are Gen X, so I suppose I'm a Baby-X or a Generation Boomer.

Perhaps those of us on the "cusp" have special powers and are poised to take over the world....

Perhaps not.

The only generation that ever counted was "My Generation":

Why don't you all f... f... fade away.:D

[tazo]

what ever being born late 80s [87] would make me....

[jefhatfield]

hey, wdlove, i am a democrat but a conservative democrat in line with your beliefs

i think there are some elements of the ultra liberals in the democratic party who are too socialist and short term thinking in their nature

i believe in a stong social security and socialized medicine, but am not sure about typical left wing pork projects like school buiding and road building which is more interested in greasing the palms of rich special interests, and i am not all that sure about affirmative action all the time, and some liberals are out to get christians for some reason

i think clinton and gore are much better off being somewhat more fiscally responsible than a jesse jackson or howard dean would be...in the spending mode of tip o'neil's tax and spend democrats of the 70s and 80s

i think a wesley clark can offer some of the conservative aspects of foreign policy and some of the liberal aspects of social acceptance and build a strong middle of the road america....like clinton and reagan did...that's why both got two terms in office

clinton got a lot of gop votes and reagan got a lot of democratic votes...it's because they straddles the practical, non idealistic middle of rolling up your sleeves, working with the other party, and geting things done for all americans, right and left wing...for the good of a nation

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by WinterMute
I was born in 1964 and have always though I was a baby-boomer, but I've met a lot of people my age who think they are Gen X, so I suppose I'm a Baby-X or a Generation Boomer.

Perhaps those of us on the "cusp" have special powers and are poised to take over the world....

Perhaps not.

The only generation that ever counted was "My Generation":

Why don't you all f... f... fade away.:D

if you know that band, youre a boomer, dude

do you remember pete townsend with hair...dark hair? then you are a boomer

do you remember when keith moon died? then you are a boomer

do you remember what the who did to that big concrete monolith on one of their albums? then you are a boomer:p

which reminds me, i have got to piss...but sitting down...i have that leaky plumbing thing that plagues people in our generation...hey, did you see that latest jack nicholson movie where he has to sit when he urinates? too funny!!!

[WinterMute]

I'm a boomer then, no doubt about it.

John Entwistle RIP.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by WinterMute
I'm a boomer then, no doubt about it.

John Entwistle RIP.

shocking, isn't it

and now there are only two beatles left

but somehow, the most intact band, as far as being alive, is the rolling stones...isn't that a kick?:p

[Stelliform]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
if you know that band, youre a boomer, dude

do you remember pete townsend with hair...dark hair? then you are a boomer

do you remember when keith moon died? then you are a boomer

do you remember what the who did to that big concrete monolith on one of their albums? then you are a boomer:p



Ahhh thank you for making me feel young! :D :D

[pivo6]

I was brn in 1965 and I never thought of myself as part of Generation X, but more of at the end of the Baby Boomer generation. I also can answer all of Jefhatfield's questions, so I guess I'm right then.

[WinterMute]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
shocking, isn't it

and now there are only two beatles left

but somehow, the most intact band, as far as being alive, is the rolling stones...isn't that a kick?:p

Considering that Keef Richards has been clinically dead for 10 years, it certainly is, no-one lived up to Townsends "I hope I die before I grow old" except Keith Moon, Jimi and Bon Scott...:cool:

The Stones have all been embalmed and should be good for another 20 years.

[pivo6]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
shocking, isn't it

and now there are only two beatles left

but somehow, the most intact band, as far as being alive, is the rolling stones...isn't that a kick?:p

Didn't the Stones' first guitarist die under strange circumstances?

[zach]

I assume generation Y. I was born at 6:something AM on October 18th, 1989.

Now that you all know the exact time and date of my birth....

:)

[alset]

Originally posted by TEG

Generation X 1964-1982


I'm 1980, but I never felt that I fit as a Gen X. Get along well with people older than me, I just don't think I shared their plight through college and job searching. I really think people in the couple of years on either side of X and Y2k got shafted for identification. We hit a unique window in time, barely old enough to really comprehend the 80's, able to witness the effects of technology changing the world while simultaneously growing with it.

I don't know if that made any sense when I said it out loud, but you probably catch my drift.

Dan

[Wardofsky]

I believe I fall into the Generation-Y, '89 right?
That is a nice title, although you may be taken less seriously from other 'generations'...

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by pivo6
Didn't the Stones' first guitarist die under strange circumstances?

original member and leader brian jones died in his swimming pool in 1969...he was known to be a fan of substances

orginal member and later manager stu-something died in the 90s...he opted for a low key position and didn't let himself be photographed by played keyboards and managed the band..perhaps he was the one member who kept the stones together in their early days

[etoiles]

Originally posted by alset
We hit a unique window in time, barely old enough to really comprehend the 80's, able to witness the effects of technology changing the world while simultaneously growing with it.



yeah, do you remember home computing before the internet ? When a virus was contracted by exchanging a floppy disk ? When you got the 'latest news' out of a monthly magazine ? The excitement of your first 14k baud modem, dialing in to a BBS ? Kids today wouldn't understand :D

hey, I am old (gen x) (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38509)

[vollspacken]

Originally posted by etoiles
yeah, do you remember home computing before the internet ? When a virus was contracted by exchanging a floppy disk ? When you got the 'latest news' out of a monthly magazine ? The excitement of your first 14k baud modem, dialing in to a BBS ? Kids today wouldn't understand :D

I just say two words:

Commodore C=64

dude, me and my friends were addicts..! we had boxes full of floppy disks and were playing EPYX-sports games all day... and Pirates! and Last Ninja...

;)

vSpacken

[mac15]

I don't know, I'm a bmxer. So thats eh an extreme games type thing.

[Ramsos]

Gen X september 30, 1977:D

[dstorey]

I think I'm Generation Y but not sure.... I was born 1980... that would fit in with Gen X with what someone posted before but Wikipedia says Gen X == persons born from 1965 or 1964 to about 1976, while it says Gen Y == usually given as beginning around 1977 or 1981. so if it starts at 77 then i'm Y but if it starts at 81 then i miss that but too late for Generation X..... although later on in Gen X it says famous people inc xtina and britney, both born after me! wish it would make its mind up!

[patrick0brien]

-Gen X - 1973

Board games were huge. Anybody remember MouseTrap?

I remember hearing "Disco Duck", and "Stayin' Alive" on the radio.

Three Mile island - and I lived in Philly at the time.

The bicentennial.

Star Wars.

[MrMacMan]

Generation Y (Millenials, etc) 1983-2001

Born in 88'

So I am my own generation.

[wdlove]

Looking at these dates:

Generation X 1964-1982
Generation Y (Millenials, etc) 1983-2001

I look back on my nursing career in the USAFR. On my weekends I worked on the OB/GYN Ward and on on two weeks active duty I worked in the nursery. It was between 1978 - 1984. So I took care of many babies at the beginning of there life as Generation X & Y. Back then they had not named the generation.

I sometimes wonder what they are doing now! ;)

[mactastic]

Originally posted by tpjunkie
That makes me a Gen-Y being born in 1984. Although, it still amazes me that the current generation of kids in middle school grew up never watching teenage mutant ninja turtles (not the crappy revival), thundercats, GI Joe, Voltron, and Transformers, shows that every kid, boy or girl watched almost religiously when we were little.

Geez, I used to READ the TMNT comics!

Gen Xer. 1972, grew up on all that good punk music that came out of the late '70s.

[Roger1]

Gen X'er (1967)

Star Wars
Starblazers
Speed Racer
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Run DMC
The Space Shuttle
The Berlin Wall.

Yup, that's me
:D

edit: I forgot: Parachute pants, and break dancing. :D

[scem0]

Originally posted by tazo
what ever being born late 80s [87] would make me....

ditto.

1987 - the rabbits.

scem0

[Sayhey]

I'm definitely a boomer. I remember when JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr. were shot. I marched against the Vietnam War, and remember lava lamps from the first time around. I also did many things that were very common in the late sixties and early seventies that I won't post here. Live and learn. And jefhatfield, I still listen, once in a while, to "Who's Next." Behind Blue Eyes is still a great song. Everybody, regardless of your generation, should know Won't Get Fooled Again.

[WinterMute]

Whilst the Who were never my favourite band, My Generation and Wont Get Fooled Again are as important as anything else from that period, I saw them in Hyde Park a few years ago, they were excellent.

I barely remember Vietnam, I do remember the moonshots and wanting to be an astronaught, and I remember the power cuts and the three day week and Maggie ******** Thatcher...:mad:

I remember the 60's but only just, I was really a 70's boy, and hit the 80's in time to perpetrate some high fashion crimes:D

[rhpenguin]

I was born on the tail end of gen x. Grew up with all the influences that everyone in that was born earlier was subjected to. Most of my friends are also older and experienced more of generation x so thats how i think i am the way that i am.

Edit: born in 1983.

[tpjunkie]

I agree with alset, I think there is a definite gap between Gen X, kids born in the early 80s and the millenial Gen Y. I mean kids born after circa 1987, don't remember when most people didn't own a computer, or even when having an internet connection was a rarity. We are the kids that went to elementary school and used the apple II computers to play the oregon trail. We didn't grow up with the computer boom of the ea, but it certainly had a huge impact on us. In third grade I took a computer class at school and we learned BASIC and LOGO on apple IIs. In middle school I took a computer class and we learned hypercard on mac classics. In high school, AP Computer science switched to Java my senior year. I mean my younger brother who was born in late 1987 has always hada computer in the house as far as he can remember, and my other brother born in 1994 has always had an internet connection as far as he can remember. To them getting a new computer means "We can play the latest games better and faster" When we got our first computer, I remember thinking "I can do anything with this!" (OK, so i was about 4), and for the time, I really wasn't far off. The home computer user couldn't concieve of doing any of the things we now take for granted. Even hollywood couldn't seeing as how Tron and The Last Star Fighter were revolutionary uses of computers in special effects. In 1988 I thought it was really cool (or even "Boss"...I know someone out there remembers that word) that I had this floppy with a program that i could use my keyboard as a piano keyboard. I think what it comes down to is there is a gap between Gen X who saw computers come into the home, and Gen Y who takes them for granted and in that gap is a generation who grew up discovering what the home computer could be used for.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Sayhey
I'm definitely a boomer. I remember when JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr. were shot. I marched against the Vietnam War, and remember lava lamps from the first time around. I also did many things that were very common in the late sixties and early seventies that I won't post here. Live and learn. And jefhatfield, I still listen, once in a while, to "Who's Next." Behind Blue Eyes is still a great song. Everybody, regardless of your generation, should know Won't Get Fooled Again.

i do remember when "won't get fooled again" was out...amazing...that scream...woah

as for vietnam, all i remember of the late 60s and early 70s were all the hippies in the park and some of them were drugged out ex-soldiers who seemed young, but kind of burned out...and very, very angry and pissed off at the war and felt betrayed by johnson, nixon , and america

being between four and twelve in those years, i wasn't quite old enough to understand why these former soldiers were any different than korean war and world war II vets...that is until i got to hear the rest of the story later...they were spit on, attacked by all types of people, and harrased by the cops...any vietnam vet was seen as a potential timebomb ready to explode and viewed by society with great suspicion

the movie "forrest gump" and the character of lt. dan was spot on of the people i saw in the park...also tom curise's portrayal of a vietnam vet in "born on the 4th of july" was a lot like many of the ex-vet hippies i saw

even today, quite a few of the homeless i come into contact as a volunteer outreach worker are vietnam vets and some have remaining benefits which barely keep them surviving on the street

i have a friend, longtime army soldier, but with no combat experience, who is a grief counselor and he works with vietnam era vets...but he has no compassion since he says..."it's been 30 years...why can't they just get over it"...and i tell him, "you weren't there!!!" or "what gives you the right to judge them"...he thinks the human spirit is resilient and there is no trauma that can scar a person for life, and that those remaining alocoholic, drugged up vietnam veterans are just "losers"

i remind him that those "losers" have a chest full of medals and twice as many stripes as him that they achieved in 4 years that he did in nearly 20

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by tpjunkie
I agree with alset, I think there is a definite gap between Gen X, kids born in the early 80s and the millenial Gen Y. I mean kids born after circa 1987, don't remember when most people didn't own a computer, or even when having an internet connection was a rarity.

i have been a "professional" student forever but now i am meeting college students who don't clearly remember anything before windows 95 or a pentium 1 computer

and many of those kids, born with a computer, are so natural with anything high tech

i came in learning computers when they were still using vacuum tube technology and card readers so i had to re-adjust my whole pysche to introduce high tech into my life...i went thru college doing papers on a typewriter

though i am currently working on a grad level computer/business degree, i will never quite have the touch that those kids who were born with it have...the true computer talent i have seen in my life are pretty much those young generation y people

the two friends i have who have achieved their computer PhDs have so much old dead tech filling up their brains that they are basically unable to grasp anything new very well...one man teaches a college class and some of the younger students correct him and know way more about the current status of the field

computer science teachers, like my friend said, do not "teach" the field anymore...they are more like group facilitators since there are now so many genius generation y kids out there who have microchips fused into their brain matter:p

[Mr. Anderson]

Scary to think I just make it into the Baby Boomer Generation - although I find I have more in common with Gen X......

Oh well :p

D

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
Scary to think I just make it into the Baby Boomer Generation - although I find I have more in common with Gen X......

Oh well :p

D

but duke, like me you were born in 63 or 64 so we didn't have to worry about being sent off to vietnam

so late boomers are really culturally X-ers:p

[Mr. Anderson]

Well, Nam was over before I was 10 I think - I hardly remember anything about it....only what I see on the History channel and such...

It would definitely have been weird to have been drafted....

D

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
Well, Nam was over before I was 10 I think - I hardly remember anything about it....only what I see on the History channel and such...

It would definitely have been weird to have been drafted....

D

our focus shifted to cambodia when we knew we were fighting a losing war in vietnam...we pulled out of saigon in mid-1975 so i was not quite 12 yet

the whole mood of the nation was upbeat for finally getting out of a losing situation and i remember disco coming in right after the fall of saigon and things were really partying there for a few years

by the time i got to be an upper-classman in high school, things definitely toned down a great bit in youth society and there was this AIDS thing that came in right before i finished high school...being hypochondriac then, i thought it was like legionnaire's disease and all high school students having premarital sex, unprotected were going to die

in any account, it still probably kept me from having kids as a late teen or early 20s person...those high school kids from the class of 82 or 83 who got pregnant then have kids old enough to drink now:p

in five years or so, many from our generation will have grandkids (if all those teen pregnancy statistics are really true)...a few years ago, i have a supervisor who was 33 and a grandmother...she got pregnant at 15 or 16 and so did her daughter...it just freaked me out because she (the grandmother) looks like selena and definitely looks young enough to get carded at the liquor store:p

[Java]

I'm generation J. No real reason, I just picked an unused letter.

I just think that sounds cool - 1981 :)

[wdlove]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
Well, Nam was over before I was 10 I think - I hardly remember anything about it....only what I see on the History channel and such...

It would definitely have been weird to have been drafted....

D

Glad to have you as a fellow Baby Boomer Mr. Anderson.

I almost got drafted in 1969, a very scarey time. Can still remember the line up of men in their underwear. Had us going from station to station for our physical. I already knew that I was 6' 8". The guy yelled out, or it seemed liked that to me, 80". My jaw dropped, thought they just said that because it was the drafatable height. No one around me knew. Later got a letter changing my draft status to 3F which is non-draftable. Found out that the height limit for the draft was 6' 6".

[bennetsaysargh]

i guess it pays to be tall!
lol:p

[wdlove]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
i guess it pays to be tall!
lol:p

It definitely wasn't funny at the time. Even though the idea of being drafted and boot camped scared me, I felt just a little hurt by the 3F status!