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The Gen X Career Meltdown

nytimes.com

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Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#31

Post by fluidcruft »

0xbadc0de5 wrote: post #30
forgetfreeman wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I appreciate the spirit of your comment I don't think you're being entirely fair here. Professional journalists had the ground disappear beneath their feet with no obvious exit strategy. It was even worse for photographers. Sure some managed to tread water for a while by switching to digital workflows but demand for the trade evaporated. I mean, just in our local area something like 200 small businesses we…

We understand that change can be hard. But the article strikes me as a bit self serving and myopic. I seem to remember a distinct lack of compassion from the media when the steel workers and miners were all losing their jobs. The "learn to code" meme started as a flip remark dismissing their plight. Now we have the rust belt.

The rust belt started long before that. So much so that the term itself was coined in '84 by Mondale. And I also think you are fairly incorrect about the media, it's just that the destruction of American manufacturing started happening in the late 60s and 70s and waves after wave of layoffs and downsizing. The transition from an industrial to a service/information economy was handled by the zeitgeist before Gen X's time. There's a reason the linked article isn't talking about people who dedicated their lives to corporations. Gen X has never trusted corporations nor has it ever trusted government institutions.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#32

Post by Smeevy »

jart wrote: post #28
vikingerik wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a cusp between them, birth years '78 to '82. We're the Xennials, also dubbed the Oregon Trail micro-generation. We're the ones who grew up playing that on the Apple IIs in the school computer labs, and the other hallmarks of that tech era like typing in programs from magazines, and then eventually we formed the BBS scene before the internet. We have the best of both ways regarding technology. We use it and we…

I was born in 1984 and I consider that part of the Oregon Trail generation because I played Oregon Trail in school as a child. I didn't get my first computer until 1998. Before that I rode my bicycle around, watched nickelodeon where half the airtime was commercials, played with pogs, and life sucked! I was about as unhappy a child as you can imagine before I found the Internet and programming. Everything the tech in…

"Everything" is a pretty big word...

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#33

Post by forgetfreeman »

fluidcruft wrote: post #31
0xbadc0de5 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We understand that change can be hard. But the article strikes me as a bit self serving and myopic. I seem to remember a distinct lack of compassion from the media when the steel workers and miners were all losing their jobs. The "learn to code" meme started as a flip remark dismissing their plight. Now we have the rust belt.

The rust belt started long before that. So much so that the term itself was coined in '84 by Mondale. And I also think you are fairly incorrect about the media, it's just that the destruction of American manufacturing started happening in the late 60s and 70s and waves after wave of layoffs and downsizing. The transition from an industrial to a service/information economy was handled by the zeitgeist before Gen X's t…

> The transition from an industrial to a service/information economy was handled by the zeitgeist before Gen X's time.

That's not entirely accurate. Sure textile mills and foundries were on a downward trend in the 70s and 80s but it wasn't until NAFTA came along that the bulk of manufacturing industries offshored. North Carolina retained it's command of furniture manufacturing and the timber industry was thriving up the eastern seaboard until then.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#34

Post by fluidcruft »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #33
fluidcruft wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rust belt started long before that. So much so that the term itself was coined in '84 by Mondale. And I also think you are fairly incorrect about the media, it's just that the destruction of American manufacturing started happening in the late 60s and 70s and waves after wave of layoffs and downsizing. The transition from an industrial to a service/information economy was handled by the zeitgeist before Gen X's t…

> The transition from an industrial to a service/information economy was handled by the zeitgeist before Gen X's time. That's not entirely accurate. Sure textile mills and foundries were on a downward trend in the 70s and 80s but it wasn't until NAFTA came along that the bulk of manufacturing industries offshored. North Carolina retained it's command of furniture manufacturing and the timber industry was thriving up…

North Carolina isn't part of the rust belt and NAFTA (94) is ten years after the term "rust belt" was coined (84) so it seems pretty inaccurate to think that NAFTA had anything to do with the emergence of the rust belt. It certainly contributed and accelerated the decline, but if it's already so bad that politicians are calling it the "rust belt" ten years prior to what you claim is the clause, there's an accuracy problem with the narrative.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#35

Post by joshstrange »

ohnoitsahuman wrote: post #6

Gen X here. This author found the marginally productive people who can't read the room and adjust. Us punk kids who photocopied their 'zines are doing just fine because we paid attention and moved on and then moved on again. And the kids say: "skill issue, get gud"

I’m not Gen X but every time I read these types of stories I feel the same way. You have to adapt and grow or you die, simple as that. People that think learning ends when school ends annoy the hell out of me as do people who think it’s reasonable to expect a job to always exist, be the same, and pay the same.

Times change, you can change with it or be broken by it. It’s a choice and people who make the choice to not grow, and then complain about it, frustrate me.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#36

Post by quickslowdown »

jart wrote: post #28
vikingerik wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a cusp between them, birth years '78 to '82. We're the Xennials, also dubbed the Oregon Trail micro-generation. We're the ones who grew up playing that on the Apple IIs in the school computer labs, and the other hallmarks of that tech era like typing in programs from magazines, and then eventually we formed the BBS scene before the internet. We have the best of both ways regarding technology. We use it and we…

I was born in 1984 and I consider that part of the Oregon Trail generation because I played Oregon Trail in school as a child. I didn't get my first computer until 1998. Before that I rode my bicycle around, watched nickelodeon where half the airtime was commercials, played with pogs, and life sucked! I was about as unhappy a child as you can imagine before I found the Internet and programming. Everything the tech in…

I grew up on a computer, I was a child around the time you're describing, but was on the Internet & toying around on the computer. It kicked off a lifelong passion for technology & computers.

I would be hard pressed to say computers & the Internet are a net positive for the world. For me personally, they unlocked a passion & interest I haven't been able to find in any other domain. I have plenty of other interests & loves, but anything to do with computers is my passion.

For the rest of the species, where a computer is either a means to an end, a necessary evil, or a way to brainwash yourself, I don't view computers as something beneficial. The undiscerning get sucked into YouTube black holes & allow themselves to be swept up by bullshit they read on Twitter. It gave a platform to the absolute worst people among us, which would be fine if people would reject the garbage they're spouting.

Our collectively stupid ape brains aren't ready for computers. I believe we (the royal "we") moved too fast & poisoned our shared, objective reality. And that's all before I even start talking about the people intentionally making life worse with technology. Your Zuckerbergs & Musks & Ellisons, the people who use these machines as tools to spread suffering & chaos.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#37

Post by margalabargala »

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #15
margalabargala wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A stupid person might genuinely write such an article. A smart person might cynically write such an article, knowing the topic would draw eyeballs and thus money.

Ah so authentic = stupid manipulative = smart

I don't think so, no, I was just applying the framework proposed in the comment I replied to.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#38

Post by margalabargala »

n_ary wrote: post #23

So, “previously a shoot would cost 5-figure […] now a kid can do it for $500”. “Soon we will no longer need musicians, due to rise of AI”. “If a director can do it with AI writing I want X, Y, Z” A strange pattern. In all three cases, are we getting a 1:1 quality or we are so lost in age of cheap quality that those does not matter? I for one would not buy anything or pay a subscription fee, where the photo or the mus…

> So, “previously a shoot would cost 5-figure […] now a kid can do it for $500”.

In terms of 1:1 quality, I think that probably is the case here, at least for what is being measured.

These photoshoots are for marketing. The yardstick against which they are being measured, is effectiveness at marketing, not critical acclaim or depth of plot.

The format that most efficiently and effectively reaches the intended audience, is the "highest quality", which yes does mean that purchasing 20 videos from assorted freelance tiktok marketers is more than "1:1 quality" with a single video that costs 20x as much.

I take your overall point but the primary purpose of marketing has always been to influence consumers. This is not the loss of some high art form.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#39

Post by WorldPeas »

As a member of Gen Z who grew up with cultural artefacts assembled by these people, I feel very much sympathy for their plight. I do not know why but this article gave me a memory of when I would read the funny pages and use my putty egg to take the pictures ink out and stamp them on paper. I remembered the witty computer articles that got me interested in the stuff at first, the thoughtfully made CDR games I played on my G4, the music and television they made that was so enjoyable. It seems with the loss of these people we're losing the tangibility of our culture, with it it's humanity, it's intentionality. Nowadays so many glyphs, stills and media are meant to just be eye-catching and appealing to some shared understanding, versus this identity that so many brands once had, that there was a feeling that someone was trying, granting you some comprehensive vision.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#40

Post by WorldPeas »

ohnoitsahuman wrote: post #6

Gen X here. This author found the marginally productive people who can't read the room and adjust. Us punk kids who photocopied their 'zines are doing just fine because we paid attention and moved on and then moved on again. And the kids say: "skill issue, get gud"

Sometimes in life there is a great delay between the FA and the FO
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