The 13th generation wasn\u2019t so unlucky after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, it takes hindsight to figure out the essence of a generation. For example, the Boomers didn\u2019t know while they were coming of age that their gen would lead to an explosive growth of the population. It often takes years to see and analyze the trends. So when WMTV Channel 15, a news station in Wisconsin, put out a special report of how Gen X was shaping up, it would be impossible to know if their predictions were correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The year was 1991, when Gen X was entering college and early adulthood. (A few of the younger X-ers were just finishing up high school.) The expos\u00e9 was focused on how, for the first time in American history, many of this 80s\/90s generation were facing more hardship than their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A chyron reading, \u201cWhat TV News thought of Gen X back in 1991\u201d floats at the top of the clip, posted by 90s Rock Vault. Two news reporters sit behind a desk, the woman wearing an 80s-styled white blazer, complete with linebacker-sized shoulder pads. She shares, \u201cThis is the first generation facing adulthood believing that life for them may not be as good as it was for their parents. It\u2019s creating a generation whose only reality is simply a future in doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clip cuts to a person wearing headphones as they lie on a backpack. Nirvana\u2019s \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d screams in the background, as the camera cuts to young people strewn across college campuses. \u201cThere is a sense of insecurity, which is probably realistic.\u201d Another voice is heard saying, \u201cAnd you worry about, you know, just getting a job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We hear the reporter add, \u201cIt adds up to a lot of anxiety that shows up in their music, their clothes and their attitude. Often misinterpreted and misunderstood, about the only thing they are certain of is that they are uncertain. They are Generation X, the 13th Gen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They cut to an interview with Victor Ferrall, the then President of Beloit College. He explains, \u201cIf you start from Ben Franklin and count forward in American history, this is the 13th generation of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reporter continues, \u201cGrowing up in the economic upheaval of the 70s and 80s, weaned on Sesame Street<\/em> and MTV, most 20-somethings accept their unique situation. Their life will not be like their parents\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We flash back to Ferrall, who further shares, \u201cThere\u2019s a huge change in America. Just for the entire history of our country, people have always believed that life would be better for their children than it was for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over photos of people walking down a busy street in the \u201990s, the reporter adds, \u201c\u2026until Generation X. They watched inflation balloon their parents\u2019 paychecks. And now they search for the real value in everything they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She holds a microphone up to a young woman. \u201cRealistic. \u2018Real\u2019 is the main thing that we\u2019re looking at. Something that\u2019s real with, yeah, without all the hype and the gimmicks and things like that. It\u2019s our whole mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roseanne Cheeseman, of Directions Magazine, jokes, \u201cThat whole thing about waiting till you can get your big break into the burger industry. You know what I mean? And a lot of that is tongue in cheek. I think that a lot of the cynicism on the part of Generation X is not so much being 100 percent disillusioned with their chances in the world, but a lot of it is just making fun of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGeneration X,\u201d the news reporter shares, \u201cponders whether the future holds happiness.\u201d For that thought, they throw it over to Gerald Marwell, a Sociology Professor at University of Washington. \u201cPeople in the \u201960s,\u201d he says, \u201chad a pretty good idea\u2026they thought that they were going to be like, in a sense, their parents. They were going to get married. They were going to have kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it came to Gen X, the concept of commitment was reimagined. Young adults dressed in red and black flannel shirts are shown as the reporter continues. \u201cAnd while the flower children were protesting and fighting for social change, they started a revolution.\u201d (\u201cThe divorce revolution,\u201d Marwell states.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n She relays, \u201cGeneration X grew up smack dab in the middle of it.\u201d The report then interviews a young woman, wearing all black, her ear riddled with earrings. \u201cA lot of people, I don\u2019t think, expect to be happy in relationships. Cuz that\u2019s what they saw.\u201d Another woman adds, \u201cI think a lot of people are leery of that and would like to have a longer relationship before they get into the commitment of marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marwell explains, \u201cThe kids today aren\u2019t really sure what their lives are going to be like. They aren\u2019t sure how many kids they\u2019re gonna have. They\u2019re not sure they\u2019re gonna have any kids. They\u2019re not sure of what\u2019s going to happen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Ferrall shares, \u201cParents had uncertain values to pass on to their kids. And economic uncertainty to pass on to them. And it left young people kind of rootless. Kind of unsure of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, 35 years later, we have a true sense of how Gen X fits into the world. Despite the uncertainty, many are often quite successful. Kieran Smith writes, \u201cAfter college, Gen X continued to succeed in the workplace, resulting in a generation financially outcompeting those around them. According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income of American workers reaches its peak between the ages of 45 and 54, roughly the age of most Gen Xers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generation X, despite the cynical jokes and often dark music, are also deemed by some to be the happiest generation. In a recent piece I wrote for Upworthy, I quoted Alene Dawson\u2019s 2011 article \u201cStudy Says Generation X is balanced and happy,\u201d for CNN. She cites University of Michigan\u2019s The Generation X Report, which claims Gen Xers (who at the time were between 30\u201345) are \u2018active, balanced and happy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t let the grunge rock fool you. While some of us might have been handed a plate of lemons, we squeezed as much out as possible to make lemonade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 13th generation wasn\u2019t so unlucky after all. Sometimes, it takes hindsight to figure out the essence of a generation. For example, the Boomers didn\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/898928783_1542171571192259_10530771788801098_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12798,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12793\/revisions\/12798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Without all the hype\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The divorce revolution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gen X now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n