The Bridge Generation
It was recently pointed out to me that my generation, Generation X, has seen quite a bit in terms of technology. I had to take pause for a moment, and then agree. Yes. Yes we have.
At present there are seven generational listings in the modern era concept of the term:
- Greatest Generation (1901-1924)
- Silent Generation (1925-1945)
- Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
- Generation X (1965-1980)
- Millennials (1981-1996)
- Generation Z (1997-2012)
- Generation Alpha (2013-2025)
I’m going to use my Parents as the measuring stick. Often they’ve been confused as Baby Boomers as it seems a lot of my friends parents were a part of that group. They were not. My Parents were part of the Silent Generation.
So with that as the barometer the discussion is what technological advancement did they see? Yes, there was the splitting of the atom, the nuclear age, but did that effect day to day living? Not as much as one would think. Those items change the world in a geopolitical context. The Cold War, the Red Scare, but in day to day living, the drudgery of work, home, paying the bills and raising the kids – not so much. Whether it was built in 1947 or 1974 an automobile was still an automobile. A jet plane is a jet plane. Yes the styles change. The aerodynamics, the headlights, the sizes and the color, but a combustible engine is a combustible engine. The living end trails of cars were more or less the same. They had radios, and more luxury features were added later such as air-conditioning, 8-track players.
For Generation X the cars of 1987 and 2024 are dramatically different. There are traditional combustible engine vehicles, but the trend is to go green. There are also selections of hybrids and full electric. More charging stations are being built each day, and eventually we’ll get to a point where gas stations will have their pumps split between gasoline and charging. They will have to as a global society we continue to transition away from fossil fuels. The time that this will take will be extended – it already has been extended – far longer than it should because the fossil industry will continue to battle and lobby governments that the transition continue on a glacier pace so they can continue to scrape every last dollar they can out of what essentially is a dying industry. It isn’t on life support yet, but it’s on a long list of medications trying to keep the body alive. It’s not unlike geological time – the seas continue to erode the shorelines even if it is not noticeable to the human eye. Still, in recent years the pace has seemed to have increased from glacier to that of a snail. However, that is outside this discussion – the fact of the matter is there have been more dramatic changes in the evolution of the automobile across Generation X than the Silent Generation saw.
This also is true when we look at simple paperwork. A typewriter was largely unchanged since its invention, and saw use and purpose well into the 1980s and early ’90s. However, the word processor on a personal computer killed the typewriter industry. From dot matrix to ink jets to color laser printers there has been a dramatic evolution on we produce and push paperwork around. For my Parents there was only one way to type a letter in 1950, 1960, and 1980. You grabbed at typewriter. There were advancements here too from manual (where you really got exercise in your fingers pounding those keys to strike) to electric. Even my senior year of high school I saw the change. One of my Mother’s sound advice was to take a typing class my senior year, and few classes have ever been so valuable. Everything I do is typing with either writing or writing computer code. That skill has transcended disciplines. That senior year we all learned by pounding the keys on manual typewriters. The final three weeks of the class all the manual typewriters had been replaced with electric ones and autocorrect white-out ribbons to back over mistakes (which were all installed, but we were forbidden to use). The grant for new typewriters had come at the end of the semester – which would be fantastic for the next class, but for us it was simply a treat over the remaining weeks. They weren’t going to necessarily help us – our middle fingers had been well exercised. That was high school, but by the time I was a junior and senior in college a typewriter was already not practical – I’d type my papers in a word processor and print it out to proofread. A typo? No longer something to even manually correct or be concerned about – fix it on the screen and print out a new copy. Now take it a step further – with SaaS on-line documents, Google Docs, Google Sheets, o365, Zoho, there is only the need for an account and no software installation. No longer are a dozen 3.5″ floppy disks necessary to install the flavor of program, to write a letter and now, if you so choose, you can email the viewable link and not even print out the letter. All of this has happened in a span of 25 years or so?
Of course the biggest change that Generation X has seen is in telecommunications. For my Parents who graduated from radio to television those two mediums were largely unchanged. Radio is radio whether stereo or AM/FM. Television is the same thing. From black and white to color, or smaller portable televisions to living room sets. They all had tubes, and the changes were only in size and whether or not it was color. Even when the first flat screens came out shedding those antiquated tubes there hadn’t been much of a difference. Then the first cell phones came out. We went from bulky brick devices to flip phones to thin flip phones to smartphones. My Parent’s only had one kind of phone from the time they were teenagers and well into adulthood. It was a landline and that was that. The only technology advancement there was from rotary dial to touch tone. The landline was it, and nothing more. Pagers were a brief fad so that you could see that someone was trying to get a hold of you. If you recognized the number on the small digital screen you still have to find a landline in order to call in. Cellphones changed that, and then pagers also went extinct – probably the fastest a device was ever born and died. Even the typewriter had a longer run. I mention televisions and phones together because they are linked – not in decades prior, but rather in recent years. The modern smart television has taken its cue from the smartphone. That is essentially what it is now. Another device connected to the Internet streaming content. The modern television is essentially a 90″ smartphone hanging on a living room wall. You can chose to connect it to a digital antenna, cable, or both, and also download streaming apps in addition to traditional programming such as local television stations. My Parents only had one phone, and one television, and they were separate devices and not interoperable. I can favorite a television show in the app on my phone to watch later on my television when I get home. We can also take that a step further in terms of the DVR. If my Parents couldn’t be home in time for their favorite show that was it. They missed it. From VCRs to DVRs it is television viewing on your schedule. This is probably something inconceivable to Generation Z and after.
Lastly, and it’s probably everyone’s most favorite, and that is the camera. My Parents only had one of those as well, they all contained film, and the film had to be dropped off to be developed – usually in little yellow houses in shopping plazas. It might take a week, but towards the end of their run the little yellow houses started offering same day development at a premium price. These cameras evolved to disposal cameras that were just dropped off to digital cameras to smartphone cameras. The latter taking instant pictures to digital photo albums – physical albums also becoming a decreasing commodity now reserved mainly for weddings and special events.
The point in all this is that from a cultural change and technology perspective, Generation X is the bridge generation. We have seen a tremendous amount of change because we grew up through what always had been, and we had to be flexible to adapt during the transition of what was going to be. We have used landlines and pagers and smartphones. We have used physical maps and phone GPS. Typewriters and laptops and printers. We lived before the Internet and with it. However, one thing is important to keep in mind – no generation is better than another. Things are just different. We’ve seen different things which have required the development of different skill sets, but each skill set acquired through experience is a tool and nothing more. Nothing in a tool box is better than what it’s sitting next to. A wrench is not better than a hammer – they are different tools for different things. You can’t say one is more valuable than the other. The value aspect is only contingent on the work that needs to be done – nothing more. If a botched update comes down and bricks your phone you may need a landline to call a friend for a lift to the store to get a new one.[1]
Generation X is unique on several different data points, and it is for that reason it is probably better described as the Bridge Generation. That link from the past to the present. We weren’t around for World War II or the Kennedy Assassination, but we took pictures and dropped them off at little yellow houses for you and me.
That is assuming, of course, you can remember your friend’s number because that is a faded skill set with phone contact lists. Hope that address book is synced to the cloud!