It should not be news to you that the term “slacker” is used interchangeably with Generation X. Whether you look at Douglas Copeland’s work or watch “Reality Bites“….you will see where the term originated as we stormed through our twenties.
Although I still have a bit of resentment about boomers coining this label for my generation, I still find myself sentimentally attached to it. I must also admit that I like the irony of it now….
As my generation enters middle age we look around and suddenly see ourselves in positions of power. Board chairs, upper management, executives….quietly making important decisions, shaping our communities, and visioning where we want more change. Yet we still identify as being the other person, the person outside the group of power and we retain our fierce distrust of authority, our love of irony and our celebration of everything outside of convention. Here we are, reading the NYT on our iPhones while we are at our kids’ soccer games, drinking our triple grande soy latte’s in a recycled cup, joking about the “man” and how he’s got us down….while uncomfortably giggling at the irony of it all. Our generation loves and embraces irony more than any prior or since so we view our seemingly incongruity with humor and un-attachment. Yes folks, we have begun to take charge but we remain steadfast in our slacker reality bites roots. And let me remind you, that is perfectly ok.
We must retain our attachment to the word slacker. We still look for easier & better ways of doing things, getting the same result with less effort. We still mock all that is convention while recognizing that we are now part of it, we still scoff and roll our eyes when those steeped in tradition can’t see value in new, we still appreciate the irony of sitting in positions of power when we don’t identify as one of “them”. If we lose these very characteristics of our generation, we assimilate. This is our time, embrace our roots and keep making change, my fellow slackers.
