Unabashed Consumerism

Culture
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Yes, and I don’t think you’re alone in that. I think the Gen Xers that benefited were the ones who got in on the ground floor of the technology sector in the decade prior to the dot.com boom and bust. But people in lots of other fields aren’t doing nearly as well. We supposedly have full employment, but there are plenty of college educated Gen Xers who lost the value of their 401Ks to the post-Reagan stock market instability and corporate malfeasance like the Enron scandal AND who aren’t going to get shit out of Social security and medicare.

Our grandparents and the baby boomers benefited from the postwar economic expansion, but the generations since have not, because of Reaganomics. This is doubly true for people of color, whose parents had less wealth to pass on.

Yes, and people forget that fact. And we got treated like we were all whiny, special little snowflakes, too, just as the millennials are being treated now.

Yep. For my field, tenure is going away and many jobs are now lecturing positions (with higher number of classes to teach per semester) or adjuncting positions (paid per class). Many boomers got a phd and then went straight into a tenure track job, because so many people were getting a college degree in the 60s and 70s. The expectation was that it would continue to do so, but clearly,the whole house of cards is going to come crashing down around our ears with the student debt issue.

Didn’t think so! I think these are all ideas worth discussing and thinking about. As I said, I think all our generations have more in common than we think.

I can’t disagree. I’m trying to think of something similar from our generation, and I really can’t. This might be a thing unique to millennials or post-millennials.

Right isn’t this also the more general acceptance of consumerism and the elimination of the concept of authenticity from youth culture? But I guess we could also say it’s about how “branding” for individuals is now a thing.

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22

Dude, all my students have “brands” that they manage! It is terrifying! They all have podcasts! They all have vlogs! They are all trying their hardest to sell themselves and seem to be very upset that no one is buying! Its all going to come crashing down soon, its not sustainable at all.

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23

I wonder how much of it is due to the ease of use of the platform and timing… I know video reviews and seeing what is in the packaging would have been a nice thing in my teens. Heck even for people our age look at the professionally produced TableTop. I don’t have to guess so much at whether I will or won’t like a game just based on the box cover. Now I can see some game play and commentary and go well maybe not a good use of my $50.

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24

Does the concept of market saturation not occur to them?

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25

This is probably because I was a kid during the 90s, but I thought that youth unemployment was higher during my generation than during Gen X:

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140819.htm

So I guess that’s my misunderstanding.

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26

Yep, it’s going to, because all bubbles do that. I suspect we’re heading for a major economic catastrophe that will make the great depression look like a mild case of the blues!

Seriously, though, I also think that this is also an acknowledgement/ acceptance of the current neo-liberal reality, in the sense that the individual has to be entrepreneurial to get ahead now a days, that they won’t be able to count on getting a corporate job (or a job in the public sector) that will support them through the course of their lives. Millennials change jobs rather frequently, but not all of that is because they want to, it’s because that’s how the system is now set up, to encourage job hopping. And (at least here in the states) the very marginal welfare system is being dismantled piece by piece by embittered, conservative boomers. They got theirs, screw their kids and grand kids!

That’s certainly part of it? I mean, the medium is the message, right? But [ETA - forgot to finish this thought!] it is also choices people make to use that medium in that manner. People made choices about how they’d use cassette tapes and VHS tapes, and they ended up not only doing things like making mixed tapes or recording movies for later, but they also used it to make their own albums and low budget films.

I mean, Wil Wheaton is one of us, right? Of course, he’s a professional entertainer/actor and has been since he was a kid, so that’s his field. Not so much with just your average kid doing the same sort of thing… and that show is put together by a production company, Geek and Sundry, right? So more old school using new school techniques.

tng-wil-wheaton-whatever-dude

None of this is meant to be critical, because I’m not sure we can blame people for trying to figure out this rapidly changing economy. I do think it’s a good idea to be aware of these changes, though and try to figure out what’s happening and what workable alternatives might be.

I’m not sure they’re thinking in terms of market, in that sense?

Yeah, I think that’s part of Gen X just getting ignored by the general media in their rush to focus on the boomers or you guys. It’s not some weird plot or something, but it’s just because the millennials and the boomers are such massive cohorts compared to Gen X.

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27

Yes but it isn’t a show that would have worked on regular broadcast TV of the age. Plus there are a lot of online game shops that do unboxing and gameplay videos (especially for miniatures gaming) as well just not as nicely done or amusing as those guys. Admittedly those are pretty much ads/infomercials for their shop as well as it is free exposure for the game company.

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28

No, and it’s also for a very niche audience, which I think is one aspect of the current media climate that is very different from our period. It’s much easier to reach a particular audience, as their many alternatives to just TV, mainstream film/music industry, magazines, etc. The internet certainly lowered the barriers to entry for many people and helped to provide alternatives.

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29

Yeah, I think the idea of “generational conflict” is overplayed. As with almost any other way of dividing up populations, The differences within each of these “generations” are much vaster than the differences between them.

And I can see why people find some mileage in comparing these broad differences- there are general trends that can be viewed as favouring one group over another, bu in the end,t this is all just a distraction. Boomers and millenials and Xers can all blame one another all they want- the reason that people feel they’re slipping backwards isn’t because of any large cohort of people neatly defined and labelled by age or any other large demographic difference. We live in a world where dollar millionaires make up 0.7% of the adult population but hold 46% of global wealth. That’s where it’s gone.

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30

I think this is true. I remember all the complaints aimed at us in the 90s, and a lot of them are the same. Whiny, entitled, lazy, whatthefuckever.

I also feel like my own attitude is that the state of our society is fucked up and bullshit, it’s just draining and all I can manage is to take care of the logistics of my own life, and try to make sure I don’t end up homeless as an old person. I hope Millennials can change things, because I don’t think GenX has the energy. Or perhaps I’m projecting.

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31

I joke, but seriously, I am looking at buying acres of land up north and have started buying bulk dried food.
I remember the 90s man. There was a reason we all lived 12 to a house and drugs were everywhere. I don’t want to revisit that as an old person!

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32

For the States, maybe (and even them there was a recession and all that goes with that). In Canada it was a real issue, because our baby boom was bigger than other countries. The only people I knew who could find jobs were either very well-connected or else decided to go overseas. The rest of us scraped by on shitty casual contacts – when we could get them – for a long time.

Given Generation X was written by a Canadian but achieved international success, I don’t think there was that much difference. The book includes the concept of the McJob – low-paying, no future. So yeah, you’re not totally unemployed, but you’re not making ends meet either.

I’ve always seem it that the Gen Xers and millennials were actually in the same boat. It’s the boomers, at least the selfish ones, who ruined it for everyone else.

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33

Yeah, I live in a place that is super cheap, because I’ve long had the fear of having my housing taken away. And, our pantry is insane because as god is my witness, I shall never live on plain ramen again.

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34

I think the Millennials and younger have a lot of cool things going for them, and as I get older, it is harder to relate to how people interact, but I keep doing my best to stay current because it’s easy to say, “oh, we worked harder” or “we had it tougher” or “kids these days” and of course in my mom’s day it was Elvis that the parents didn’t grok. I mean, every generation is different.

I do see, though, that there was a sense that children were not marketed to, or marketed to in a really limited way, when I was a kid. Like, candy, or cereal, or toys. And now it’s, gloves are off, kids are relentlessly marketed to, and then it seems that there is not even a question about whether this is a good thing. I find it odd that a 6 year old boy has a 11 million dollar YouTube channel where the whole point of the channel is opening toys up. Like, I get it. I’d totally watch that at age 6, but I guess with YouTube there are no gate keepers, for good or bad.

I’m sure at age 6 it is all genuine, but we have seen these kids that grow up making money by being cute and at a certain age, they start seeing how they are rewarded for certain behaviors and… it gets weird. Personally, I wouldn’t put my child in that position.

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35

It must be bizarre and amazing to make that much money at that young an age, but what if it doesn’t continue?

There is so much luck involved, it’s not the kind of thing which can be counted on.

What kind of mental burden would it be to have peaked (financially) at six?

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36

honestly, i’d be completely happy to make that much for just the one month, and then i’d be happy to pass the channel on to someone else. that much money would be more than enough for me to take care of my bills and keep some aside for emergencies or whatever, and STILL live ok. i have to wonder, though, about those numbers: is that actual money in the bank every month? or is that just numbers on paper?

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37

This.

I worked for barely more than minimum wage after graduating from college. That still put me ahead of some of my generation. Once I was salaried, I still lived on ramen and on employer-provided pizza. When I was laid off I had to move back in with my parents, in my 30s.

I managed to get out from under it, and today I’m in the top 10% of household income (which, according to some in the GOP, is still far below “middle class” somehow). I don’t have massive debt anymore, but there is no reserve, either. Retirement is a dark joke, and medical expenses would immediately shift from “borderline oppressive” to “crushing and probably deadly” without employer-provided insurance or the single payer that both parties swear “we will never ever have.” And again, I’m one of the priveleged ones.

It’s not fair, because they got shafted at least as much as we did, but I pin my hopes on Millenials and beyond. GenX cannot fix things without them.

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38

The whole thing is fucking weird. My 2 year old likes videos of eggs made of different colored Play Dough being smashed to reveal Disney or Marvel or whatever toys inside. She gets to watch a little of it while we prep dinner. My husband hates it because it primes the kid to know these characters and buy toys. But … is that any different than my parents letting me watch an hour of Duck Tales, with ads? Or his parents letting him watch an hour of He-Man with ads? I’m not sure. And then we watched some TV over Thanksgiving, and it was like 50% ads.

I’m not sure the extent to which they’re marketed to more vs. cord-cutting has changed the way in which kids are “reachable” to advertisers. And the proportion of the time that kids spend being reachable is controllable. Well, to some extent. They let the kids watch a movie at daycare as parents are doing pick up - that’s nuts. I’m not paying them to let my kid watch Madagascar or whatever.

Quote button isn’t loading text into my window, so I’ll simulate it:

@CleverEmi

It must be bizarre and amazing to make that much money at that young an age, but what if it doesn’t continue?

And I’d say that’s Millennial-style capitalism: Everything is fucked, so if you can grab a wad of cash for doing something you were doing anyway, grab it while you can. What if there’s no tomorrow?

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39

Oh, totally, this yes! We absolutely are.

I disagree… I think since the 1950s, marketing to children/teens has been a key factor in corporate strategies. the whole social category of a teenager is as much a marketing term as it is anything else. I think we saw it less as marketing and just as culture, which it is kind of both. But I’d say that’s the thing that brings generations (from boomers to post-millennials) together under a single umbrella, that concept of marketing and engagement with culture as a serious part of our lives.

But I think it’s a numbers thing too… we are just a much smaller demographic, and have less political sway (though I’d say we have bigger cultural sway since so much of how culture is produced came about during our generation - independent production, the centrality of hip hop and punk to the music industry, the popularity of genre culture, etc).

True!

I thought of some more protest songs, BTW…

Grimes, Kill V. Maim:

Janelle Monae, Queen:

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40

When commercial television came to the UK, Lew Grade described it as “a licence to print money”. The process has now been democratised. For some value of “democracy”.

It’s also largely debt funded.

That has always been true of very high income jobs. Even with jobs with a lot of skill involved - basketball or law - being singled out for special treatment at an early age can result in someone ending up highly paid while someone of equal talent who missed the opportunity never has the chance to work at the level which develops those skills. As Ekklesiastes observed a long time ago “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

The Internet has made it possible to move the money and develop the numbers much faster than ever before, and that’s what makes this possible. I don’t think it’s a generation thing but an opportunity thing.

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