I don't really see much difference between "being around" or "being exposed to" pop culture and "EXPERIENCING" it.  I think a better word might be PARTICIPATE or CREATE.

For example, I was born in 1966.  I definitely EXPERIENCED the 60s and 70s!  Of course, I experienced it in a very different way than someone born in 1950, but I certainly experienced it nevertheless.  Is it an accident that my favorite music is from the 60s and 70s?  The first song I ever heard in my life was probably a Beatles song.  Or maybe Jefferson Airplane.  My sister was a big Airplane fan.  The first film I ever saw was 2001, released in 1968.  It had a profound influence on me; two decades later I majored in physics.  I experienced the polyester fad in the 70s when I wore really hot and itchy polyester T-shirts.  I could go on and on like this, but the point is that I experienced, and was influenced by, the pop culture 60s and 70s.  But my participation was somewhat more limited.  For example, I didn't participate in Woodstock, even though I was born before it. :)



Thank you.  I was doing something, and I didn't get the chance to come back here, so I have to cancel my account.  I miss ya'll too! :)



I believe that experiences, values, and attitudes  has lot to do with the age and the year you were born .


I tend to think that while age is a factor, the environment you were raised in can be even more important: your family, community, religion, ethnic background, socio-economic etc.

Perhaps one defining aspect of Generation X is it's sheer diversity.  This is reflected in the way the media has confusingly portrayed us.  I remember how one TV piece painted us as a bunch of little proto-yuppies.  Another one as a bunch of slackers.  We're closer to our parents.  We're more distant.  We're more conservative.  We're more liberal.  We follow traditional values.  We reject traditional morality.  We're disrespectful of authority.  We don't challenge authority enough.  We whine too much and demand too much.  We're too passive and silent.  WHICH IS IT?  ???

  Like say a baby boomer for instance.  I use my father as an example.  My father is a baby boomer (1951), and his experiences, values, and attitudes are different from mines since I'm an Xer.  When he was a preteen and a teenager in the 1960s, Motown was hitting it big, and he EXPERIENCED it because that's his era.  My father's generation was the 1960s and early to mid 70s.  I believe that you start EXPERIENCING pop culture for the first time once you start entering junior high school (6th to 8th grade).  There's a difference between EXPERIENCING pop culture and just being around it.  Like me, I didn't EXPERIENCE pop culture until I hit my preteens (11-12 years old).  Before then I was just being around it.   When I was 9, I wanted to be like Janet Jackson.  When I was 8, I had a Michael Jackson doll, but other than that,  I didn't give a damn about what's going on except cartoons, toys, TV shows, and what have you.  I'm talking about music, movies, concerts, parties, etc.  It wasn't until I entered middle school that I really EXPERIENCE pop culture, and it was the late 80s.  The late 80s (1988-1989), 90s, and the early 2000s (2000-2002) is my era.


I definitely like The Supremes, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5.  People at my end of Generation-X heard much of this music when it was still new, and I think many of us regard it as part of our lives.  But the youngest end of Generation-X is more likely to think of all this music as from a previous era.  That's why I think defining generations in terms of popular culture is problematic.

There are actual symptoms?  ;D

For me, it was growning up as a kid, on a steady diet of Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Show, The A-Team, and Knight Rider, on TV.

There are actual symptoms?  ;D

For me, it was growning up as a kid, on a steady diet of Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Show, The A-Team, and Knight Rider, on TV.



Thank you for answering my question.  That's the main topic that I'm trying to get across.  For me, it's Jem, Smurfs, She-Ra, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, The Muppet Show, A-Team, Fraggle Rock, Alvin and the Chipmunks, going to my first New Jack Swing concert in 1989, wearing biker shorts, watching Looney Tunes, The Cosby Show, A Different World, Mr. Belvedere, Small Wonder, Transformers, Tom and Jerry, Punky Brewster, Kids Incorporated, etc.

In a pop-culture sense, for me it was plenty of Smurfs, JEM, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, The Facts of Life, Family Ties, Madonna, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Guess (brand) t-shirts, and those acid-washed jeans!  ;)