I only wrote about Generation X because I thought the hoopla surrounding it was officially dead.

Evidently not. There are those who still whine that our time to bask in the media's spotlight was all too brief. 

Gawd, the above link connects to an article that is such dreck. It embodies everything I hate about the idea of Generation X.

Not only does Weisbard, the author, assess all of an entire generation by the pop culture they produce but he doesn't even understand some of the pop culture references he derides:

In Neal  Stephenson's new novel, Cryptonomicon, the hero keeps his bearings — Stephenson, too— by taking Cap'n Crunch to the far corners of the planet. Crunch is a low reference. (Our affection for same is called cheesy, which has to be understood in the near-total absence of non-cheesy reference points unique to us.)

Cap'n Crunch is not a "low reference" to induce "cheesyness" but, I believe, a reference to one of the first phone phreakers - those earlier pioneers of hacking who used to break into phone systems. 

Cap'n Crunch was a moniker of a fellow who learned that by blowing a particular whistle (which could be found in a box of Captain Crunch) into a phone, he could mimic the specific frequency of the tone that would allow the phone to make long distance calls. In a book dedicated to code breaking, such a reference wouldn't be out of place. 

Besides, what's so wrong making mention of a brand name? Our commercialized world is filled with such items. Why shouldn't our literature be likewise?

Incidentally, I'm not the only one to retch at this article; Salon has thoroughly slammed it too. 

Oof. And it gets worse. Evidently we are now feeling Genvy and are preparing to steer today's political agenda as part of something called Generation Jones. 

Just when I thought it was safe.

[links from Rebecca's Pocket]