Generation X treasured time

A generation focus point.

This might well be linked to me working in client-servicing, but there is a buzz word, or buzz expression should I say, that keeps on being proclaimed around me: "buy some time!".

I like this expression. Not only because you cannot translate into my mother-tongue without being stared at. Not only because I do need to buy some time for my numerous projects... But because of all these generational values it conveys.

I have just turned 30, and I have realised that my relationship to Time has evolved over the years. I start looking backward with nostalgia, looking forward with interrogation... And I don't feel alone on this path. If money was the key in the 80s, I have the feeling that Time has replaced it today, becoming even more valuable for our generation, the Generation X.

Time is today's ultimate luxury.

We live in a fast-pace environment. Everything is instantaneous, or is expected to be. So why are we running after the time to the point that we are even ready to "buy" it? For a new kind of freedom maybe. The Generation X has challenged the ideals our parents were ready to fight for. We have blended their will for another consumption society into their own parent's "work for subsistence".

We now work for our "time subsistence": we work to consume our time as we want.

The consequence is that Time has become a good. And the vocabulary if full of commercial expressions to illustrate this situation: time can be wasted, offered... bought! Free time has a cost. It needs to be earned with painful efforts. However we are no longer ready to work an entire life to finally indulge ourselves in retirement. Remember we are a fast-pace generation. We want to benefit from it now.

In France with the 35 working-hour week, this trend is even more obvious. People cannot wait until the traditional summer holidays. They want to spend their well-deserved free time. No time-savings. And the vacations become more numerous, though shorter. The generation X life becomes a necklace of small precious free moments.

Time is Generation X best friend. Time is a diamond that nevertheless does not last forever.