The Generation Game ~ by Jay

Lisa Belkin has a new blog over at the Times, and she recently caught some flack for tagging parenting styles to generational differences ("slacker" Gen X parents vs "overachieving" Boomer parents). In response, she posted this little quiz, created by workplace blogger Penelope Trunk, drawing on the research of Margret Weigel. It includes reference to a demographic I had never heard of before, but to which I apparently belong: Generation Jones, those of us born between 1956 and 1965. Too young to really be Boomers, not young enough to be X. But Trunk maintains that the real generational marker is how much digital media you use regularly. Hmm.

Here's mine:
Do you have your own Web page? (1 point) Yup. (It doesn't say it has to be up-to-date)

Have you made a Web page for someone else? (2 points) Um, nope.
Do you IM your friends? (1 point) Yup. Not many of them, but some.
Do you text your friends? (2 points) Yup. Assuming my husband counts as a friend (and, actually, I've texted other people, too. Hell, I think I should get a point for using "text" as a verb).
Do you watch videos on YouTube? (1 point) Doesn't everyone? I didn't watch any of the debates on actual TV.
Do you remix video files from the Internet? (2 points) Didn't even know that was an option.
Have you paid for and downloaded music from the Internet? (1 point) As we speak.
Do you know where to download free (illegal) music from the Internet? (2 points) I know where. I haven't done it, but I know where it is.
Do you blog for professional reasons? (1 point) Can't decide. It's not part of my job, and since it's not connected to my real name, I'm saying no.
Do you blog as a way to keep an online diary? (2 points) Yes.
Have you visited MySpace at least five times? (1 point) I don't think so. I don't have a MySpace page and I think I've only been there once or twice to check out singers.
Do you communicate with friends on Facebook? (2 points) Yes, under my real name.
Do you use email to communicate with your parents? (1 point) Whenever possible.
Did you text to communicate with your parents? (2 points) Are you kidding? My mother doesn't even keep her cellphone turned on. "Why should I turn it on? No one ever calls me".
Do you take photos with your phone? (1 point) Yes. I have a very cute photo of Eve at the paint-your-own pottery place from last Sunday.
Do you share your photos from your phone with your friends? (2 points)Again, assuming my husband counts as a friend - but now that I think of it, I sent that photo to someone else, too.
0-1 point - Baby Boomer
2-6 points - Generation Jones
6- 12 points - Generation X
12 or over - Generation Y

My tally is 14 points. Generation Y. For the record, I was born in 1960 - turned 48 last July. Forever young.