Generation X - confident, arrogant and everything else..

[fineleg]

I think girls from Gen X are hotter than earlier generations and that's all that matters to me

Have you forgotten Zeenat?

[Gambit]

In my post, the Gen X people I am going to refer to would be kids who were just starting secondary school in the mid to late nineties. There is no doubt that Gen X is more confident, brash even, compared to previous generations. The proliferation of Americana in our country has contributed a great deal to this change. It's had it's positives and negatives. On the bright side, kids today are more assertive, more questioning of the ideals, the people and the world around them and more broad minded. Girls have started to groom themselves much earlier now. For example, IMO, in the late 80s and early 90s, most of the school girls didn't really give a damn about their physical appearances. They were late bloomers in that, only when they turned 20-22 were they more aware of their girly traits and indulged in makeup and personal grooming. Thanks to things like Sex and the City, the American kiddie sitcoms dubbed in Hindi that come on the disney channel etc, girls nowadays look after themselves by the ages of 12-13 and look absolutely stunning by 15-16. :top: The cons of this metamorphosis are that Gen X border on the disrespectful at times. Swearing in English is cool but swearing in Hindi is sadak chaap. You are not in if you haven't listened to the latest RATM album but you are soooooooo gawar if you listen to Jagjit Singh. They try and distance themselves from their innate Indianness, make fun of their own customs and language but unquestionably adopt everything western.

[Predator_05]

Thanks to things like Sex and the City' date=' the American kiddie sitcoms dubbed in Hindi that come on the disney channel etc, girls nowadays look after themselves by the ages of 12-13 and look absolutely stunning by 15-16. :top:.[/quote'] I never knew that Sex in the City was broadcast in India. A bit too risque...i was sure Indian uncles and aunties would suffer cardiac arrests due to the title itself, let alone the content. But i see what you mean. The last time i was in India, i visited my niece's school and noticed that Indian school-girls in their mid-teens had a lot less hair on their legs compared to the girls i went to class with back in the day

[Lurker]

In my post' date=' the Gen X people I am going to refer to would be kids who were just starting secondary school in the mid to late nineties. [b']There is no doubt that Gen X is more confident, brash even, compared to previous generations. The proliferation of Americana in our country has contributed a great deal to this change. It's had it's positives and negatives.

I had a very interesting discussion on a similar subject yesterday. Was having lunch with my Project Manager and a colleague of his. Now these two chaps are pretty senior, about 25-30 years in IT experience and both have had launched IT companies in their time and sold it later. So lets just say they have a good IT background. The discussion started when one of the men talked about how he hired a young recruit for a pretty hefty salary. The newbie shows up, works for a day, then comes to his office tells him "Its too tough, I dont want to do it" and resigned promptly. Now this is a situation in US but I hear similar situation the world over, including India. Newbies are quick to jump ship simply because there was way too much requirements in area like IT. However what was telling was the next comment made by these folks. It was, to paraphrase - Worst part of 2 decades where simply the quality is falling while quantity is in abundance. From IT perspective I know where he was coming from. Most tools today are far more advanced than it was say 10 years back. If then you worked on Oracle 7 now you work on Oracle 11g. 11g has lot more features and theoretically you should be able to have a massive return on investment(as compared to 7) but you will keep hearing on how more projects fail these days than those that take off. My point is, this whole oppertunity thing doesnt make me look at confidence at all. It is just that - oppertunity. Confidence is one's faith in one's ability. Like Kishore having the faith that he could sing the toughest of song without any musical training(a la Chingari koi bhadke). Confidence is NOT young talents jumping from Saregamapa to Indian Idols to whatever else and then going into oblivion the next year. xxx

[Guest dada_rocks]

Confidence== No fear of failure.. today's youth fit the bill well here

[TheBoyPlunger]

Personally I don't think there is any sea-change as far as confidence is concerned. No. If my generation does much better than my Dad's, it is not because my Dad is any less confident than I am. Not at all. It is more to do with oppertunities that our generation has, which they did not. But since when did "oppertunity" become the same as "confidence"?

I agree it has more to do with opportunities than confidence, the confidence being just a product of the increased opportunities . Another aspect could be that our Dad's generation probably did have a colonial hangover or they went onto the rebellious diametrically opposite view wherein they hated the West(atleast in the socialist 1960 - 1980 period).

A good example that comes to mind is say there are two chaps, same age. One from Mumbai other from a smaller town. Would the latter be any less confident than the former since Mumbai has more oppertunities? NO. Quite frankly there is a good chance that the lad from the smaller town may actually have more confidence since he has to make his way up the ladder and had real life experiences on the way. Yes the lad from Mumbai might have access to latest video games, McDonald, rap clothing etc but is that what confidence is? I hope not. xxx

True test of character is during the periods of adversity. Has Gen X been tested yet(forget Gen Y) - No, and IMO they will probably fare as good/bad as the previous generation.