The term Generation X was coined by the media to describe the generation coming of age in the 1990s. The news media likes to discover a trend every year or so as a simplistic way of describing the state of society at a given time, and the "discovery" of Generation X was a way of describing a certain attitude, a certain lifestyle, and a certain view of society seen as prevalent among those of a certain age. The entire concept of Generation X is built on sweeping generalizations about this population, and in truth most such generalizations apply only to certain members of that population and perhaps not even to a majority. Yet, the idea of a Generation X has taken hold and is repeated again and again as journalists and social scientists try to understand the forces shaping the generation so named.
The previous generation was called the Baby Boomers, a reference to the baby boom after World War II. The current generation's name was derived from a novel by Douglas Coupland. Generation X has been characterized as made up of slackers, whiners, and self-centered young people with no sense of the past and no concept of the travails of the real world. Jeff Giles points out that these characterizations are myths that may apply to some but not all of this generation, and indeed that could have been applied to some in any generation. He also makes it clear what he thinks of the name itself:
It's a tinny, self-consciously hip phrase that doesn't resonate much beyond the white middle class. . . Even twentysomething is a little time bomb of a word--it makes it sound like everybody'll get kicked out of the club when they get too old (Giles 64).
This generation is being shaped by certain forces in society, however, though the individual members are not all reacting in the same way as the name might imply they are. The primary force imposing on this group today is diminishing expectations--the economic structure of the country is su...