Generations: A Scoop of Gen. X’s Mentalities
By Mohamed Karrem
Writing about a generation like generation X and mentioning their characteristics can fill thousands and thousands of books, but with the assistance of the previous articles, we can mention bits and pieces about how much the big events influenced and shaped their mentalities.
Gen. X childhood
Generation Xers were children at a time when society and government were fully focused on children more than adults, they grew up during the transition era from monarchy to republic, which led them to experience many changes and instability, that’s why they have suffered from the paradox of identity for years, which contributed to shaping such a diehard and skeptical generation full of uncertainty. Witnessing two wars was not an easy aspect to forget, especially if the family got burned by the fire of war, that’s helped to grow the sense of loyalty mixed with enmity with the world, which clarifies the behavior of gen. Xers towards the third party and conspiracy theory.
Money power on Gen. X
Growing up in poverty to prosperity then ending with depression left a huge impact on Gen
One of their best habits is that they used to live in a fortunate life even if they can’t afford it, and this actually makes perfect sense because they grew up in the subsidies and communism era. Eventually, you can tell that gen Xers are more money-driven and striving to get a better life, which was misused by many rulers and politicians.
It was all about education
It’s a little uncanny, that education was the trend at the beginning of the 60s, obviously because it was a new commodity for some classes who were convinced that education is the only way for seeking a better future. Certainly, gen Xers are so rooted in nationalism and Egyptian culture with a significant believe in pan-Arabism, but surprisingly it wasn’t something by nature or habit formation, the regime was working hard on establishing those values by reforming the educational curriculums and the schooling system routine. Self-study is not an option for generation X, they always seek after courses and well-ordered materials with academic references, which will make this article more readable for them.
Gen. X parenting style
Gen. Xers were so lucky for having such a dedicated parent at that time, the authoritative parenting style was so reasonable and nurturing, and set high, clear expectations. Doubtlessly, this style is thought to be most beneficial to children, which relys on many concepts.
- Disciplinary rules are clear and the reasons behind them are explained.
- Communication is frequent and appropriate to the child’s level of understanding.
- Authoritative parents are nurturing.
- Expectations and goals are high but stated clearly.
All these aspects contributed to form Gen.
Gen. X characteristics
In brief, Gen. Xers have many characteristics and attributes such as seeking life balance, formality in work, thinking globally, too adaptable, angry but don’t know why, anti-establishment mentality, the big gap with boomers. In addition, a high degree of loyalty, money-driven, a strong sense of entitlement, skeptical of institutions, work to live, women widely expected to work outside the home, need for structure and direction, skeptical of authority figures and will test authority repeatedly. Nevertheless, work ethic is important, expect to influence the terms and conditions, but apart from all these attributes they either have different beliefs and habits like, most of Gen. Xers are convinced that education is the only way to be successor, they like owning instead of renting. Maybe our Gen. Xers public figures can make a good example to match with the characteristics like Amr Khaled, Hossam Hassan, Ahmed Abou Hashima, Amr Hamzawy, Hisham Abbas, Lamis Elhadidy, Mohamed Henedi, Abeer Sabry, Ghada Abdel Razek.
