Generation X. Slacker. Dazed and Confused. Reality Bites. The lost generation taking five years to graduate from college.

Isn’t it funny how sociologists and historians try to pin a single stereotypical catch-phrase on generations? We hear it all the time: baby boomers, Generation X and now even Generation Y.

Most of us, as college students, are classified in the Generation X category. Generation X includes people born between the years 1965 and 1976. The name originated from the title of a 1991 book written by Douglas Coupland, and now over 44 million individuals are lumped into this category.

The name Generation X seems to be used most often as a synonym for lazy and unfocused. However, as more Gen-Xers get older and are forced to enter the “real world,” the older generations are finding the usual stereotypes don’t fit quite.

We Gen-Xers aren’t just slackers and cynics. In fact, according to a Time Magazine article from last year, we are “X-citing, X-igent, X-pansive” with “great X-pectations.”

This is the new, evolving stereotype of Generation X. Frankly, I’m not sure if all those conveniently “X” sounding words describe us. I’m a part of this generational grouping, and even I’m not sure what it means.

But with the evolving new generalizations, we are being taken more seriously and given a little more respect because we’re getting older, getting jobs and becoming a hot marketing target. Take a look at any commercial on television. (Pepsi: Generation Next? What the hell does that mean?)

They say because we grew up in the 1980s, a time of greed, government failures, economic recession and “Dallas,” we distrust government, are politically apathetic and care more about financial success than either integrity or idealism.

What are the values of Generation X? Are we really more concerned about money than ideology?

There’s been some talk at ISU that this great “Land Grant University” has turned into nothing more than a glorified technical or vocational school. The primary mission seems to be to gear students to get a good job rather than teaching them how to think for themselves. A university should do more than turn out students ready for corporate submission. College is supposedly the time students establish their convictions, their values and their life’s course.

Don’t get me wrong; I think getting a good, lasting job is very important. However, it should be a fulfilling job advancing human kind and not just a corporation’s profit margin. Besides, with the way corporations are downsizing, why would they keep you if you can’t think?

I’m a little disappointed in this Generation X — my generation. I came to college hoping to find people interested in strengthening democracy, discussing ideologies and getting active. Instead, I mostly found people with a linear train of thought — training for that high- paying job.

But there’s a spark of hope. Over the past few semesters or so, there has been a stirring of different causes and activism on this campus.

The great thing about this Generation X title bestowed upon us is that we can fill in that X variable ourselves. We don’t have to an apathetic slacker if we don’t want to.

So you don’t have to dazed and confused, aimlessly passing the time in yet another college semester.

Become politically or socially active. Lend someone a hand. Find out more about life than the sterile history books and sociology classes teach us. Explore who you are and what you really want in life.

Don’t let some commercial or Hollywood movie tell you what that X means.

Find out for yourself.

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Jonquil Wegmann is a senior in community and regional planning from Bellevue.