As baby boomers and millennials headlines, the lost generation X asks, "What about us?

According to them, their generation has made countless contributions to society. He produced Kurt Cobain and MTV. Given the world the VCR, Nintendo and the Brat pack.

So why, they wonder, can not they be respected?

With a seemingly endless stream of attention lately, Generation X and the aging baby boomers, Generation X, this group of young people (ages 39 to 54), felt forgotten, misunderstood and, frankly, a little left out.

Storms on Twitter have swept the Internet, and the Xers have filed complaints about actual and perceived affronts. Others have gathered on Facebook or around the office water points to lament the phenomenon, their conversations inevitably settling on a single issue.

"What about us?" Asks Scott Latham, a professor of strategy at the University of Mbadachusetts Lowell and, at age 48, an official member of the left-behind generation. "We are simply ignored in all areas."

Experts and researchers have systematically neglected them, inadvertently or not. The mainstream media have also been indifferent. A Nexis research in US newspapers last month reveals 1,372 references to the millennials, 486 to the baby boomers. . . and a whopping 79 for the Xers.

In the latest outrage, the Xers were visibly forgotten from a recent CBS News chart that included the Silent Generation (born 1928-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Millennials (1981-1996) and the post-millennia (since 1997). ) – a light that has left several Gen-Xers grumbling in their smartphones.

Twitter user smoked: "Generation X was apparently out of the building during a call, probably too busy caring for an elderly parent while sending an Uber to a jobless child of the millennium."

The problem, perhaps, is that the generation does not generate many strong feelings, one way or another. Boomers have the merit of changing American culture in the 1960s and emptying social security as they age. Millennials are considered autonomous by some and self-sufficient by others. Each one inspires love and disdain but, apparently, not much between the two.

If baby boomers are a chocolate malt and millennia a vegan strawberry ball with organic nuggets, the Xers are tender vanilla, nature, in a cone.

Even the Xers themselves, when in a hurry, seem to be only lukewarm about their generational affiliation. According to a MetLife study conducted in 2013, just 41% of Generation X members identified themselves as such. And in 2010, when the Pew Research Center asked Generation X members that they felt their generation was unique, only half of them responded in the affirmative, which is significantly lower than baby boomers and millennials.

Steve Koczela, chair of the MbadINC voting group, recently asked participants to list the qualities of his generation. He remained silent for a few seconds.

"It's a good question," he said. "A good question. . . "

Part of the attention deficit that X-ers think is just numbers. This is a smaller group than the baby boomers or the Y generation, with about 66 million people, according to Pew, compared to 74 million for baby boomers and 71 million for generation Y.

Many were also bred to avoid the spotlight. As a generation that became major as a result of a divorce that ravaged the American family, many learned autonomy from an early age – and maintained a sort of Belichick resolution up to middle age.

"Get up, do your job, do not make a stink, do not do a scene," said Kim Ring Allen, a Gen-Xer member and marketing professor at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University.

The lack of generational identity may also be due to another reason: at a time when most Generation X members were becoming adults, there were simply not many people in the family. world.

"With baby boomers, there was a lot of ferment in the 1960s – cultural, racial, political – and a young, lively generation was part of it," says Paul Taylor, author of "The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown "- a title that visibly omits the Xers." And the millennial generation … when this generation matured, they were the first to acquire the technology. "

"It's hard to find some kind of powerful or historical force that existed when the Xers reached adulthood."

Of course, even though baby boomers and millennials have made headlines and attracted attention, some Xers insist that they are perfectly happy to fly under the radar.

"To be honest, I'm happy to let baby boomers and millennials fight," said Danielle Perry, a Xer-gen and an accountant at Braintree. "They can fight to find out who is ruining the world."

As more than X have pointed out, generational generalizations much more often target the weaknesses of a particular group than its virtues.

"Baby boomers are known for their insatiable greed in the '80s and the millennials are still on the phone," says Rob "Hardy" Poole, a local radio personality. "I shuddered thinking that Generation X members could be labeled with a 10-second biting sound."

Despite the lack of attention, it should be noted that Generation X has a quiet say.

A restart of "Beverely Hills 90210" is underway. And as a nod to 80s entertainment, arcades are back in fashion – A4Cade and Kings Dining and Entertainment are recent local examples.

And perhaps more particularly, the Xers' children began to embrace some of the fashion trends that were popular when their parents grew up, from velvet scrunchies to body suits.

Is it possible, then, that the Xers are on the verge of a late emergence? Is it a sign that the wind is turning, that the forgotten generation could finally make its way into the national consciousness?

Maybe not.

Asked recently about what he knew about Gen X, Tommy Armenta, a 20-year-old Northeast student, looked puzzled.

"I mean that they are before the Z generation?"

[email protected] can reach Dugan Arnett. Follow him on Twitter @duganarnett.