Generation X: market research reports

To delineate Gen X by span of years can be a tricky proposition. Depending on the reasoning behind the designation, Generation X is said variously to have been born between the years 1961-1981; 1965-1978; or even 1958-1980. One can define “Generation X” as that cohort immediately following the baby boomers; today Xers fall between the ages of 25 and 40. Thus, the first Xers were born in 1965, the first post-WWII year in which fewer than 4 million babies first took breath (hence, the end of the “boom”).

The generation ends officially in 1980, giving it a sufficiently meaty 15-year span. Because birth rates continued to drop even after 1965, those in the X Generation number considerably fewer than their baby boomer predecessors; by the look of things, the generation that follows will outnumber them too. Of course, overlap of interests and values can be expected on both ends of the generational spectrum.

Generation X, that post-boomer cohort brought up on alienation, ennui, and sitcom reruns, has embraced the Internet with a passion, and has turned its frankly adult, yet resolutely youthful attention to pushing digital technology of all kinds to the limit—and then some. In virtually every facet of the Gen X life—from music and entertainment to job hunting, home buying, and childrearing—online, digital, and wireless technologies have grown integral to the performance of everyday tasks. People born between 1965 and 1980, though a much smaller cohort than their boomer and millennial neighbors, are exerting a tremendous force on media and technology markets, a force that increasingly links and integrates previously separate products and services.