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80s born Generation?

3K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  oreocheesecake 
#1 ·
Why do some 80s babies see themselves as one generation(1980-1989)? After reading comments on YouTube about Generations some 80s babies say they have more in common with people born the same decade then any other decade aka 70s & 90s.
 
#5 ·
I was born in 1980 and I do kinda feel this way. It seems like there are a lot of small things that isolate 80s babies from people born in the 70s and those born in the 90s, but the small things add up to a sort of unique generation for 80s-borns.

For example, the 70s was sort of the end of the countercultural stuff from the 60s, so that decade was much different than the 80s. The 70s seemed relatively safe, the 80s were sort of middle ground, and then U.S. crime seemed to get really bad in the 90s (maybe mostly drug- and gun-related crimes). The 70s and 90s saw a lot of unique or innovative popular music, but 80s music was just kind of meh. The 70s had the Vietnam War, the 90s had the Gulf War...what military conflict did we have in the 80s? I can't think of any. 70s had memorable/love-to-hate fashion like bellbottoms and afros, the 90s had Hammer pants and those waist pouches...what did the 80s have? Nothing quite as memorable. Computers started to become more widely available in the 70s, kinda not much big tech stuff happened in the 80s, then the Internet suddely exploded in the 90s.

The 80s was like a boring suburb stuck between two happening big cities (the 70s and 90s).
 
#6 ·
Also, the 70s-born can still clearly remember a time without all the tech shit we have nowadays. The 90s-born were introduced to it at as kids. 80s-born are in the middle because we sort of got introduced to computers and the internet in early adolescence—the perfect time to get addicted to it.

70s-born still had mostly wholesome, family-oriented TV programming. Stuff got racy for the 90s-born and they got reality TV. 80s TV shows were meh.
 
#7 ·
People born in the 80s have some weird acid-trip experience that apparently no one else in the world can relate to!

While there is actually some truth to that, I do think 90s babies have a similar prejudice. What connects 80s to 90s babies in our awful prejudice is our hellish allegiance to the pop culture and sitcoms of our respective early childhoods. Ask ANY Millennial who isn't a very special case about their childhoods, and they'll share very specific things. Like literally this political or social event happened, or this band existed, or this show makes me feel happy to be three years old again. There's nothing in the world that makes me feel like Facts of Life or One Day at a Time (it's not always good, honestly it's sometimes creepy, like there's dead people or a propaganda field around me) and a lot of 90s babies will say that about iCarly or some shit. We experienced nostalgia and commercialism in a similar happy and disturbing way. No one said it was superior - that crap is reserved for Baby Boomers, 80s babies often like to brood upon how they were raped by capitalism (like 70s babies, but their experience of digital and Internet was not sufficient to join us).

There's even an ENTIRE SUB-GEN called "X-innails" to basically accommodate 80s babies who remember the world without as much technology and with more white trashy haunted creepy goodness like the 70s kids, but also identify with corporate capitalist entities in a completely sad and involuntary way like 90s babies. I think that's what connects the 80s and 90s though, the utterly involuntary allegiance to popular culture that makes us bitter. People in the 60s and 70s were subjected to it. But they still had more of a choice, or were more likely to have a parent who turned off the four channels on a television.

What I've noticed is smart 80s people are utterly aware of what happened and not-so-smart 80s people are very like Baby Boomers in how awesome and ideal it was. In example, Donald Trump voters.

I'll tell you what biases me more than anything I can't deny, even now as an adult, is the country music of the early 90s. Randy Travis singing "Deeper than the Holler" strikes something so spiritual and innocent in me that I can only share it with my niece who is almost a decade younger than me. Too Close For Comfort isn't like that. That's why I use it in my bio. I feel like whatever happened in the late 70s and early 80s made me who I am and I cherish it, but it also disturbs me in a way that only reminds me of things like drug addiction, suicide, war, and murder.

If you don't "get" that ,you don't "get" the 80s. My ex did and we were together for six years, and I had another relationship for 18 months with someone who "got it." Lana Del Rey "gets it." I feel like who I am is a very hard person to be. I feel like it's easier to be a stupid Trump voter. They idealize the whole thing, but who the hell does that? Who idealizes LA from tip to toe, or idealizes a murder scene even if its in a beautiful happening scene?

Vegans were also bigger in the 80s than the 90s or 70s, and that's reflected in the 2010s with my age group.

I don't know, we are who we are. I guess we are the narcissistic millennials. I'll admit that. The Boomers who were in their 20s and 30s in the 60s are much more narcissistic than people who were young adults in the in the 70s, to the point that younger Boomers like my mom are called "generation Jones" like they're more ordinary. The people who were children in the 80s rather than the 70s or 90s apparently share this conceit.

My grandparents totally reinforced it too. Especially since my parents were such assholes, they were like "yes we're going to buy you every robot and doll and educational toy in existence because your mom and dad were dirty, disgusting hippies." That doesn't leave you.

But neither does growing up in a smaller world with more nature. One of the BIGGEST differences that actually connects 80s Millennials to Gen X is our remembrance of nature, of playing outside, and a much, much smaller world (literally). I guess 90s is included in that somewhat but 90s babies are born at the cusp of a population explosion with children being locked indoors in a paranoid ADHD world.
 
#9 ·
People born in the 80s have some weird acid-trip experience that apparently no one else in the world can relate to!

While there is actually some truth to that, I do think 90s babies have a similar prejudice. What connects 80s to 90s babies in our awful prejudice is our hellish allegiance to the pop culture and sitcoms of our respective early childhoods. Ask ANY Millennial who isn't a very special case about their childhoods, and they'll share very specific things. Like literally this political or social event happened, or this band existed, or this show makes me feel happy to be three years old again. There's nothing in the world that makes me feel like Facts of Life or One Day at a Time (it's not always good, honestly it's sometimes creepy, like there's dead people or a propaganda field around me) and a lot of 90s babies will say that about iCarly or some shit. We experienced nostalgia and commercialism in a similar happy and disturbing way. No one said it was superior - that crap is reserved for Baby Boomers, 80s babies often like to brood upon how they were raped by capitalism (like 70s babies, but their experience of digital and Internet was not sufficient to join us).

There's even an ENTIRE SUB-GEN called "X-innails" to basically accommodate 80s babies who remember the world without as much technology and with more white trashy haunted creepy goodness like the 70s kids, but also identify with corporate capitalist entities in a completely sad and involuntary way like 90s babies. I think that's what connects the 80s and 90s though, the utterly involuntary allegiance to popular culture that makes us bitter. People in the 60s and 70s were subjected to it. But they still had more of a choice, or were more likely to have a parent who turned off the four channels on a television.

What I've noticed is smart 80s people are utterly aware of what happened and not-so-smart 80s people are very like Baby Boomers in how awesome and ideal it was. In example, Donald Trump voters.

I'll tell you what biases me more than anything I can't deny, even now as an adult, is the country music of the early 90s. Randy Travis singing "Deeper than the Holler" strikes something so spiritual and innocent in me that I can only share it with my niece who is almost a decade younger than me. Too Close For Comfort isn't like that. That's why I use it in my bio. I feel like whatever happened in the late 70s and early 80s made me who I am and I cherish it, but it also disturbs me in a way that only reminds me of things like drug addiction, suicide, war, and murder.

If you don't "get" that ,you don't "get" the 80s. My ex did and we were together for six years, and I had another relationship for 18 months with someone who "got it." Lana Del Rey "gets it." I feel like who I am is a very hard person to be. I feel like it's easier to be a stupid Trump voter. They idealize the whole thing, but who the hell does that? Who idealizes LA from tip to toe, or idealizes a murder scene even if its in a beautiful happening scene?

Vegans were also bigger in the 80s than the 90s or 70s, and that's reflected in the 2010s with my age group.

I don't know, we are who we are. I guess we are the narcissistic millennials. I'll admit that. The Boomers who were in their 20s and 30s in the 60s are much more narcissistic than people who were young adults in the in the 70s, to the point that younger Boomers like my mom are called "generation Jones" like they're more ordinary. The people who were children in the 80s rather than the 70s or 90s apparently share this conceit.

My grandparents totally reinforced it too. Especially since my parents were such assholes, they were like "yes we're going to buy you every robot and doll and educational toy in existence because your mom and dad were dirty, disgusting hippies." That doesn't leave you.

But neither does growing up in a smaller world with more nature. One of the BIGGEST differences that actually connects 80s Millennials to Gen X is our remembrance of nature, of playing outside, and a much, much smaller world (literally). I guess 90s is included in that somewhat but 90s babies are born at the cusp of a population explosion with children being locked indoors in a paranoid ADHD world.
It is a different world now. But I have hope for the younger generation. Some of them are the sweetest, kindest human beings I ever met. And I certainly do miss days where people actually would vacation on Black Fridays to sky resorts or actually take nature trips outside of malls to enjoy the day after Thanksgiving. I remember playing all the time outside in nature with friends all the time, to catch butterflies, ride down hillsides in the dirt, blow wishes upon dandelions. The air we breathed was so different back then. And the blue skies were truly blue. Now we see haze.

You're so on point about the involuntary commercialism some of us endured as part of the collective pop culture identity. I very much resonate with remember how the Reagan days were with drug crimes and poverty. I grew up in a housing section and remember the prostitution and addiction happening at my neighborhood corner walking to school. And, that's not to mention gang and thug culture. Despite the hardships of growing up in the 80s, I'm amazed that the lack of time that the 90s kids spent with their parents as a whole (for those in working families), children of that generation grew up to be fine adults. And, they're so compassionate and very socially aware of what's going on. It actually makes me proud and happy, overall. Abeit, suicide rates in this generation are also high because of the social disparities, but we also have some of the most vocal leaders of their time one being Greta Thunberg. Some of these kids put some of the older adults to shame. Their parents taught them well. :heart:
 
#8 ·
Aside from cultural and technological stuff, 80s borns are essentially the quintessential Millennials. No matter what part of the decade you were born in, chances are you grew up like a Millennial, whether it be an older Millennial or a core Millennial (no 'young Millennial' was born in the 80s- that would the early part of the 90s). The 80s is only decade that is Millennial without question.

The 70s are arguably the last of Gen X and the 90s are arguably the beginning of Z.
 
#10 ·
:laughing:

I have always thought this twangy ass country song sums it up pretty damn well

I do not get why cusp tail end Y/Z people have such a hard damn time getting the difference
My 15 yr old daughter acknowledges all the time I grew up in a generation that was the last of playing games by street lights at dark

The contrast is huge and apparent when i look at me born in early 80s and my bro born after mid 90s
My mother being the same person was even an entirely different kind of parent with him in his generation
Like way more helicopter for starters and way more politically correct just in that time span

 
#12 · (Edited)
Overprotective parenting has been a thing since the 80s. Read this article to get an idea of what started happening as early as 1983:

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-the-helicopter-parent-2015-7?r=US&IR=T

”In the late 1990s, the first of the Millennial generation began going off to college, and my colleagues and I at Stanford began to notice a new phenomenon — parents on the college campus, virtually and literally.”

It’s gotten steadily worse, but people born in the late 70s & 80s are the first generation to be raised in this ‘my child can do no wrong’ culture, whether they want to admit it or not. Basically the children of Baby Boomers.
 
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