11 Things That Once Commanded Respect For Gen X But Are Now Almost Meaningless
Nothing lasts forever.
TheVisualsYouNeed / Shutterstock Gen X was born in the years spanning from 1965 to 1980, making its members between 44 and 59 years old. They’ve traded in skate parks for office jobs, establishing themselves as undeniably grown. Gen Xers are no longer the disillusioned, shaggy-haired rebels they once were. They're now parents who shepherded their kids from school to soccer practice and traded in their flannels for newer flannels. At this stage in the game, many of the things that once commanded respect for Gen X are now almost meaningless.
Technology has advanced so quickly that pretty much anything that was considered cutting-edge during Gen X’s youth is now obsolete. There’s been a sea change in social values. Important cultural markers don’t hold the weight they once did, and now, they’re hidden in Gen X’s collective memory, just like their Sega cartridges, sitting in boxes in their basement along with their hazy recollection of a time long past.
Here are 11 things that once commanded respect for Gen X but are now almost meaningless
1. Earning a college degree
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Earning a college degree once commanded respect for Gen X but now, it’s almost meaningless. Gen X received specific societal messaging that going to college was the only pathway for success. Once they earned a college degree, doors would swing wide open, ready for Gen X to walk right through.
Yet for the generations that have come since, having a college degree doesn’t mean what it once did, and it definitely doesn’t guarantee anyone a job. In response to this shift in the economy, Gen Z are opting out of college, which has become prohibitively expensive. They’re exploring options that stray from the traditional path Gen X was told to take, like getting technical vocational training, so they can land high-paying blue collar jobs.
According to the Pro Tool Reviews’ 2024 U.S. Trade Report, elevator and escalator installers earn an average annual salary of $100,060, making them the highest-paid trade workers in the country. An entry level maintenance worker gets a starting salary of $30,000 a year, yet a senior-level worker can earn $125,000 a year, an income rise of $95,000.
For Gen X, earning a college degree meant they could land a job and make well over a living wage, which just hasn’t been the reality for any generation that followed.
2. Committing to one company for their entire career
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Committing to a single company for their entire career once commanded respect for Gen X, but is now almost meaningless. Workplace culture has been turned on its head, like so many aspects of society that were upended by the pandemic. Employees went from commuting to shuffling from the bedroom to the living room and propping their laptops up on couch cushions for the first Zoom meeting of the day.
Along with the myriad of life-altering changes that 2020 imposed, company loyalty became less important, and job hopping as a strategic move rather than a red flag. The idea that staying at one job forever meant imminent success no longer holds true, while transitioning across organizations seems to have its benefits.
Career coach Hanna Goeft declared that “there’s absolutely a time and place for job hopping, when the average employer raise every year is only 3% and job hopping is the only way to keep up financially in this world.”
“It can be a great strategy to make big financial leaps and increase your earnings, but it can also be harmful if you’re not doing it correctly,” she explained.
Goeft shared what she learned as an executive recruiter, which was that for people who were decades into their careers, “how qualified you are for a job, is less about the specific experience you’ve done in the last couple of years and more about the holistic story you can tell about all of your job experiences. There’s really a sweet spot of time to spend in each role.”
“If you’re not there long enough, you probably haven’t learned enough, you haven’t had enough time to drive impact, but if you’re there for too long, you might be stagnant,” she concluded.
3. Working overtime
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Pushing yourself to the limit and working overtime once commanded respect for Gen X, but now, it’s almost meaningless. Younger generations put much more emphasis on true work-life balance. The idea that you have to hustle and grind to be someone has been replaced by a more even-keeled view. As Gen Z comes of age and rises up in the workplace, they’re actively pushing against overworking. They prioritize mental health and well-being way more than crossing their own boundaries, and they expect employers to provide space and time to do so, along with access to professional support.
As Gen Z career expert Morgan Sanner explains, “The job search should not also be a purpose search.When you’re looking for a job, you should not also be trying to find your identity.”
"It’s okay if you have a job that you just happen to be good at that you get paid for that you don’t love and that the world doesn’t need," she concludes. While Gen X would have never believed that to be true when they were younger, our societal mindset around how much time we should devote to work is rearranging itself for the better.
4. Having a huge CD collection
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Ever since streaming slipped its way into people’s lives, the way we consume media has completely changed. Owning physical CDs is an entirely antiquated hobby, which makes those bulky CD-holders that looked like industrial Trapper Keepers a thing very much of the past.
Having a tall, wobbling tower of CDs stacked next to your TV once commanded respect for Gen X, but now, it’s almost meaningless. The skillset and ingenuity it took to burn a mix CD for your crush is fairly useless, just one more thing Gen X learned that turned out not to matter in the end.
Yet there’s something to be said for holding a music as a physical entity in your hands, for flipping through the album insert and poring over photos and lyrics and liner notes. Owning a CD collection might not command respect for Gen X anymore, but it does allow for nostalgia, which is almost as good.
5. Programming a VCR
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Knowing exactly how to program a VCR once commanded respect for Gen X, but it’s now meaningless. For Gen X kids, being tech savvy enough to operate a VCR put them light-years ahead of their Boomer parents. Watching TV was a defining feature of Gen X’s childhood and being able to program a VCR was a badge of honor that Gen X wore proudly.
The VCR, or videocassette recorder, was invented in the 1950s, yet it didn’t catch fire for decades later, in part because it cost $50,000. In 1977, VHS tapes were released in the U.S., which were used to record home videos, and VHS-format VCRs came along with them.
These cutting-edge machines allowed for rapid rewinding, fast-forwarding and length playtime, and they were every Gen X film buff’s dream come true. Yet the VCR’s reign came to an abrupt end in 1997, when the Digital Versatile Disc, or DVD, was born. By 2006, Hollywood had stopped releasing movies on VHS, making VCRs virtually obsolete. The last VCR was produced in 2016, and the skill set Gen X spent their childhood perfecting became totally irrelevant.
6. Owning an expensive home
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Something that once commanded respect for Gen X but is now almost meaningless is owning an expensive home. While Gen Xers are facing a fair amount of financial instability, looking ahead at their retirement years, they came of age in a time of relative economic stability. They bought houses in the suburbs, big ones, a luxury that millennials and Gen Zers can’t afford.
The average price of a home in the U.S. is $359,099, up 2.6% over the past year, making owning a house prohibitively expensive for anyone who came after Gen X. These generations have starkly different mindsets and values when it comes to money and consumption. According to the 2023 Top 100 Youth Brands study conducted in Australia, Gen Zers can be categorized as “Value Conscious Minimalists.”
Unlike Gen X, Gen Z puts practical purchases first, believing luxury brands are a waste of money. They prioritize saving and budgeting, which makes perfect sense, given the economic instability they’re steeped in. Of those surveryed, 72% reported that their biggest challenges are the rising cost of living and high inflation, 68% always use a budget, 60% save rather than spend, and 55% feel uncertain about their future, which is entirely understandable.
While Gen X was able to buy property, Gen Z and millennials are struggling just to make their monthly rent. Owning a large, expensive home once commanded respect for Gen X, but now, that marker of status is almost meaningless.
7. Wearing a suit to work
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Wearing a suit to work once commanded respect for Gen X but is now almost completely meaningless. Until 2020, going into the office was the normal, 5-day-a-week routine for many, which meant dressing for that particular job. In corporate settings, wearing a suit to work was expected. Yet in the days of Zoom meetings and working from your home office, which was often your couch, the OOTD changed drastically.
Most remote workers made sure they looked presentable on screen but they went completely casual on bottom, since their cameras only captured the top half of their bodies. Wearing a button-down shirt and sweats was seen as work appropriate. It was the 2024 equivalent of a mullet: Business in front, party in the back.
Boomers couldn’t imagine stepping foot in the workplace without a suit and tie. In the 80s and 90s, the power suit reigned supreme, shoulder pads and all. Yet in our age of “the new normal," workplace casual has become the status quo, and wearing a suit to work no longer commands the respect it once did.
8. Collecting Beanie Babies
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Collecting Beanie Babies is an activity that once commanded respect for Gen X but is now almost meaningless. After their introduction at the World Toy Fair in 1993, the Beanie Babies craze ignited, leaving no middle schooler behind. Acquiring those plush animals, full of plastic pellets, bestowed with names like “Legs the Frog” and “Pinchers the Lobster,” was more than a hobby. It was an obsession, a devotion.
Beanie Babies were their own life-force, leading customers to fight in the aisles for a chance to own Peace the Bear, in all his tie-dyed glory, or the Princess Diana Beanie Baby that came out after her death in 1997. For Gen X and the millennials that followed, Beanie Babies were a promise for the future. Someday, their collections would be worth money, like, so much money, but that didn't exactly unfold as planned.
Beanie Babies mastermind Ty Warner poured fuel on this fire in 1995, declaring that the retirement of Lovie the Lamb was a fate that any Beanie Baby could succumb to and collectors should bulk up their army of miniature animals as soon as possible. But on January 1, 1999, Warner introduced 24 new Beanies Babies into the product line and that was that. Collectors were discouraged from buying and Beanie Babies faded from the public consciousness.
As they say, all good things must come to an end, and so, Beanie Babies went the way of pog collections and snap bracelets: Gone but not forgotten.
9. Being out of touch with their emotions
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When Gen X was growing up, keeping their feelings controlled, or at least seeming like they did, was highly valued. They presented themselves as cool, calm, and collected, even when their emotions were raging inside. While appearing unaffected held social capital back in the day, vulnerability and self-awareness are way more important now.
As psychologist Nick Wignall pointed out, not knowing how to process or express how you feel is a sign of low emotional intelligence. “People with low emotional intelligence think about difficult emotions as problems to be solved. This means that anytime a painful mood or emotion comes up, they immediately try to get rid of it,” he says.
“Emotionally intelligent people see emotions as messengers, not threats,” Wignall notes. “The best way to free yourself from painful emotions is to validate them and let them work themselves out instead of trying to control them.”
Gen X pushed their feelings aside, yet that act of emotional repression doesn’t command the same respect it once did. Gen Z prioritizes mental health in a way that no other prior generation has done, making them a deeply self-aware and emotionally intelligent generation.
10. Doing everything on their own
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Doing everything on their own once commanded respect for Gen X, but that attitude is now almost meaningless. For Gen Xers, being the DIY generation went beyond making ‘zines and dyeing their hair all colors of the rainbow. They did it all themselves, because back then, asking for help was equated with showing weakness. Many Gen X kids essentially raised themselves while their parents were at work, which instilled a mindset of going their own way that lasted into adulthood.
Being a lone wolf was celebrated by Gen X, but now, being vulnerable and reaching out for help are seen as acts of strength and connection, which they’ve always been. The blind adherence to rugged individualism is being replaced by an emphasis on teamwork and collaboration.
The National Education Association touched on the importance of working together in the classroom, stating that “Collaborative learning has been shown to not only develop higher-level thinking skills in students, but boost their confidence and self-esteem as well.”
“Group projects can maximize educational experience by demonstrating the material, while improving social and interpersonal skills,” the NEA explained. “Students learn how to work with various types of learners and develop their leadership skills,” which translates into success in the workplace and beyond.
Gen X put immense pressure on themselves to seem self-sufficient, a mindset which is now almost meaningless.
11. Projecting an air of detachment
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For the slacker generation, it wasn’t cool to care. It’s possible that pretending they didn’t have feelings was a self-protective measure or coping mechanism that didn’t pan out so well in the long run. Whatever the underlying reasons were, Gen Xers worked to be emotionally detached, which isn’t as respected as it was back then.
Now, being open and authentic are way more important. While it’s not always easy to live according to those qualities, doing so can make you feel more grounded and more, well, you. As Dr. Sharon Cohen, a relationship and love consultant points out, “In order to live a life that's aligned with your true self, you have to stop thinking about how other people are seeing what you're doing.”
“Until you let go of 'the gallery' of people you imagine are watching you, you will never live your true self,” she explains. “You'll be making decisions based on how you believe other people will react.”
“When you are capable of making decisions in the here and now based on your feelings, what feels good to you, what lights up your life and brings you the most joy, then you are aligned with your truest self,” Dr. Cohen concludes.
Opening up and sharing your true narrative takes courage and strength, which are two things Gen Xers have in spades. They can shed the version of themselves that acted like nothing mattered, and embrace their authentic, vibrant, emotionally resonant selves.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a staff writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.