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In “Generation X,” the 1991 novel that defined the generation born in the 1960s and 1970s, Douglas Coupland chronicled a group of young adults who learn to reconcile themselves to “diminishing expectations of material wealth.”
1991年出版的小说《X一代》将出生于上世纪六七十年代的人定义为X世代，作者道格拉斯·库普兰德记录了一群年轻人如何学会接受"预期的物质财富逐渐减少"的现实。
Lessness, Mr. Coupland called this philosophy.
库普兰德将这种生活哲学称为“减少主义”。
For many of the Gen X-ers who embarked on creative careers in the years after the novel was published, lessness has come to define their professional lives.
许多X世代在这部小说出版后进入了创意行业，对他们来说，“减少”逐渐成为他们职业生涯的本质特征。
If you entered media or image-making in the ’90s — magazine publishing, newspaper journalism, photography, graphic design, advertising, music, film, TV — there’s a good chance that you are now doing something else for work.
如果你在90年代进入传媒或图像制作领域——杂志出版、报纸新闻、摄影、平面设计、广告、音乐、电影、电视——那么你现在很可能已经在从事其他工作了。
That’s because those industries have shrunk or transformed themselves radically, shutting out those whose skills were once in high demand.
这是因为这些行业已经萎缩或发生了根本转变，一些人的技能在过去有很大的市场需求，现在却被行业拒之门外。
Talk with people in their late 40s and 50s who once imagined they would be able to achieve great heights — or at least a solid career while flexing their creative muscles — and you are likely to hear about the photographer whose work dried up, the designer who can’t get hired or the magazine journalist who isn’t doing much of anything.
如果你与四五十岁的人交谈，他们曾以为自己能攀上事业高峰，或至少能在发挥创造力的同时拥有一份稳定的职业，那么你很可能会听到摄影师说自己的工作来源枯竭、设计师说自己找不到工作、杂志记者说自己无事可做。
Gen X-ers grew up as the younger siblings of the baby boomers, but the media landscape of their early adult years closely resembled that of the 1950s: a tactile analog environment of landline telephones, tube TV sets, vinyl records, glossy magazines and newspapers that left ink on your hands.
X世代是婴儿潮一代的弟弟妹妹，他们年轻时候的媒体格局与20世纪50年代极为相似，那是一个实体的、没有网络的时代：有线电话、显像管电视机、黑胶唱片、光面杂志、会在手上留下油墨的报纸。
When digital technology began seeping into their lives, with its AOL email accounts, Myspace pages and Napster downloads, it didn’t seem like a threat.
当数字技术开始渗入他们的生活，带来AOL电子邮箱、Myspace社交网页、Napster音乐下载器时，这似乎并不构成威胁。
But by the time they entered the primes of their careers, much of their expertise had become all but obsolete.
但当他们步入职业生涯的黄金期时，他们的大部分专业知识几乎都已过时。
More than a dozen members of Generation X interviewed for this article said they now find themselves shut out, economically and culturally, from their chosen fields.
接受本文采访的十几位X世代成员表示，他们现在发现自己在经济和文化上都被排除在自己选择的职业领域之外。
Karen McKinley, 55, an advertising executive in Minneapolis, has seen talented colleagues “thrown away,” she said, as agencies have merged, trimmed staff and focused on fast, cheap social media content over elaborate photo shoots.
55岁的明尼阿波利斯广告业高管卡伦·麦金利表示，随着广告公司合并，精简人员，放弃制作精美的摄影作品，转而制作快速廉价的社交媒体内容，她目睹了许多有才华的同事被"抛弃"。
“Twenty years ago, you would actually have a shoot,” Ms. McKinley said. “Now, you may use influencers who have no advertising background.”
“二十年前，你做的是专业摄影，”麦金利说，“现在，你可能拍的是没有广告背景的网红。”
In the wake of the influencers comes another threat, artificial intelligence, which seems likely to replace many of the remaining Gen X copywriters, photographers and designers.
在网红之后又出现了另一种威胁——人工智能，它很可能取代许多留在行业里的X世代文案撰稿人、摄影师和设计师。
By 2030, ad agencies in the United States will lose 32,000 jobs, or 7.5 percent of the industry’s work force, to the technology, according to the research firm Forrester.
根据福雷斯特研究公司，到2030年，美国广告业的3.2万个工作岗位（占该行业劳动力的7.5%）将被AI取代。
