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People born between 1954 and 1965 are thrilled to learn they're not boomers, but 'Gen Jones'

"Whaaat? There's a name for us? I have never felt like a real boomer—or Xer! I feel normal for once!"

Photo credits: Michelle Obama, Montclair Film, Georges Biard

Michelle Obama, Stephen Colbert and Michelle Yeoh are all Gen Jonesers.

The Silent Generation. Baby boomers. Gen X. Millennials. Gen Z. Gen Alpha. Social science and pop culture commentators have spent decades grouping and analyzing the different generations, assigning various qualities, habits and tendencies to each age group.

But some people don’t identify with their generation, or at least these particular categories of them. Those on the cusp between two generations often feel like neither aligns with who they are..

That’s where Generation Jones comes in.

Like the Xennials that straddle Gen X and millennials, Generation Jones are not quite boomers but not quite Gen X. For most of their lives, those born between 1954 and 1965 have been lumped in with the baby boomers, but culturally they’ve never quite fit. They were too young to be involved in the major civil rights, women’s liberation and Vietnam war movements of the 60s, instead witnessing those social upheavals through children’s eyes. But they were also too old to identify with the Gen X latchkey kid angst.

Jonathan Pontell is the television producer, director, and writer who named Generation Jones and explained what made them unique. “We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between the Paris student riots and the anti-globalisation protests, and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged,” he wrote in Politico in 2009.

He also explained why Gen Jonesers make good leaders:

“What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era in international affairs. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren’t engaged in that era’s ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while Boomers argued over issues. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead.”

Many Generation Jonesers have never felt like they had a generational home and are thrilled to learn they actually do have one. Check out how Upworthy readers responded with glee upon discovering they were a part of Gen Jones:

"Thank you! As a definite Gen Jones, I completely relate to this. To young to be a hippy, therefore was never a yuppy, but too old to be Gen X. Gen Jones works just fine."

"I have said for decades that I must be a transitional person into Gen X, because I don’t relate to boomers! I appreciate them, but I am not one of them. I am glad someone finally named my generation!"

"There are definite differences between people born in the 1940s/1950s and those of us born in the early 1960s. Most of us born in the early 1960s do not remember the JFK assassination and we were much too young to participate in Woodstock. The older Boomers were already established in their careers and as homeowners with families in the 1980s when we were in our 20s just starting out and ready to buy our first home. While the older Boomers experienced reasonable mortgage interest rates, the early 1960s Boomers faced mortgage interest rates averaging 14 percent in the 1980s which made it more difficult for us to buy our first home. We definitely need an additional group between Boomers and Gen X, and Generation Jones fits the bill."

"I was born 6 days before 1960…. I’ve felt out of touch with a lot of the boomer life descriptions, and not Gen X enough to fit in there. I’ll take Generation Jones."

"1957 here, with older siblings born before 1950. I definitely did not have the same experience growing up that they had. I feel I can identify a little with Boomers and a little with the Gen X experience, so there’s some overlap. (BTW, Gen X needs to stop claiming that they’re the first to have experienced all the things we grew up with. Kids, you didn’t invent drinking out of the garden hose or playing outside until the streetlights came on. Sheesh!) Glad to be a Joneser."

"Of course there is a difference between people raised in the 1950’s and people raised and coming of age in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Society changed a lot in those three decades."

"This is my generation but I never knew we had a name! The description fits perfectly."

Congrats on finding your people, Gen Jones. It's your time to shine.

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Real estate agent asks his Gen Z employee to edit a work video and the result is pure comedy

"This 100% caught my attention far more than whatever you were going to say."

@pridemoreproperties/Instagram

“Gen Z in the workforce is my favorite thing about life."

Gotta hand it to Gen Z—their tech savviness and sarcastic humor is a potent combination for comedy. Add to that a blatant disregard for workplace decorum, and you’ve got a recipe for some grade A viral entertainment.

Mike Hege, a realtor at Pridemore Properties in North Carolina, recently learned this after asking the company's 27-year-old video marketing manager to make a video for his Instagram and TikTok pages.

The employee did as asked, but took on some, shall we say…creative touches that Hege certainly didn’t expect.

As the phrase “Asked my Gen Z employee to edit a video for me, and this is what I got!” appears on screen, viewers witness a compilation video made entirely of Hege taking various inhales, presumably before going into whatever spiel he had intended to be recorded.

Essentially, this employee showcased the infamous “millennial pause” in action. Over and over again. She even threw in some awkward hair zhuzhing for good measure.

Watch:

Clearly this employee was onto something, because the video has already racked up a little over 4 million likes on Instagram. Several viewers suggested a raise was called for.

“Give her a raise because this 100% caught my attention far more then whatever you were going to say,” one person wrote.

Another added, ““Her audacity is so respectable tho.”

Of course, just type in “Letting Gen Z Edit My Videos” on TikTok, and you’ll see that Hege isn’t the only one giving his videos the Gen Z treatment.

Check out this one from the Goodwill of North Georgia. Poor fella giving the presentation made the mistake of saying “it’s okay, he’ll edit that out” after making a flub. It was, of course, not edited out.

@goodwill_ng

We've definitely got things😊

♬ original sound - Goodwill of North Georgia

“Gen Z is so unserious I love us,” one person commented.

There’s also this delightfully quirky one from the Poe Museum, home of “a wide variety of chairs”…where you’ll learn that “you can never have too many flat Edgars.”

@poemuseum We’ve got chairs at the Poe Museum! #edgarallanpoe #Richmond #poe #PoeMuseum ♬ original sound - The Poe Museum

“Gen Z in the workforce is my favorite thing about life,” a viewer wrote.

As for Hege and his employee, he told TODAY that his company wanted their social media presence to reflect “authenticity” and “humanity,” and that the Gen Z employee completely succeeded in her task.

“This was the editor’s way of showcasing that we’re real people and that we can have fun and be on the lighter side,” he said, adding that she’s been “crushing it” since her employment began in February. So maybe that raise isn’t so far off after all.


This article originally appeared on 7.15.24

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Millennial sends tongue-in-cheek warning to Gen Z after viral video criticizing Gen X

"I love Gen X. We all love Gen X...we all love Gen X."

Photo credit: Canva

Millennial sends warning to Gen Z after viral video criticizing Gen X

There's something to be said about the sibling dynamic that's developed between Millennials and Gen Z. But before that bond existed, many Millennials grew up with Gen X siblings, learning early on not to disturb the sleeping bear. Gen X is often referred to as the forgotten generation and after all this time, they like it that way so Millennials keep their heads down and walk quickly where Gen X is concerned.

Unfortunately, some folks in the younger generation didn't get that reply all email. A brave...or naive Gen Zer decided to take to Taylor Swift's internet to decree and declare that Gen X is "the worst generation" seemingly unprompted. Young Padawan, Gen X minds their business grumbling through life unless someone summons them. We don't summon them.

Laura High gave a succinct cliff's notes version of why it's best to not speak negative thoughts on Gen X aloud. The self described Millennial is quick to start out the video with praise, "I love Gen X. We all love Gen X...we all love Gen X" before bringing the camera close enough to whisper.

"Ok here's the thing, you do not seem to understand who Gen X is okay. Gen X is Boomers if they knew how to turn a document into a PDF, okay. They do not Karen out. They get quiet and they get revenge," High whispers.

The Millennial shares the secret kept close to the chest of the generation above Gen Z, "we do not summon the latchkey kids unless it's our literal only last resort." She advises the unknowing Gen Zer to go to the edge of the woods to leave offerings to appease the Gen Xers that will likely be offended by the video. Commenters agreed that this little sibling overstepped and needs to quietly and quickly tiptoe back into place before Gen X notices.


@laurahigh5 Do you also like pissing off beelzebub for funzies? #genx #millennial #genz #generations #lol #joke #80s #vhs #movie #foryou #foryoupage #fyp #fypシ゚viral #fypage ♬ Wes Anderson-esque Cute Acoustic - Kenji Ueda


"There is a reason millennials leave GenX alone, and they learned it the hard way. My fellow Gen Z’s will learn soon… very soon," one commenter says.

"Elder Gen Z raised by two Gen X parents. I do NOT back the younger half of Gen Z on this. I’m running into the woods on their behalf and leaving Ferris Bueller for my dad and a DQ blizzard for my mom," another writes.

"Last thing she will hear from the woods, Red Rover Red Rover, we call Karen Hashtag over," someone laughs.

If you've never played Red Rover with Gen Xers, just know you were lucky to have your head still attached to your shoulders after the game was over. There were no tears allowed and no telling your parents, they were gone anyway. But it seems Gen Xers who watched the video are willing to accept the peace offerings.

"I will accept king dongs (in original foil) and a VHS of “the last star fighter” I will also except a mix tape if it include at mix of metal, new wave, and Yaz," someone suggests.

"We will also accept any of the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Trek 2, Raiders, or Die Hard…though John Hughes films will likely will be the safest choice," one Gen Xer writes.

Tread lightly Gen Z. Tread very lightly. If you hear someone clinking together empty glass Coke bottles outside your door, do not come out and play. It's a trap.


This article originally appeared on 7.16.24

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Family

Therapist strikes a chord by explaining why we worry about people being mad at us

Her "truth bomb" is setting people free.

Photo credit: Canva

This makes so much sense.

Millennials and their deeply embedded, multifaceted, personality-defining anxiety have become prime fodder for making fun of online by both older and younger generations (seriously though, why must we be such easy targets?! We’re the nice ones!).

One prime example of this is the constant fear millennials have over someone being angry or upset with them. Yeesh, even writing this sends shivers down my aging spine.

Luckily, for the very few of us that aren’t currently going to therapy—or already working through too many other issues—there’s a now viral TikTok explaining why we are the way we are.

Getting right to the point, therapist Maggie Nick explains:

“Why are you so f-ing terrified of making someone mad? Why do you say, ‘Are you mad at me?’ all the time?’ I’ll tell you—it’s a truth bomb, so hold my hand while I tell you this: It’s because nobody’s ever been mad at you, and still made you feel like they love you at the same time.”

When you've had a moment to collect yourself, read on.


@maggiewithperspectacles This is Relational Shame Trauma in action 💛 And healing our Inner Child is about comforting the parts of us who’ve never experienced someone being mad at us + still loving us 💛 Follow me for more ✨Inner Child Rehab✨ #innerchildrehab #innerchildhealing #maggiewithperspectacles ♬ original sound - Maggie Nick, LCSW


Nick then breaks down the common ways parents of bygone generations reacted when they were upset with children, and how those reactions are deeply connected with our fear response to upsetting someone now as adults.

“When our parents got mad, they made us feel like they didn’t love us — with their words, with their actions,” she says. “Your experience of people being mad at you is that they give you silent treatment. They withdraw and withhold love, attention, affections, a willingness to care for you when they’re mad at you. It’s our parents’ thing. ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed,’ like disappointment isn’t a f-ing shame grenade.”

There are, of course, even harsher phrases many parents have used. And one particularly deep cutting one that Nick notes is “I love you, but I don’t like you right now.”

“When we are an attachment figure to a child and we drop something like that on their developing brain, they’re not going to be able to critically think and see the nuance there. They’re going to hear, ‘You don’t love me.’ And when we’re mad and say that, you really don’t love me,” she points out.

Boy, does that make sense. When you’re a kid, not being liked by your parent is devastating, even if they begrudgingly add the disclaimer of “I love you” at the beginning. Add to that being able to detect an intensely negative energy coming from a parent, and it’s a recipe for shame.

Bottom line that Nick concludes with:

“Your lived experience with anger is that it doesn’t go well for you. That person loves you one minute, and then when they get mad, they don’t give a sh*t about you. You have no value or worth to them. They not only don’t love you, they’re disgusted by you… that’s been your experience with anger. So of course you’re terrified to make people mad.”

Holy moly. This certainly gave viewers an aha-moment.

“Oh wow!! Thai explains a lot!!! No one has ever explained this to me. Over 40 and just learned something new,” one person wrote.

“Why do all of these hit me so hard in such a healing/revelatory way? Wow. Thank you. I needed to hear this,” added another.

Another simply said, “My childhood explained.”

What’s really great about this is not only that we now have a working knowledge on why anger can be so triggering, we are reminded of the importance of using non-violent communication when it’s us who are angry—especially at kids. Just another way to heal and break the cycle.

Nick has even more eye-opening video where that came from, addressing other issues like equating needing a rest with laziness, people pleasing, earning love through success, even how to end conversations (hint: it’s surprisingly easy). You can find all these, and more, by checking her out on TikTok.

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