Generation Gap in Aspies?
Atomic, the first three set off while I was in the womb. All of my life I have been chased by Boom Brats, gangs of people five to ten years younger. Their main trait is they can screw up anything. They are lying little posers and the Clintons are a good example. It is all about their club taking what you have because there are more of them.
Die Yuppie Scum!
I liked people fifteen years older than me, too young for WWII, too old for Nam, not much of that left, and twenty years younger. but those born between 1950 and 1972 were the Tetra Ethel Lead generation, so I can see heavy metal in their thinking.
Tradition says, there is a seperation between parent and child, that reverses in the next wave, you are more like your grandchildren than your children. I relate to post boomers, but not the Gen X, but the next wave, and animation, is great.
I'm 27 and technically Gen X. For me, my Golden Age of Pop Culture was around 1985-1995 and my Golden Age of Music was 1994-2004 or so.
The result is that I feel more like a Gen Yer. I rarely had friends in my grade level. I spent large chunks of my education in mixed age settings (gifted program and an experimental classroom that mixed grade levels) and I've never had many peer age friends.
My friends always seemed to be bright people 3-5 years younger than me, with people my own age and older seeming like "big brother and sister" types.
That said, I've had phases where I derived great pleasure from classical music although it never imprinted as an interest. (Cinematic scores, however, did mildly and I'm amazed that people don't associate certain style scores with Hans Zimmer or Jerry Goldsmith or Michael Kamen.)
I also love Shakespeare... but most particularly Hamlet as I have made a study of Shakespeare through that one play for a decade. There are many of Shakespeare's works I have never read.
I enjoy Vonnegut and Mamet and various experimental types in drama and literature but Ray Bradbury is probably my greatest source of fascination.
I tend to develop fairly specific "geek" interests within each field. Hamlet for Shakespeare. Bradbury for "sci-fi" and genre fiction. Barenaked Ladies are my favorite 90s band and I have well over a hundred legally purchased tracks of theirs. (Multiple versions of most songs which I love comparing.) I like comic books and particularly Superman comic books.
I do think I have a strong sense of social justice and enjoy discussing the broader strokes of what a citizen can and should be, what the state's interests are or are not. I'd probably be more interested in trial law discussion, however, than most discussions that might be had about current politicians. I believe the United States as a federal entity is corrupt and damaged beyond repair... NO ONE in Washington has my support and I am so radically opposed to virtually all Democrats and Republicans in such equal measure that I seldom vote.
However, talk about a SPECIFIC implementation of a school zero tolerance policy, a specific murder trial, a specific sexual harassment suit... And I become VERY engaged in the topic. However, if the topic becomes about federal legislation or presidential action, I'm pretty much of the opinion that nothing good or productive can happen at that point.
I'd easily place more trust in an Italian crime cartel or a telemarketer to solve a social problem than the best of career politicians, regardless of party afiliation.
BTW, I suspect a desire for social justice may TEND to manifest differently in Americans who were born post-Nixon like myself.
In part because many of us were taught to distrust authority before we were taught to trust it...
And in part because, due to extending lifespans and the sizes of the generations, power in this country will probably skip directly from the Baby Boomers over to young Gen Yers or Gen Zers.
I don't believe there will ever be a Gen X president... and maybe not a Gen Y president.
It's entirely conceivable in my mind that Gen Zers or millenials or whatever will be 35 by the time that Baby Boomers are no longer the driving force, in American politics at least.
Soso-Lynn
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 50
Location: Montreal
Baby boomers, gen X, gen Y, generation MSN; all those things were invented by marketers, not social scientist. Cohorts do share a certain common experience of the world through being the same age but the specific characteristics of each generation are just stuff ascribed to them to make them into a uniform mass that wants the same things and that is easy to market to.
Do not let society and its socially constructed binaries and categories tell you who you are. Gender is a social construct, race simply does not exist and generations really do not mean anything either.
greatballzofire
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 68
Location: A little cabin in the mountains
This is a post I made in another thread to someone who had got their knickers in a twist over "old" people posting in the forums:
Born in 1944.
How does one know for sure what anybody's real age is in the Internet? I could just as easily say 1994.
I could be male or female or androgynous.
I could be from anywhere on this planet.
In cyber-reality I am a block of text, with maybe some .jpg or .gif added for color.
To make a judgement on whether or not it is creepy to have "old" people posting is to totally buy into one's subjective view of reality.
Objectively one can not know how old another is on the Internet. Of course, if it would make those who care feel better, we could all sign affidavits attesting to our true identities and ages, but what would be the fun in that?
So...63 going on 13!
_________________
I always think outside the box; I can't get the box open!
For those born and raised in the United States, 'Baby Boomers' refers to the spike in birth rate after World War II. The early group of Baby Boomers - those who were in college and/or draft age for the Vietnam War faced a major decision: Support the war or protest the war. I'm one of the Boomers who was in college and draft age and I protested the war strongly. My family - all of them, were on the other side of the issue and still are. Vietnam divided family and friends. Like the US Civil War did in the 1860s. Today the Boomer generation is in political power. And you can see the gigantic divide that doesn't go away. Baby Boomers on 'my side' of the Vietnam War issue would not have gone to war in Iraq. Elections turn on a small number of votes. The stakes are enormous.
Disabled as I was and continue to be by this neurological impairment, it was clear to me then where justice lay and that hasn't changed. Oh my goodness, there were a few years in the late '60s when we really thought we could change the world for the better. We blew it I guess...
Okay I found out for sure the definitions-
Generation X is anyone born between 1965-1975. Personally I think that's messed up because people born in mid 60's have more in common with Baby Boomers. I was born in '69. I relate better to people born in 1945-1960. In fact most of my friends are that age group. I really don't have any close friends younger than me; I just don't have the same interests as those my age or younger.
Generation Y is generally said to be those born between 1976-2000 which seems to me to be way to wide a age range. The Millennials & The Internet Generation are alternate names for Generation Y according to Wiki.