# Cusp Gen: Baby Boomer or X Gen?



## GhostCrow

I was born late in the year in 1964 in the cusp of two generations. So, would it be better to be a young Baby Boomer or an old X Gen? And why?


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## Essay

I'm just going to say you're a Baby Boomer because Deverson and Hamblett's _Generation X _was published in 1965. 

Ok, seriously, technicalities aside.... What really matters is which social markers (start with influential historical events) and societal values you identify more with. You can totally be a mix of the two, first of all. It's just that if you're more questioning of authority and driven by grand ideas of personal growth/gratification, equality, justice, youthfulness, involvement, and team-affiliation, a sociologist will probably want to label you a Baby Boomer. If, on the other hand, you're very results-driven, open to change, place holy importance on work/life balance, and are staunchly independent/self-reliant, you might say that your Gen-X side is more dominant.

You definitely don't need to identify with either either, of course, but you're bound to see some shining light in part of them, unless you're the most alternative man in the western world, haha. I, for example, might be balls-deep in the thoughts of too many distant and non-western philosophers to really write myself off as a normal, Canadian Gen-Y, but, hey, Gen-Y is supposed to value diversity and be less caught up in individualism than the prior generations, so I can't say I feel out of place.


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## GhostCrow

@Essay: Good points and well put. I wasn't actually trying to find out which generation I was. I was trying to see which generation would have the most champions for their respected generation. Mayhaps generational pride has gone the way of the dodo. Which isn't nessecarily a bad thing.


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## Essay

Ah, I see exactly where I misread. Of course there's no better generation! Vive le difference!


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

It's better to be a young baby boomer than an old Generation X. Who wants to go through life always being called "old"?


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## Max

GhostCrow said:


> I was born late in the year in 1964 in the cusp of two generations. So, would it be better to be a young Baby Boomer or an old X Gen? And why?


Hey. I found this page explaining all the different millennial titles, here: Talkin' 'bout my label. I thought it might be of good use in helping you decide.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Generation Jones (people born between 1954-1965, although how can a generation be eleven years???).
Generation Jones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Not too enamored with my label. Since I'm an SP, I need to get out of that box.
(walking tourist escapes, box goes into recycle bin)



Wontlookdown said:


> Hey. I found this page explaining all the different millennial titles, here: Talkin' 'bout my label. I thought it might be of good use in helping you decide.


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## Max

walking tourist said:


> Not too enamored with my label. Since I'm an SP, I need to get out of that box.
> (walking tourist escapes, box goes into recycle bin)


Well. Generation X is 15 years.


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## VinnieBob

ancestry.com defines a generation as 25 years, from being born to giving birth
aside from that it would be nice if they could stick to one formula instead of labeling us all
as for me I'm generation old


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## Thalassa

From your profile photo I would peg you as older Gen X as your cultural bent of personal choice or experience. People born as early as 62 some times claim Gen X.


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## Thalassa

walking tourist said:


> It's better to be a young baby boomer than an old Generation X. Who wants to go through life always being called "old"?


Am I the only one visually identifying him as a Gen X poster child? He's 50 and could blend in with some people in their forties, even some late 30s. I am thinking Jay and Silent Bob, mosh pits, peak metal, a decidedly "younger" style than Boomers but way too dated to be Gen Y.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Feeling my age.
Or at least my hyperacusis.
My poor ears.
I remember metal from college.
Still recovering, lol.



fourtines said:


> Am I the only one visually identifying him as a Gen X poster child? He's 50 and could blend in with some people in their forties, even some late 30s. I am thinking Jay and Silent Bob, mosh pits, peak metal, a decidedly "younger" style than Boomers but way too dated to be Gen Y.


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## decadeologist101

Essay said:


> I'm just going to say you're a Baby Boomer because Deverson and Hamblett's _Generation X _was published in 1965.
> 
> Ok, seriously, technicalities aside.... What really matters is which social markers (start with influential historical events) and societal values you identify more with. You can totally be a mix of the two, first of all. It's just that if you're more questioning of authority and driven by grand ideas of personal growth/gratification, equality, justice, youthfulness, involvement, and team-affiliation, a sociologist will probably want to label you a Baby Boomer. If, on the other hand, you're very results-driven, open to change, place holy importance on work/life balance, and are staunchly independent/self-reliant, you might say that your Gen-X side is more dominant.
> 
> You definitely don't need to identify with either either, of course, but you're bound to see some shining light in part of them, unless you're the most alternative man in the western world, haha. I, for example, might be balls-deep in the thoughts of too many distant and non-western philosophers to really write myself off as a normal, Canadian Gen-Y, but, hey, Gen-Y is supposed to value diversity and be less caught up in individualism than the prior generations, so I can't say I feel out of place.


Anyone can have any sort of personality regardless of the generation you're born in. I think it's more about what events shaped you. Gen Y was most shaped by the events of the 2000s such as 9/11, the Iraq War, and the 2008 crash. The Baby Boomers would be most shaped by the 60s and early 70s. They would be shaped by the Vietnam War, Hippies, Watergate, and the JFK assassination.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Which generation was most shaped by:


Nixon's resignation (1974)
Iran hostage crisis (1979)
assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero (1980)
fall of Berlin wall (1989)
Tiananmen square crackdown (1989)


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## marked174

The line for me is the Kennedy Assassination. Everything got real after that. So, to me, you would be an Xer. Just my opinion.


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## FakeLefty

walking tourist said:


> Generation Jones (people born between 1954-1965, although how can a generation be eleven years???).
> Generation Jones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Wow, my dad JUST missed the end of Generation Jones. He was born in '66.


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## FakeLefty

walking tourist said:


> It's better to be a young baby boomer than an old Generation X. Who wants to go through life always being called "old"?


Well I'm among the oldest of Generation Z and I don't mind one bit! :laughing:


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## Thalassa

FakeLefty said:


> Well I'm among the oldest of Generation Z and I don't mind one bit! :laughing:


Yep I am "old" Gen Y (I haz ugly librarian glasses before it was mainstream!!!111) and I am totally fine with that. I have "young" Gen X friends who have more in common with the fifty year old OP than they do with me aesthetically, that is one of the main things I notice. I feel some kinship with both generation to an extent though as will most cuspers.


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## Thalassa

walking tourist said:


> Which generation was most shaped by:
> 
> 
> Nixon's resignation (1974)
> Iran hostage crisis (1979)
> assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero (1980)
> fall of Berlin wall (1989)
> Tiananmen square crackdown (1989)



I would honestly think you border on Gen X if you are that affected by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Are you in your early fifties?


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

I am in my mid-50s. However, I am a "late bloomer." 
In 1989, I was on a choir tour in Poland and Germany and spent a few days in East Germany, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. I found East Germany to be kind of surreal. I did get to see Martin Luther's bed, which was really short, as Martin Luther was barely five feet tall. My group also went into a church in Leipzig, where the church's caretaker asked us to sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," but we didn't have hymnals so we didn't sing.
After the wall, which was beautifully graffiti'd, fell, I thought, for the first time that, maybe we would not all die in a gruesome nuclear war and that maybe I ought to consider having a baby...




fourtines said:


> I would honestly think you border on Gen X if you are that affected by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Are you in your early fifties?


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## Thalassa

walking tourist said:


> I am in my mid-50s. However, I am a "late bloomer."
> In 1989, I was on a choir tour in Poland and Germany and spent a few days in East Germany, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. I found East Germany to be kind of surreal. I did get to see Martin Luther's bed, which was really short, as Martin Luther was barely five feet tall. My group also went into a church in Leipzig, where the church's caretaker asked us to sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," but we didn't have hymnals so we didn't sing.
> After the wall, which was beautifully graffiti'd, fell, I thought, for the first time that, maybe we would not all die in a gruesome nuclear war and that maybe I ought to consider having a baby...



That's a beautiful story, thank you for sharing, what a cool experience to have!


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## briand515

I'd say you're more gen x but you're on the the early edge. My parents are definitely of the baby boomer generation (born in 1949 and 1952), and someone like you seems more like gen x to me compared to them.


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## VinnieBob

I believe boomers were 45-64 in essence does it really matter in how the media labels us?
after all the year in which we were born does not pertain to who we are as individuals


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

It mostly relates to population trends. In many countries, birth rates went up drastically shortly after World War II ended and stayed high until the mid-1960s. I'm not sure how it pertains to us as individuals. I am not convinced that generational theory makes any sense and I definitely prefer personality type as a way to understand people.



vinniebob said:


> I believe boomers were 45-64 in essence does it really matter in how the media labels us?
> after all the year in which we were born does not pertain to who we are as individuals


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## aja675

Thalassa said:


> Am I the only one visually identifying him as a Gen X poster child? He's 50 and could blend in with some people in their forties, even some late 30s. I am thinking Jay and Silent Bob, mosh pits, peak metal, a decidedly "younger" style than Boomers but way too dated to be Gen Y.


Do you mean the OP?


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## Thalassa

aja675 said:


> Do you mean the OP?


Yes he had a photo of himself up at the time I made that post. I think that's what it was about.


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## NewYorkEagle

I think you would've been one of the oldest Generation X babies, since you were born after 1963, when the Baby Boomer generation ended.


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## Wtpmjgda

decadeologist101 said:


> I think it's more about what events shaped you. *Gen Y* was most shaped by the events of the 2000s such as* 9/11*, the Iraq War, and the *2008 crash*.


Not all gen Yers. Nearly a half of gen y were already grew up before 9/11 happend so it dosen't affected their childhood.
Now 2008 crash.
i think that event were more affected to gen Z kids and slightly to late gen Yers. '08 crash is an important event which shaped gen Z. Most of gen Yers were 18+ when it happend. Almost half of gen Yers were already entered workforce by that time.


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## The Snapdragon

walking tourist said:


> I am in my mid-50s. However, I am a "late bloomer."
> In 1989, I was on a choir tour in Poland and Germany and spent a few days in East Germany, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. I found East Germany to be kind of surreal. I did get to see Martin Luther's bed, which was really short, as Martin Luther was barely five feet tall. My group also went into a church in Leipzig, where the church's caretaker asked us to sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," but we didn't have hymnals so we didn't sing.
> After the wall, which was beautifully graffiti'd, fell, I thought, for the first time that, maybe we would not all die in a gruesome nuclear war and that maybe I ought to consider having a baby...


Hello - this is my first post on this message board.

Having graduated a couple of years before 1989 with a degree in politics (specialising in my final year in east European politics) I had rather mixed feelings about the wall coming down. :laughing: But I was there in June 1990 hacking my own bit of the wall away - and yes it was beautifully graffitti'd. I have a photo of myself on Unter den Linden all curly perm and huge earrings lol. I loved the old world gentility of East Berlin that spring. The cafes, the opera house. We had a meal at the Rathaus (bullet holes still visible on the walls) and blew a whole £5 each on a 3 course meal including a bottle of rosé anjou because it was the only wine we knew amongst all the then unknown east European offerings. 

I remember long queues of East Berliners chugging through Checkpoint Charlie into West Berlin.

But the oddest experience? The underground. Built before the wall went up we would scream through ghost stations which were in West Berlin still sporting 1950's adverts for cigarettes and soap. It was utterly surreal.

I tend to identify more with Gen X even though I'm a 1964 baby.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Such a fantastic story. Really vivid... the food, the wine, hacking away at the wall. I truly enjoyed that.
I can see that you could identify more with people who are closer to your age, as opposed to 18 years older (those born in 1946). You have more experiences in common with them. I don't really think generations can be put on a rigid timetable.



The Snapdragon said:


> Hello - this is my first post on this message board.
> 
> Having graduated a couple of years before 1989 with a degree in politics (specialising in my final year in east European politics) I had rather mixed feelings about the wall coming down. :laughing: But I was there in June 1990 hacking my own bit of the wall away - and yes it was beautifully graffitti'd. I have a photo of myself on Unter den Linden all curly perm and huge earrings lol. I loved the old world gentility of East Berlin that spring. The cafes, the opera house. We had a meal at the Rathaus (bullet holes still visible on the walls) and blew a whole £5 each on a 3 course meal including a bottle of rosé anjou because it was the only wine we knew amongst all the then unknown east European offerings.
> 
> I remember long queues of East Berliners chugging through Checkpoint Charlie into West Berlin.
> 
> But the oddest experience? The underground. Built before the wall went up we would scream through ghost stations which were in West Berlin still sporting 1950's adverts for cigarettes and soap. It was utterly surreal.
> 
> I tend to identify more with Gen X even though I'm a 1964 baby.


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## The Snapdragon

1946 is only 7 years younger than my mother and we have very little in common :tongue: That said, I've had friends old enough to be my parent and friends young enough to be my children. A ex-work colleague 4 months younger than me was born middle aged lol.


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## BlueLeaves95

This reminds me of my parents, they basically fall into this, they are late Baby Boomers on the beginning of Gen X cusp (I think it's called the "Generation Jones"). 

They were both born in the early 60s not long before the cutoff. It's funny because although they were hybrid 60s/70s kids, however they both seem not to really remember the 60s much at all when I've asked them about it (they were too young to remember the Hippie Movement and things like that it seems), and always talk about the 70s/80s, as they time when they were young, instead...(I guess because it's before they had my brother and me, in the 90s). 

They should make an equivalent for Gen X/Y and Y/Z cusps I think...


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## Runvardh

My parents were also born in 1964, and they both identify as Gen X - though my father is highly critical of every generation. I do, however, identify with some of the trouble being on the cusp as well. Being born in 1983, I'm not quite as close as the OP; but I grew up in a small town where video games, film, music, and the internet took its time to get to us.


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## CaboBayCaptain1297

1964 should definitely be Gen X, hell I don't even consider them Gen Jones.
They were under 16 when disco died in 1979, and still in high school after MTV debuted in 1981. The Boomers should end at 1963 at the very latest. 
The BB X Y Z model is too vague anyways, which is why I came up with this model;

1883-1891 = Edwardian Generation
1892-1900 = World War I Generation
1901-1909 = Prohibition Generation
1910-1918 = Depression Generation
1919-1927 = World War II Generation
1928-1936 = Silent Generation
1937-1945 = Civil Rights Generation
1946-1954 = Post-War Boomers
1955-1963 = Generation Jones
1964-1972 = Reagan Generation
1973-1981 = Grunge Generation
1982-1990 = Millennials
1991-1999 = Centennials
2000-2008 = iGeneration
2009-2017 = Generation Alpha


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## 408610

Deleted


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

marked174 said:


> The line for me is the Kennedy Assassination. Everything got real after that. So, to me, you would be an Xer. Just my opinion.


I was born in 1956 and I really don't remember the Kennedy assassination. I has just turned seven at that point.


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## karlpalaka

If you were born between 1960-1964 you could be either boomer or gen x. Most common definitions I see are 1946-1964 and 1940-1959. I see 1959 as boomer since they were in their double digits during Apollo 11 while 1960 is gen x since they were the first to be born in a world where television became mainstream. They didnt really define the boomer generation based on experiences, so it should be redefined.


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## karlpalaka

karlpalaka said:


> If you were born between 1960-1964 you could be either boomer or gen x. Most common definitions I see are 1946-1964 (if we are excluding WWII) and 1940-1959 (if we are including the full WWII). I see 1959 as boomer since they were in their double digits during Apollo 11 while 1960 is gen x since they were the first to be born in a world where television became mainstream. They didnt really define the boomer generation based on experiences, so it should be redefined.


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## karlpalaka

karlpalaka said:


> karlpalaka said:
> 
> 
> 
> If you were born between 1960-1964 you could be either boomer or gen x. Most common definitions I see are 1946-1964 (if we are excluding WWII) and 1940-1959 (if we are including the full WWII). The worldwide Fertility rate was low already before 1960, and were in a constant decline since, but I see 1959 as boomer since they were in their double digits during Apollo 11 while 1960 is gen x since they were the first to be born in a world where television became mainstream. They didnt really define the boomer generation based on experiences, so it should be redefined. I dont know why a generation should be defined based on fertility rates. I mean how does someone experience that?
Click to expand...


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## q543frodomar

karlpalaka said:


> If you were born between 1960-1964 you could be either boomer or gen x. Most common definitions I see are 1946-1964 and 1940-1959. I see 1959 as boomer since they were in their double digits during Apollo 11 while 1960 is gen x since they were the first to be born in a world where television became mainstream. They didnt really define the boomer generation based on experiences, so it should be redefined.


Same with someone born in 1979-1983 honestly. 1980 is the last to lean more towards Gen X.


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## JosephZavala

The problem of the baby boom would not be so acute if schools explained to the children the seriousness of the decisions made, or, rather, about responsibility and rash decisions. Or at least they gave articles like this to read peaceful parenting: 5 Issues to Discover in an Essay on Teenage Pregnancy. Now, this issue is a little-discussed in society.


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## karlpalaka

Glenda Gnome Starr said:


> Generation Jones (people born between 1954-1965, although how can a generation be eleven years???).
> Generation Jones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


People born in 1954-1959 are core boomers. While I start X at 1960, I can consider 1960-1964 as the cusp between both generations. 1960 is the best year to start X being that they were all born after the world population hit three billion, Hawaii becoming a state, and NASA's first space mission, Project Mercury. To be honest, a generation should not be more than five years in length if we are giving these labels.


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