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In the course of a school work, I did a lot of research on the Generation X and now I´m ready to share my findings and results. At first, some common knowledge;

People who belong to this generation are born between 1965 and 1975 (+- 4 years), so they´re born before the Millenials and after the Babyboomers generations. A study shows that 37% of them see themselves as supporters of gay rights, 64% would describe themselves as patriotic, 52% as religious persons and 42% as environmentalists.

An online website (www.zukunftsinstitut-workshop.de) says that people from the generation X were born into a world of divorce and unemployment. They like to show their success and wealth with prestige belongings and also have one foot in our modern/technological world and the other in the traditional world without that much technology use.

Another Website published the results of a big, international study. The study was an online questionnaire with 12000 participators from 21 countries. For comparison the took a sample of 18-29 year olds that belong to the Millenials. You can find the study online at https://insights.viacom.com/ 🔎 Gen X today My life My way.

So here are the study´s results; The Generation X is also described as the „skeptic“ generation and „idler“ youth from the 80-90´s. They question gender roles and esteem sex more than friendships (in contrast to the Millenials). It seems that this generation isn´t quite affected by a midlife crisis. That may be because balancing work and free-time is more important to them than professional success. They often have less but closer friendships compared to the Millenials. Internationally 85% of the participators are pleased with themselves and what they´ve reached so far.

In the following you can see the (edited) transcript of an interview that I´ve done with Mr. and Mrs. Boos (P1 and P2) who belong to  that generation. The interview happened at the 27th of october 2018 in Neubrandenburg.

What makes your generation special?

P1: A lot of work, scant money, free-time and vacation.

What do you think has influenced your youth?

P1: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the time before. It was an interesting youth.

P2: For me it were the possibilties after the fall oft the Berlin Wall, for example my US-trip wasn´t possible before that.

P1: After the Fall my possibilities were spent. I had the same job before and after the Fall, only the currency had changed. But you couldn´t afford more than usual.

What are your generations values and what makes it different from other generations?

P1: We didn´t take so much drugs like the generations before and after us. We were early able to work by ourselves, something that todays youth isn´t able to do, sometimes not even when they´re already 30.Although my parents said I was a good-for-nothing too.

Are you more conservative or liberal? Or something different.

P1: I´m not really acitve in politics.

P2: Yeah, and I´m not really interested, because no matter who „represents the people“, the ordinary people always sit in the mud.

P1: It doesn´t matter what´s your opinion in politics, the only ones that benefit are the big people with importance.

Would you say that you´re very religious people?

P2: I´m not religious.

P1: And I´m more like a „Darwinist“.

I beg your pardon?

P2: After Charles Darwin´s thesis, such as Mother Nature regulates that.

I see.

P1: Or Stephen Hawking, he phrased it great. Until his death he never believed that god exists. Everything is based on physical laws and fortune. That´s why I´m an atheist.

Very interesting…How worried are you about the environment, what happens to it and how you influence it?

P1: I´d say that the environment would be better off without us (the humans; editor´s note).

P2: In my opinion we do have influence on the environment but such things like global warming, climatic change and glacial periods already happened before modern humans existed.

So we have a negative influence due to that every cycle like you said happens quicker?

P2: Exactly.

P1: We destroy our planet faster than nature ever could. As I said the environment would be better off without us.

P2: I think that too.

P1: The main problem is the overpopulation. In germany we try to save the environment but somewhere else in africa one woman has an average number of four children. Now you can think about where we are in hundret years (with our population, editor´s note), we will see animals only on the television. Everything will be consumed and thats it. The sahara will range up to nortafrica and nothing will be left.

Lets come to our last question. A study says that you stand with one foot in the modern, technological world and with the other foot in the traditional world without mobile phones and stuff like that. Does that apply to you?

P2: Yes.

P1: Mobile phones are a curse and a blessing at the same time.

P2: The modern age in general.

P1: We make ourselves totally dependent from technology even tho we don´t neccessary need it.

P2: I´d say that we are a generation that got to know both worlds.

P1: Technology was made to help people but in this case I think it works against people. The people get dumber and sluggish, and what we don´t know that knows Google. That´s the problem.

P2: It makes it easier if you really wanna know something but…

P1: …we get more and more transparent as people because of our technology and consumer behaviour.

Okay, thank you for participating in my interview and have a nice day.