yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Birth of the Slacker | Generation X


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Most Gen Xers are in school during the crash, so at first they think, "Like, so what?" I'd never quite understood the stock exchange game enough to be interested. I would like to meet this Dow Jones; I thought he was a guy in all the Disney movies.

I vividly remember that day because all these classmates of mine in college were huddled around the TV, and I was like, "What's going on?" Like, full-on Keanu Reeves, like, "What's up? The stock market's crashing? Well, that's fine, I'm creative, who cares? I'm going to be a writer."

It turned out that had an impact on the job market. It turned out there weren't as many jobs. Recession is already here. General Motors and Ford are laying off almost 25,000 workers. Coming out of college with a degree doesn't matter; no one can find work.

I applied for every single opening in my field, but there's just—there's nothing. Times are hard. You just going to have to swallow your pride. For Gen Xers, the new reality sees the birth of McJobs and the death of traditional careers.

White-collar workers are hit the hardest this time. The stereotype of the slacker is born. The whole idea of us being pegged as slackers, I think, came out of the fact that we couldn't get jobs. People started looking at different ways that they could do things, precisely because those traditional paths weren't there anymore.

That's kind of what Gen X was—a bunch of us kind of gone like, "Well, maybe there's like a back door into this." All sorts of independent film, independent music, alternative ways of working. That doesn't make you a slacker; it actually makes you the opposite.

More Articles

View All
Made in Space: 3-D Printing Could Change the Way Astronauts Travel | Short Film Showcase
The stories that I hear from people that were alive during Apollo—something happened with them when they watched people walking on the moon. It was this understanding that anything’s possible. Those people ended up going on thinking that for sure people a…
15 Things That Whisper "I’m High Class"
A general rule of thumb is that if your name is on your work clothes, you’re working class; if it’s on your office door, you’re middle class; and if it’s on your building, you’re upper class. With that said, here are 15 things that whisper “I’m high class…
An Icy Challenge, Accepted | StarTalk
So check this out. You guys are both athletes. So I read this great article, and it was talking about how athletes are able to deal with pain unlike regular people. Non-athletes cannot deal with pain the way athletes. So it’s real. Because I was suspectin…
Safari Live - Day 380 | National Geographic
This program features live coverage of an African safari and may include animal kills and carcasses. Viewer discretion is advised. Welcome to your sunset safari today, and of course we, Mr. Hosanna and I am Warren, and on camera today I have Davi. Now we…
The 3 STEPS To Becoming A MILLIONAIRE | Kevin O'Leary
It’s never work when you’re pursuing your ambition. Every day, you’re going to get thrown a ton of shed is going to hit you. One of the biggest tricks of motivation is if you actually solve a big problem first, when you have all the energy at the beginnin…
Presenting: Greeking Out by National Geographic Kids | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
Foreign last week, you heard our episode on King Tut. To help us keep the ancient Egyptian party going, we’re welcoming the Greeking Out podcast from Nachio Kids. They have a special episode dedicated to another Egyptian pharaoh and mythmaker. Here to hel…