A blog revival
Back in time for a Boston winter
I’m happy to report that I’m reviving this little blog after a 15-month “visit” elsewhere. In 2017, I decided to try the TinyLetter platform for my personal blogging, but I missed writing a blog with a more defined theme. I also missed the editing options and flexibility provided by WordPress.
The original hook for this blog played on the concept of Generation Jones, the term often used to describe that cohort of people born from 1954 through 1965 who fall between classic Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. In contrast to my professional blog, Minding the Workplace, which often delves into some pretty heavy themes about workplace issues, I wanted Musings of a Gen Joneser to strike a lighter chord. And so, for roughly four years, I used this blog to share personal nostalgia, bits of trivia, and popular culture.
I’m going to retain that emphasis with this revived edition, and I’ll be adding more serious commentary about lifespan issues and adult learning — especially as relevant to members of Generation Jones. I continue to believe that, on balance, our age cohort has experienced and viewed life in ways that are different from our Boomers and Gen Xers friends.
In addition, I may also repost a few writings from my TinyLetter entries, as I think several are worth re-sharing.
I hope you’ll enjoy the return of Musings of a Gen Joneser. Thank you for reading.
Please follow me to TinyLetter!
Hi Everyone,
I launched this little blog four years ago, and during that time I’ve published over 260 entries. I hope you’ve enjoyed the lion’s share of them! I’m now inviting you to follow me to the TinyLetter platform, where I’ll be writing a personal newsletter titled Y Lines starting in September.
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve decreased my posting frequency markedly over the past year. I’ve been very busy, mainly in good ways, but I’ve had to make choices on where to cut back. More substantively, I’ve felt that the format of this blog had run its course for me, and I wanted a platform that was a little more personal and informal.
I recently discovered TinyLetter, a straight-to-inbox social media tool that serves up a blend of personal newsletter, e-mail, and blog style writing. As described by Teddy Wayne for the New York Times, TinyLetter is something of a digital throwback:
We now find ourselves in the era of the personal email newsletter, an almost retro delivery system that blurs borders between the public and the private, and mashes up characteristics of the analog and digital ages.
Thanks to, among other services, TinyLetter, a division of the email marketer MailChimp, people who want to apprise a subscriber base of their thoughts and goings-on have a new, straight-to-inbox outlet.
My TinyLetter will be Y Lines (subscribe here for free), and it will mix pop culture observations, book/TV/movie recommendations, nostalgic remembrances, travel experiences, more serious reflections about life at middle age, thoughts about lifelong learning, occasional history and politics, and personal updates. (I’ll continue to save most work-related topics for my professional blog, Minding the Workplace, which is in its ninth year.) I’ll be sending missives from four to six times a month. I’ll post some of them to my Facebook page, too.
In the meantime, I’ll be keeping this blog available for those who want to look at previous entries and for that steady trickle of folks (still around 200+/month) who find it via a search engine.
I’m very grateful for your readership here. I hope you’ll follow me to Y Lines and the TinyLetter format! It’s free, easy, and you can unsubscribe without hassle.
With many thanks and best wishes,
David
Welcome, dear readers!
Me in a bookstore. Where else? (Photo: Sharon Franklin Driscoll)
Welcome to Musings of a Gen Joneser, my personal blog especially for late Baby Boomers and early Generation Xers.
“Generation Jones” is the term coined by television producer, director, and writer Jonathan Pontell to capture that group of people born between 1954 and 1965. We’re between two well-defined generations, and our life experiences — on the whole, at least — are different than those of classic Baby Boomers and Generation Xers.
Years before I had heard the term Generation Jones, I referred to my age cohort as the ‘tweener generation. I felt that we didn’t quite fit in with the prevailing characterizations and timelines of the Boomers and Gen Xers. And now that we’re decisively into our middle years, I think we have some unique perspectives, insights, and observations worth sharing.
I don’t mean to sound all that earnest. This blog will serve up plenty of trivia and pop culture, in addition to the serious stuff. And I’ll use this as an excuse to share personal stories as well. I plan to be writing from here at least once a week, and I hope you’ll enjoy what I have to offer.
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A few words of introduction: I’m a law professor, active blogger, and activist, and I live in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. I was born in 1959, which puts me right in the heart of Generation Jones! If you’d like to learn a bit more, I’ve included some brief biographical information on my About page.
Musings of a Gen Joneser 
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