38
Popular Culture Review
sees itself, and such a position must be taken seriously, but 1 would argue that
changing attitudes evident in my generation make us the first generation to actually
have a chance socially to grow exponentially at a rate to keep up with the technology
which shapes so much of our perspectives. Our generation, the first Postmodern
generation, is very different from the one before it, but in many ways it is the
Bridge Generation between Boomers and the Millennials, who will operate in a
paradigm almost unrecognizable to Boomers. The “X” name was given to us by
Boomers who either could not understand us or thought we had no sense of true
identity. I will refer to my generation as the Bridge Generation, “Bridgers,” if you
will, the first of American generations to be shaped almost completely through
media and electronic technology.
Generation X ultimately may be renamed the Bridge Generation because it
holds the chaotic space between a way of life which was before the Digital Age
and the way of life that is to come after its birth. It finds itself in a precarious
situation, not able to rely on those constructs that generations before us treated as
their foundations for stability. Many of us did not grow up with religion as an
integral part of our lives, and those who did find themselves questioning their core
beliefs in a world where each rehgion, sect, and denomination seems equally valid.
The political and religious scandals of the last quarter century have forced us to
admit that the Emperor is naked, that much of what we have constructed our
identities upon is sand on the beach. And even for those of us who grew up in
stable homes, there was ample proof in the homes around us that even our
assumptions about the permanence of the famihal structure might be wrong. The
World Wide Web which has us entangled puts us constantly in global communication
with people whose beliefs diametrically oppose those local traditions which children
have historically accepted to be universal.
The result is a generation that puts little faith in any reahty other than the
immediate, the local, the sensory. Consequently, generation X is fascinated by fast
moving, bright images and brilliant color (why the Leonardo DiCaprio version of
Romeo and Juliet hits home, while the Zeffirelli version is left on the shelves). It
explains the appeal of strong emotions that they can feel immediately, whether it is
the in-your-face type shows such as Married With Children or South Park or the
commercials such as Nike’s “Just Do It” ads.
While scholars debate the exact date of Generation X, the mid 1960s seem the
most accepted date to mark the birth of the earliest members of my generation.
Their earliest possible memories involve Watergate, and most would grow up during
the Iranian hostage crisis. Adolescence for the earliest of this generation would hit
at t he same time Reagan became president, and for many he is the first president
they remember being elected. It should be no surprise then that this generation
combines an institutional skepticism instilled in them since birth with a patriotism
they have had since puberty.