#GenX: We’ve Been Ignored, But No One Can Ignore Our #Innovation in #Tech

by | Mar 30, 2017 | Digital Marketing

Generation X didn’t invent the Web, but it largely built the damn thing. Generation X gave you Google and Twitter and blogging. Not that it gets any credit.” – Mat Honan

Generation X, or GenX for short, are between 36-52 years old in 2017 (or 33-56, depending on the demographer). It is the smallest cohort stuck between the Boomers and the cohort they sired, the Millennials.

GenX has been ignored over the past 20-25 years…

No, we’re not okay. We’re groaning under the weight of expectations we didn’t sign up for, like living with mom and/or dad while also taking care of financially-dependent children. Or, working in jobs that hold no meaning. Or, watching as the media fawns over the aging Boomers and the exciting Millennials.

Despite that, there’s one thing no one can ignore – our innovation in tech…

Twenty to twenty-five years ago when we hit the job market, the Internet was just booming. No one really knew what they were doing, but they needed people to help them do it.

In march the GenXers…

  • We were the generation who used both fax machines and emails in the office.
  • We were the ones in our late teens and 20s sending paperwork by courier and trying to make sense of how to send the same paperwork through a website.

There were no schools granting degrees in digital marketing at the time. GenXers had to figure it out as they went along.

Due to the changing dynamics of our own families, we learned early to rely on ourselves…

It’s that self reliance which helped GenXers feel their way around dial-up Internet and become the workplace’s digital expert just because they could operate a mouse.

GenXers hate complexity and created some of the most innovative and dynamic tools on the Web to make things simple. If you’re using an online tool that’s more than 5-years old, thank a GenXer.

I’m a GenXer and I’m proud of what my generation has done online over the past 20-25 years.

You May Also Like…

The #NOMOChallenge – Why I’m Doing It

The #NOMOChallenge – Why I’m Doing It

Why am I seeing his pulled pork masterpiece in my newsfeed again? I wondered to myself. About four days earlier, a friend in my friends' list posted a photo of the piece of pork he grilled on his barbeque. Four days later, it was still showing up in my Facebook...

read more

0 Comments