Editing Generation X (section)

=====Birth of the "slacker"=====
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| footer = [[Skateboard]]ing, [[BMX bike]]s, and [[Raleigh Chopper|chopper]] bikes first became popular among Generation X.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Alex |title=Skateboarding Past a Midlife Crisis (Published 2012) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/fashion/skateboarding-past-a-midlife-crisis.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220102/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/fashion/skateboarding-past-a-midlife-crisis.html |archive-date=2 January 2022 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |work=The New York Times |date=9 May 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
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In 1990, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine published an article titled "Living: Proceeding with Caution", which described those then in their 20s as aimless and unfocused. Media pundits and advertisers further struggled to define the cohort, typically portraying them as "unfocused [[Twentysomething (term)|twentysomething]]s". A [[MetLife]] report noted: "media would portray them as the ''[[Friends]]'' generation: rather self-involved and perhaps aimless...but fun".<ref name="MetLife">{{cite news|title=The MetLife Study of Gen X: The MTV Generation Moves into Mid-Life|url=https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/2013/mmi-gen-x.pdf|access-date=19 June 2016|publisher=MetLife|date=April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021014452/https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/2013/mmi-gen-x.pdf|archive-date=21 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Time1">{{cite magazine|last1=Gross|first1=David|title=Living: Proceeding With Caution|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,970634-1,00.html|access-date=19 June 2016|magazine=Time|date=16 July 1990|archive-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701074300/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,970634-1,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Gen Xers were often portrayed as [[Apathy|apathetic]] or as "[[slackers]]", lacking bearings, a stereotype which was initially tied to [[Richard Linklater]]'s comedic and essentially plotless 1991 film ''[[Slacker (film)|Slacker]]''. After the film was released, "journalists and critics thought they put a finger on what was different about these young adults in that 'they were reluctant to grow up' and 'disdainful of earnest action'".<ref name="Time1"/><ref>{{cite news|last1=ScrIibner|first1=Sara|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/08/11/generation_x_gets_really_old_how_do_slackers_have_a_midlife_crisis/|title=Generation X gets really old: How do slackers have a midlife crisis?|date=11 August 2013|work=Salon|access-date=19 June 2016|archive-date=19 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160619213301/http://www.salon.com/2013/08/11/generation_x_gets_really_old_how_do_slackers_have_a_midlife_crisis/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ben Stiller]]'s 1994 film ''[[Reality Bites]]'' also sought to capture the [[zeitgeist]] of the generation with a portrayal of the attitudes and lifestyle choices of the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/reality-bites-captured-gen-x-25-years-later-helen-childress/583870/|title=Reality Bites Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony|last=Roberts|first=Soraya|date=March 2019|website=The Atlantic|access-date=3 February 2023|archive-date=1 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101005107/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/reality-bites-captured-gen-x-25-years-later-helen-childress/583870/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Negative stereotypes of Gen X young adults continued, including that they were "bleak, cynical, and disaffected". In 1998, such stereotypes prompted sociological research at [[Stanford University]] to study the accuracy of the characterization of Gen X young adults as cynical and disaffected. Using the national [[General Social Survey]], the researchers compared answers to identical survey questions asked of 18–29-year-olds in three different time periods. Additionally, they compared how older adults answered the same survey questions over time. The surveys showed 18–29-year-old Gen Xers did exhibit higher levels of cynicism and disaffection than previous cohorts of 18–29-year-olds surveyed. However, they also found that cynicism and disaffection had increased among all age groups surveyed over time, not just young adults, making this a period effect, not a [[cohort effect]]. In other words, adults of all ages were more cynical and disaffected in the 1990s, not just Generation X.<ref>{{cite news|title=Generation X not so special: Malaise, cynicism on the rise for all age groups|url=http://news.stanford.edu/pr/98/980821genx.html|access-date=19 June 2016|publisher=Stanford University|archive-date=14 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814224207/http://news.stanford.edu/pr/98/980821genx.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Oldsters Get The Gen X Feeling|url=http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19980729080415data_trunc_sys.shtml|access-date=11 July 2016|publisher=SCI GOGO|date=29 August 1998|archive-date=18 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818120039/http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19980729080415data_trunc_sys.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a 2023 interview with television host [[Bill Maher]] on the podcast ''Club Random with Bill Maher'', vocalist and guitarist [[Billy Corgan]] hinted at how [[the Smashing Pumpkins]] spoke to the disillusionment felt by many Gen Xers as they reached adulthood, noting:

{{Quote|text=At least generationally, I think that's why I connected with so many people—because I was speaking the patois of: ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' meets "What the fuck happened in my life?"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Club Random Podcast |date=2023-05-28 |title=Billy Corgan – Club Random with Bill Maher |website=[[YouTube]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ1JP0j1wj4}}</ref>|author=}}