Zero Hour for Gen X

Zero Hour for Gen X
Author: Matthew Hennessey
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2020-02-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1641770651

In Zero Hour for Gen X, Matthew Hennessey calls on his generation, Generation X, to take a stand against tech-obsessed millennials, apathetic baby boomers, utopian Silicon Valley “visionaries,” and the menace to top them all: the soft totalitarian conspiracy known as the Internet of Things. Soon Gen Xers will be the only cohort of Americans who remember life as it was lived before the arrival of the Internet. They are, as Hennessey dubs them, “the last adult generation,” the sole remaining link to a time when childhood was still a bit dangerous but produced adults who were naturally resilient. More than a decade into the social media revolution, the American public is waking up to the idea that the tech sector’s intentions might not be as pure as advertised. The mountains of money being made off our browsing habits and purchase histories are used to fund ever-more extravagant and utopian projects that, by their very natures, will corrode the foundations of free society, leaving us all helpless and digitally enslaved to an elite crew of ultra-sophisticated tech geniuses. But it’s not too late to turn the tide. There’s still time for Gen X to write its own future. A spirited defense of free speech, eye contact, and the virtues of patience, Zero Hour for Gen X is a cultural history of the last 35 years, an analysis of the current social and historical moment, and a generational call to arms.

Generation X

Generation X
Author: Douglas Coupland
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1991
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780312054366

Three twenty-something young adults, working at low-paying, no-future jobs, tell one another modern tales of love and death.

X Saves the World

X Saves the World
Author: Jeff Gordinier
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2008
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780670018581

Examines the generation that came of age between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials, providing a tribute to its cultural, technological, and political contributions, from Yahoo! and Lollapalooza to Nirvana and Woodstock '94.

Visible Hand

Visible Hand
Author: Matthew Hennessey
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2022-04-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1641772387

To most people, the word "economics" sounds like homework. In Visible Hand, Wall Street Journal op-ed editor Matthew Hennessey brings basic economic principles vividly to life in plain English, without resort to numbers, graphs, or jargon. This isn't Fed policy or the stock market. This is the essential stuff: supply and demand, incentives and tradeoffs, scarcity and innovation, work and leisure. A teenager should be able to discuss these things intelligently. Sadly, too few of us can explain them even in adulthood. Visible Hand equips readers with the essential vocabulary necessary to understand and explain how we make the choices we do. In Hennessey's hands, economics is far from the dismal science. It's the sparkling art of decision making. No homework necessary.

Gen X at Middle Age in Popular Culture

Gen X at Middle Age in Popular Culture
Author: Pamela W. Hollander
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1793617341

Born roughly between 1964 and 1980, Generation X has received much less critical attention than the two generations that precede and follow it: the Baby Boomers and Millennials. This essay collection examines representations of Generation X in contemporary popular culture, including in television, movies, music, and internet sources. Drawing on generational theory, cultural studies theory, race theory, and feminist theory, the essays in this volume consider the past identities of Generation X, relationships with members of younger generations, modern appropriation of Generation X aesthetics, interactions of Generation X members with family, and the existential values of Generation X.

Sofia Coppola and Generation X (So Far)

Sofia Coppola and Generation X (So Far)
Author: Robert C. Sickels
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2024-08-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1793655855

While the work of Sofia Coppola is sometimes dismissed as being stereotypically feminine and placing more focus on spectacle over substance, Sofia Coppola and Generation X (So Far): Anxious and Effervescent draws attention to common characteristics present in Coppola’s films to present an authorial signature and aesthetic that are both familiar yet evocative of Generation X’s perception in the public consciousness. In analyzing Coppola’s films from The Virgin Suicides (1999) to Priscilla (2023), this book argues that her filmography acts as a reflection of her generation’s evolving mindset and self-image from its initial rise to prominence during the late 1980s to its current sentiment of discomfort with its fading influence.

The Cloud Revolution

The Cloud Revolution
Author: Mark P. Mills
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2021-11-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 164177231X

The conventional wisdom on how technology will change the future is wrong. Mark Mills lays out a radically different and optimistic vision for what’s really coming. The mainstream forecasts fall into three camps. One considers today as the “new normal,” where ordering a ride or food on a smartphone or trading in bitcoins is as good as it’s going to get. Another foresees a dystopian era of widespread, digitally driven job- and business-destruction. A third believes that the only technological revolution that matters will be found with renewable energy and electric cars. But according to Mills, a convergence of technologies will instead drive an economic boom over the coming decade, one that historians will characterize as the “Roaring 2020s.” It will come not from any single big invention, but from the confluence of radical advances in three primary technology domains: microprocessors, materials, and machines. Microprocessors are increasingly embedded in everything. Materials, from which everything is built, are emerging with novel, almost magical capabilities. And machines, which make and move all manner of stuff, are undergoing a complementary transformation. Accelerating and enabling all of this is the Cloud, history’s biggest infrastructure, which is itself based on the building blocks of next-generation microprocessors and artificial intelligence. We’ve seen this pattern before. The technological revolution that drove the great economic expansion of the twentieth century can be traced to a similar confluence, one that was first visible in the 1920s: a new information infrastructure (telephony), new machines (cars and power plants), and new materials (plastics and pharmaceuticals). Single inventions don’t drive great, long-cycle booms. It always takes convergent revolutions in technology’s three core spheres—information, materials, and machines. Over history, that’s only happened a few times. We have wrung much magic from the technologies that fueled the last long boom. But the great convergence now underway will ignite the 2020s. And this time, unlike any previous historical epoch, we have the Cloud amplifying everything. The next long boom starts now.

Can't Even

Can't Even
Author: Anne Helen Petersen
Publisher: Mariner Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0358561841

An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials--the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change

Generations

Generations
Author: Jean M. Twenge
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2023-04-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1982181613

A groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the six generations that currently live in the United States and how they connect, conflict, and compete with one another—from the acclaimed author of Generation Me and iGen. The United States is currently home to six generations of people: -the Silents, born 1925–1945 -Baby Boomers, born 1946–1964 -Gen X, born 1965–1979 -Millennials, born 1980–1994 -Gen Z, born 1995–2012 -and the still-to-be-named cohorts born after 2012. They have had vastly different life experiences and thus, one assumes, they must have vastly diverging beliefs and behaviors. But what are those differences, what causes them, and how deep do they actually run? Professor of psychology and “reigning expert on generational change” (Lisa Wade, PhD, author of American Hookup), Jean Twenge does a deep dive into a treasure trove of long-running, government-funded surveys and databases to answer these questions. Are we truly defined by major historical events, such as the Great Depression for the Silents and September 11 for Millennials? Or, as Twenge argues, is it the rapid evolution of technology that differentiates the generations? With her clear-eyed and insightful voice, Twenge explores what the Silents and Boomers want out of the rest of their lives; how Gen X-ers are facing middle age; the ideals of Millennials as parents and in the workplace; and how Gen Z has been changed by COVID, among other fascinating topics. Surprising, engaging, and informative, Generations will forever change the way you view your parents, peers, coworkers, and children, no matter which generation you call your own.