so i saw this 'what generation are you' quiz.....
...courtesy of penelope trunk's blog. it's a quiz written back in 2007 to tell you if you're a baby boomer, gen x, gen y, or gen jones (jones being people born between 1954-1965; they are considered a unique group, a mini generation that straddles the baby boom and gen x, with aspects of both and their own unique perspective and reactions).
i was born in 1961, so i fall into this 'unique' group (as do my sister and brother). while i find the questions interesting (they're technology-based), i also find them specious; the quiz is simplistic and is an incomplete tech-slanted picture. that's just the scientist in me talking ;-).
here's the test, my answers, where i fell, and where i truly think i belong. thought i'd throw my fave slashboys up there as my icon for this post, since they too fall into the 10-year gen jones period as well. yet another reason i loves me some jon and stephen....<3
Do you have your own web page? (1 point) y
Have you made a web page for someone else? (2 points) n
Do you IM your friends? (1 point) y (sometimes)
Do you text your friends? (2 points) y
Do you watch videos on YouTube? (1 point) y
Do you remix video files from the Internet? (2 points) n
Have you paid for and downloaded music from the Internet? (1 point) y
Do you know where to download free (illegal) music from the Internet? (2 points) n
Do you blog for professional reasons? (1 point) n
Do you blog as a way to keep an online diary? (2 points) y
Have you visited MySpace at least five times? (1 point) n
Do you communicate with friends on Facebook? (2 points) y
Do you use email to communicate with your parents? (1 point) n
Did you text to communicate with your parents? (2 points) n
Do you take photos with your phone? (1 point) y
Do you share your photos from your phone with your friends? (2 points) n
0-1 point - Baby Boomer
2-6 points - Generation Jones
6- 12 points - Generation X
12 or over - Generation Y
(Note: This post contains the views of Trunk and Weigel and not necessarily those of Harvard and MIT.)
----------
see....why did i do this? i feel i must explain.
i've been dwelling on turning 50 since this past april. i know i'm at the tail-end of the baby boomer group, but also knew that some definitions of gen x also included 1961, which i found confusing - some aspects of gen x fit me, but most do not. i decided to take this test after doing a google search about what generation i fell into given my birthdate. just some idle speculation to see how young i could convince myself i still was.
my biggest problem with this is that it was written in 2007. i'd love to see an updated one.
finally, obligatory disclosure: i've got a BS and MS in comp sci and i'm a UNIX sysadmin/Oracle DBA, so i'm not the average 1961 person...though i haven't worked now in 1 1/2 years (which is yet another depressing story i don't want to get into).
i scored an 11, which places me in gen x. which, if you knew me, you'd know i'm not a gen x person (i'm just NOT the MTV generation, though there is a lot of gen x in me in terms of musical genres). the cold war ITSELF defines me more than the fall of the berlin wall. there *were* no home computers until i was an adult. so all of that - so NOT gen x. yet a lot of gen x is me...the internet has been a part of my life since college, i remember challenger's horrific accident vividly, cable tv, videogames, AIDS...all of these things define me.
as for baby boomer - "cohort #1 (1946-1955)" memorable events that impacted me: assasination of MLK, 1st man on the moon, civil rights, women's rights, LGBT rights, environmental movement ('earth day'), beatles, motown, psychedelic colors/blacklights, pot, long hair/'earth mother' clothes. "cohort #2 (1956-1964)" memorable events that impacted me: watergate, nixon's resignation, the cold war, abortion rights, lowered drinking age, the vietnam war, raging inflation, the gas shortage, the energy shortage/oil embargo, carter reinstituting registering for the draft. all of these things.
so a fusion is truly appropriate - the 'gen jones' idea.
the comment about gen jones in wiki - "Key characteristics: less optimistic, distrust of government, general cynicism." - is *exactly* me. so take a lot of the baby boom, a lot of gen x, mix in the glass half-empty, total distrust of authority and cynicism in general - and yeah. i'm gen jones.
right now, i've got downstairs: my husband, my teenage daughter, her friend who is staying with us, my teenage niece, and my niece's bf who is visiting. and, as usual, there's a gap. i feel my years (though not my age, strangely, which i'm glad about) - but there is such a wistful wonder at watching three teens and a 20 year old with their lives in front of them from the viewpoint of being 50. but i'll quote someone far more elegant than i to express how i feel about that:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
i have moved on. and they are just starting.
now...time to go downstairs and wait for david to come back home with the chinese food we ordered for dinner...
i was born in 1961, so i fall into this 'unique' group (as do my sister and brother). while i find the questions interesting (they're technology-based), i also find them specious; the quiz is simplistic and is an incomplete tech-slanted picture. that's just the scientist in me talking ;-).
here's the test, my answers, where i fell, and where i truly think i belong. thought i'd throw my fave slashboys up there as my icon for this post, since they too fall into the 10-year gen jones period as well. yet another reason i loves me some jon and stephen....<3
Do you have your own web page? (1 point) y
Have you made a web page for someone else? (2 points) n
Do you IM your friends? (1 point) y (sometimes)
Do you text your friends? (2 points) y
Do you watch videos on YouTube? (1 point) y
Do you remix video files from the Internet? (2 points) n
Have you paid for and downloaded music from the Internet? (1 point) y
Do you know where to download free (illegal) music from the Internet? (2 points) n
Do you blog for professional reasons? (1 point) n
Do you blog as a way to keep an online diary? (2 points) y
Have you visited MySpace at least five times? (1 point) n
Do you communicate with friends on Facebook? (2 points) y
Do you use email to communicate with your parents? (1 point) n
Did you text to communicate with your parents? (2 points) n
Do you take photos with your phone? (1 point) y
Do you share your photos from your phone with your friends? (2 points) n
0-1 point - Baby Boomer
2-6 points - Generation Jones
6- 12 points - Generation X
12 or over - Generation Y
(Note: This post contains the views of Trunk and Weigel and not necessarily those of Harvard and MIT.)
----------
see....why did i do this? i feel i must explain.
i've been dwelling on turning 50 since this past april. i know i'm at the tail-end of the baby boomer group, but also knew that some definitions of gen x also included 1961, which i found confusing - some aspects of gen x fit me, but most do not. i decided to take this test after doing a google search about what generation i fell into given my birthdate. just some idle speculation to see how young i could convince myself i still was.
my biggest problem with this is that it was written in 2007. i'd love to see an updated one.
finally, obligatory disclosure: i've got a BS and MS in comp sci and i'm a UNIX sysadmin/Oracle DBA, so i'm not the average 1961 person...though i haven't worked now in 1 1/2 years (which is yet another depressing story i don't want to get into).
i scored an 11, which places me in gen x. which, if you knew me, you'd know i'm not a gen x person (i'm just NOT the MTV generation, though there is a lot of gen x in me in terms of musical genres). the cold war ITSELF defines me more than the fall of the berlin wall. there *were* no home computers until i was an adult. so all of that - so NOT gen x. yet a lot of gen x is me...the internet has been a part of my life since college, i remember challenger's horrific accident vividly, cable tv, videogames, AIDS...all of these things define me.
as for baby boomer - "cohort #1 (1946-1955)" memorable events that impacted me: assasination of MLK, 1st man on the moon, civil rights, women's rights, LGBT rights, environmental movement ('earth day'), beatles, motown, psychedelic colors/blacklights, pot, long hair/'earth mother' clothes. "cohort #2 (1956-1964)" memorable events that impacted me: watergate, nixon's resignation, the cold war, abortion rights, lowered drinking age, the vietnam war, raging inflation, the gas shortage, the energy shortage/oil embargo, carter reinstituting registering for the draft. all of these things.
so a fusion is truly appropriate - the 'gen jones' idea.
the comment about gen jones in wiki - "Key characteristics: less optimistic, distrust of government, general cynicism." - is *exactly* me. so take a lot of the baby boom, a lot of gen x, mix in the glass half-empty, total distrust of authority and cynicism in general - and yeah. i'm gen jones.
right now, i've got downstairs: my husband, my teenage daughter, her friend who is staying with us, my teenage niece, and my niece's bf who is visiting. and, as usual, there's a gap. i feel my years (though not my age, strangely, which i'm glad about) - but there is such a wistful wonder at watching three teens and a 20 year old with their lives in front of them from the viewpoint of being 50. but i'll quote someone far more elegant than i to express how i feel about that:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
i have moved on. and they are just starting.
now...time to go downstairs and wait for david to come back home with the chinese food we ordered for dinner...