(Don't Go Back To) Rockville

The continuing use of the term "Generation X" -- and the concommitant conjuring of stereotypes -- remains something I actively oppose. So when Oswego County Business was working on its issue tying in with the first honor roll of Forty Under 40, I pitched the idea of an essay about why we should ditch the term to the magazine's publisher. He agreed.

What follows has at least one math error I composed in haste (the youngest Xers would have been 12, not 22 and graduating from college in 1993) and seems to have had quite a bit of punctuation expunged in the editing process. It is, of course, the thought that counts.

Ask people what they think of when they hear the term "Generation X."

For far too many, the first visual is of the underemployed slacker wearing flannel and watching Nirvana videos on MTV in his family's basement.

But that's all terribly outdated. Kurt Cobain is dead. MTV stopped playing videos years ago. Most of us now have professional positions. Few of us live in basements. As for flannel - well, it's still a great fabric, particularly when it grows cold in Oswego County.

Generation X is an external construct. It was forced on us, much the way the Bush and Kerry camps kept trying to force unappealing adjectives and ideas on their opponents. ...

Read the whole essay