One Millennial responds to Gen X's discontents

Wow. I had no idea my children were "status-symbol stroller-filler."

A few things - I'll try to be brief:

First, I love pricing you out. I love it. Kiss the bedbugs in McKibbin for me tonight. Second, you totally drop your monocles (or whatever you've put on your face) when people change their Facebook status - you brought back OMG, for God's sake! And your DUDES say and write it! Jesus, have a little dignity.

Last, don't be blaming us for Stiller - Stiller done did that to hisself.

we are killing print? we kill things?

Since when are you Millenials marketing bands that have been around since the late 90s to us X-ers? I think we found the Elephant 6 bands--good, bad, and mediocre--on our own.

You wasted time canvassing for John Kerry? Your generation really is screwed, Pareene.

And I say that as somebody who hates Bush.

You'll never afford the houses you grew up in? You're parents pay your damn rent, for chrissake!

It's the same argument the boomers make. We're not optimistic enough. Hell, we're just realistic. When I'm handing out Camels like candy to all of the homeless on Belmont, when the crazies inhabit the CTA, I almost feel like it's the '80s again. Long live Reagan and his stupidity. I think the Millennials would have liked him. Obama does!

FYI - it's not OK. The world is not going well. What is wrong with acknowledging it? I don't think it's very fixable either. I think that's why we like the Wire so much.

nice. wand. *cough*

Gen X also produced Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

You're welcome.

It makes sense you "don't like [our] Clintons." The Clintons are the only Democrats since LBJ to get into the White House and actually get shit done, leaving the country in better shape after they left office. Now you're getting played like a fiddle by a boomer who's crafted his rhetoric to be the equivalent of unicorns and pixie dust: hope! Change! Let's try to get a game of pick-up on the iCal with Ahmadinejad! We've read the labeling on the Clintons, and we don't care about high levels of craftiness or devious scheming: they're politicians, not day-care workers. After the election, watch your credit card statement from a charge from "Oprah's President of 2008 Club." The beyotch *will* bill you.

That's where Xers and Millennials really differ: we smelled bullshit at your age. You couldn't wrap it in a rainbow and peddle it as CHANGE. We called people on it - just like Paul Davis called Tinkerbell on it.

Hey, Obama: cool wand.

Alex is one of those twiggysexual Gawker twerps (you know, those immaculately attired handbag swingers wracked with barely suppressed East Coast envy), so his skills set involves more snark than substance. He sounds like he's still smarting from the spanking administed by his cool Uncle Rob.

It's OK, Alex. Have a Holdredge Wren Hop Pinot Noir lollipop. Are we still BFFs?

Point the Finger and Pass the Blame! This is truly everybodys favorite game to play! You want to talk about Change, here's a fresh idea how about we ALL take responsiblity for our actions... oh and don't worry fellow Millennials this goes for the Gen Xers as well. The country is in bad shape and I refuse to turn a blind eye to that, but its not as if this is entirely on us. Of course considering the youth vote sucks we certainly aren't helping. Then again if were not voting who is? Maybe we should focus less on our differences and focus on the fact that our country is in a bad place and fighting over who's responsible is stupid and immature. Oh and by the way the Clintons just happened to stumple into a great economic time for our country, if you want to credit someone with that, you can thank Alan Greenspan.

"People keep calling us the first generation that will do worse than its parents. "

Us Gen-Xers got the same thing back in the 90s. It'll be true for both our generations.

"People keep calling us the first generation that will do worse than its parents. "
Uh, no. X has been hearing that one for years. Sorry, try again.

And as for electing "stiff old Baby Boomers", who the hell were we gonna try to put into office, someone our own age? Someone who would have been, max, 31 in 1992? You make some valid points here Alex, but that one is just retarded. Besides, Clinton gave us 8 freakin' years of peace and prosperity. I'd campaign for that horny old bastard all over again.

Are both articles supposed to be self-parodies? I´m something of a bridge between both generations, but on the one hand we have the Gen X-er complaining about not being relevant when he´s the one coming into power and run popular culture for QUITE some time . . . and on the other we have the jumpy, half-illiterate Millenial who makes a joke about missing cultural references that they actually get. What´s the point about bitching about an artificial division that means nothing?
I like Pearl Jam, I hate Soulja Boy, I think that music of all times has merit. I think that people should stand on their own. What a bogus set of articles.

Man, you are self-important. How's that attitude working for you?

re: kluivertus "what a bogus set of articles"

i couldn't disagree more. both are full of funny, insightful truth -- smart but in many ways also sad. i agree gen x was neglected, shat on; i agree the millenial (hate the name, btw) is naive, pampered.

i think both writers agree on that; the difference is who's to blame, and this is when they both, in the end, get it wrong -- the people who are to blame aren't your parents or your kids or the media or whoever. it's ourselves. it always is.

in any case, kudos to lanham and preene for some thought-provoking, humorous and, most importantly, spot-on cultural writing.

this coming from, according to the first article's cut-off for generational delineation, something of an in-betweener: i was born in 1982.

i did enjoy your use of the word "bogus" though, kluivertus. i'm guessing this means you're a gen x-er? or just a millenial with retro vocab?

I thought we were called "Gen X" for all the ecstasy we did in the late 80's, early 90's? Guess not!

I think we're ALL fucked and actually glad the millennial are still optimistic as we're definitely going to need that optimism as both generations are stuck cleaning up the mess the Boomer's have left us...

it's time for the Boomer's to get off stage AND the Gen Xer's and Millennial's are just going to have to suck it up and share it for awhile...SWEEET!

The wonderful thing about Pareene's generation is their capacity to commercialize punk to the point that it's the soundtrack for Mountain Dew and Twinkies...
Cobain has really missed out on the culturally trenchant millies.
Fortunately, Pareene will do fabulously well selling snark after he graduates High School.

exclamation points, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

great article. all these xers who commented before are ACTUAL haters. they prolly don't know what a hater is. totally agree. go back to your basement and put on some plaid, listen to eddie fahking vedder, and be depressed. ps, reading all these comments just proved your piece even further. jeeeeeeeeeeze, chill out. so jaded and angry.

Someday the author of this artice will be lamenting the excesses of Generation Z and beyond. It is silly to worry about the cycle of Teen angst/Adult Pessimism that defines generations. There is no greatest generation... we all do what we can with the cards we are dealt.

kluivertus said it best--a bogus set of articles. About a generational conflict that doesn't exist. A generation doesn't *own* the music or movies that is produced during their coming-of-age, and it is absolutely ridiculous to feel superior or inferior based on what was popular during your adolescence.

How the hell was gen x so damn neglected in a way in which gen y is not? and How are the millenials (who, if anything, got neglected by that shitty fucking name) so damn pampered? Because Morley Safer speaks well of us? Thanks a fucking lot but I still think we're pretty fucked.

These generalizations are so stupid, and will ultimately achieve nothing. Are the millenials optimistic? I fall into that age group and, unless it's different in America, lots of the people i talk to fit all the characteristics bestowed upon Gen X--cynicism, hopelessness, jaded...isn't that pretty much just a teenage thing? Doesn't it depend on the individual?

I'm with Hurrikan--we do what we can with what we get. There is no great generational consensus on anything. You all didn't get together in a lab and make Pearl Jam and I sure as fuck had no hand in the popularization of Soulja Boy. (Surely there is a better representative of today's music than THAT, but still, one cannot blame the death of the radio on a bunch of fucking teenagers with no say in the industry.) Your parents got freaky in the 70s and ours in the 80s (or however it's divided, as the times always seem to be vague). What the fuck is the difference?

That said, the hipster handbook was mad deck. I loved it. but what the cock.

I thought a generation was at least 20-25 year difference. To me, someone who is 23 could be my much younger brother/sister, not my kid. I guess I'm sorta in the middle--born in '75.
It's all so silly, really.

i don't know or care if it's generational but Parenne himself has zero class. Given a paycheck and a platform by this website not one week ago, he bites the hand that feeds him with one of those poorly written, unfunny RADAR R.I.P. posts on gawker. Yes, it's from a Portfolio article, and yes, it's no big deal, but it's just funny how Radar always is magnanimous giving gawker blogger after blogger work--there've been like four or five now, and they all turn in very sub par work IYO--even though all of them have gleefully called for its demise. So lame.

Ir's just a way to fuel our desperate need for connectivity and voice. When you register, your e-mail address becomes a junk mail repository. I am a sucker for registering. Over and OUT!

Yeah, ummm, all that technology that allows you to be perpectually plugged in? I believe much of that is courtesy of the people you are slagging on.

And also, it might not hurt to look at whatever is in front of you and consider that for a nanosecond.

Nothing wrong with Pareene that three years in the 3rd Infantry Division wouldn't cure.

It was Gen Y porn stars that made ATM popular. If you want to wear that badge proudly, please, by all means...

Why does everyone keep forever linking our generation to the early 90's? Was I supposed to peak at age 16? Gen X did not die with Kurt Cobain. It just evolved and moved on. Generation X is much more than grunge and winona, it's kevin smith, irvine welsh, robbie williams, gorillaz, foo fighters, red hot chili peppers, jennifer lopez, ewan mcgregor, the hour, liam gallager, tiesto, ferry corsten, armin van buuren, paul van dyk, gael garcia bernal, kylie, jenna jameson, the fight club, coldplay, shakira, metric, transformers, will smith, list goes on. Gen X is alive and kicking and not going away anytime soon.

i cannot stop laughing. god bless you twerpy annoying hilarious young things. that sounds so grandma-ish, but who cares. fucking hilarious. well done. you're right, and it hurts: we had our decade, and we wasted it.

The knee-jerk cynicism of Generation X has blossomed into full-on bitterness.

If GenY can rise above it, we might actually have a future.

Give us hell, Alex.

Good luck running the world.

Judging by all the exclamation marks, we Generation Xers have nothing to fear so long as we, and the people older than us, who learned how to write are still making the calls.

And, yes, we will take great pleasure in torturing you for the next 40 years as you try to figure out how to earn an income in our world.