Nix the X. This is about how we shouldn't be labeled "Generation X"

Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA+, November 1995

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Nix The 'X'

There are a variety of terms from which to choose: The Lost Generation, the MTV Generation, Generation PC, Busters, the Information Generation, the Bitter Bunch, the 13th Generation, Generation Next, the Soundbite Generation . . . We have been slapped with more stickers than a Deadhead's van. For those of us who grew up on MTV, video games, and microwave dinners, these are far from complimentary terms. My generation doesn't deserve the title 'Generation X' because it is an incorrect label that boomers gave us without justification. The phrase 'Baby Boomer' has a nice ring to it, but 'Generation X', suggests that my generation, those people ages eight-teen to twenty-five, are lost or undefined. According to many analysts and modern philosophers, although we might be the generation that can surf the Internet or program a VCR, we lack the depth or direction to add value to society.

Their theory suggests we are lazy, apathetic, and care little about the world - and even more notable, we are lost. Why do previous generations enjoy titles such as the World War I Generation and the Baby Boomers, while my generation is known as the lazy, do-nothing, bum-off-our-parents Generation Xers. Many people contend it is because we are slackers and haven't accomplished anything of substance. They also give us the title implying we care nothing of the world around us, and pay no attention to anything that doesn't show up on MTV. These assumptions are wrong for three reasons. Generation X faces more barriers at an earlier age than any generation before us. The people that so quickly labeled our generation took even less time to analyze it, they gave the verdict before they listened to the case. Third, we are politically aware ,