"... that yielded a slew of now-discarded monikers, many of which focused on technology (the 'Onliners,' 'Generation Surf,' the 'Technos') or gave the next round of humans the burden of undoing the damage done by the last (the 'Regeneration,' 'Generation Hope,' the 'Saviors,' 'Generation Y-not').
One popular option from the survey was 'Generation A,' but, McCrindle told me in an email, he thought the name for a cohort that would shape the future shouldn’t 'be labelled by going back to the beginning.' So once the Latin alphabet was exhausted, he hopped over to the Greek one—'the start of something new.'
A consensus has formed around Generation Alpha, but it may be a temporary one. The generic 'Generation [Letter]' format began with Generation X. 'It was meant to be a placeholder for something a bit uncertain or mysterious, almost like X in some algebraic equation,' [sociology professor Dan] Woodman told me. Generation Y followed, though it was usurped, at least in the U.S., by Millennials; nothing has overthrown Generation Z. Placeholder names, in a way, make generational generalizations easier. 'They’re almost like empty labels that you can put anything in,' Woodman said. He thinks Generation Alpha will stick for at least a little while, but can also see how it might get replaced by something 'a little more descriptive.' The history of generational labeling is littered with names that gained some traction, but not enough. Gen X has been referred to as 'Baby Busters,' the 'slacker generation,' 'latchkey kids,' and the 'MTV Generation,' though the placeholder won out. The same, so far, has been the case for Gen Z, whose proposed alternate names include 'iGeneration,' the 'Homeland Generation,' 'Multi-Gen,' 'Post Gen,' and the 'Pluralistic Generation.'"
I looked up that article because I mentioned Generation Alpha in the podcast yesterday. I was hoping they rebel against the prudery and the repression of the millennials. I said I was talking to them, talking to "babies." Are they they babies of America right now, these people I'm investing my hopes in? Yeah! Babies, those who will be born over the next 5 years, and kids up to the age of 10. What are these people going to be like — after living through the lockdown and witnessing the heightened, hysterical, hypocritical empathy of the millennials.
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It's the equivalent of the world-hating progressive idea of the Year Zero.
I was once told that the X in Generation X was the roman numeral 10, as in tenth generation of the US. A generation being roughly 20 years, thus people born around the bicentennial of the US. Did Australia have a baby boom after WWII? (search...) Yes it did.
"I was hoping they rebel against the prudery and the repression of the millennials."
Good luck with that hope, they are good little Germans, all of them. Generation β is far more appropriate.
I write this as one of the older members of GenX (born 1966), MTV Generation really does nail it for us- it was the most profound social influence on my generation- practically all of us watched MTV and VH1 in our formative teen years. I can't think of a single other unifying social institution that works better.
I think “alpha” as in alpha testing would be an interesting name.
On some level I think this labeling of generations may do more harm then good. It encourages tribalism, envy, resentment, agism, and curmudgeonism. Although I think most of these phenomena are unavoidable whether we collectively decide to label generations or not.
We've all seen terms like "generational theft", "generational wealth gap" and colloquialisms like "OK, Boomer". There are certainly valid arguments behind these ideas. For example, by most measures it's pretty clear that younger cohorts tend to have less wealth than the older cohorts did when they were their age. It's also fairly apparent that younger people today generally seem more irritable and unhappy with the current state of affairs than the older cohert were at their age.
We need to go on beyond zebra
Even before COVID, I'd heard the generation called the "Zoomers."
According to William Strauss and Neil Howe, who inspired a lot of this generation talk, the Millennials were supposed to save us from a crisis happening in the 2020s or 2030s. It's there in the name -- traditionally, the millennium was associated with the end of the world or the coming of the Messiah. The Millennials could still be our saviors -- a lot can happen in the next ten or twenty years -- but there's a feeling that Millennials were too seriously scarred by the 2008 crash and the feeling that they'd end up poorer than their parents.
I looked up that article because I mentioned Generation Alpha in the podcast yesterday. I was hoping they rebel against the prudery and the repression of the millennials.
The people in college now are post-Millennials, aren't they? The ones in the news are rebelling, but fully carrying on the prudery and repression. Maybe that will change, but the 21st century isn't following 20th century patterns. People associated each decade of the last century with different challenges, a different focus, different sensibility, different fashions, different passions. That hasn't been true of the current century, when one decade blurs into the next. Maybe generations are likewise becoming less distinct.
Of course, the dynamic is still at work. Sooner or later, young people get tired of what's going on and take up something new, but they may not do so as a bloc. The changes may not be so clear and well-defined as in the past. Polarization and fragmentation mean that a generation won't speak with one voice or act with one will. When the "crisis" comes, though, who can say how people will react? A serious crisis or threat, though, could make people overcome the divisions and unite to fix things.
What are these people going to be like -
That feral little boy in the old movie, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, the one with the finger-slicing boomerang? Imagine a child like that, but without the movie kid's morals, empathy or family setting. Oh, and with high technology.
I was hoping they rebel against the prudery and the repression of the millennials.
Maybe some of us could go to the polls and vote against it rather than leaving the burden to others?
They should name generations after women, like hurricanes and other weather disasters.
"Generation Alpha" - really? Is that like "Alpha Male" in 'Nature'? You know AA this guy is just writing another worthless article/book to sell wares. Is he the Oprah Winfrey of publishing? Who cares? You want to know the real "Generation Alpha" - all of those immigrants who came to the USA and cleared the land a built this country into the wealthiest and most powerful country in just 170 + years (1776 - 1946). Now those people where fearless!
Generation COVID will at least be based on something real, which would be a first since the Baby Boomers. Or we could just stop it, as it's as meaningless as the Doomsday Clock anyway.
Why this obsession with boxing a “generation” under a trendy name, as a monolith that you can define and differentiate against other straw men? I see it as a toxic byproduct of the marketing constantly being practiced on the general population: segment it, find the best $ payback per capita for your product message, seek to flatter it as “the” pivotal and influential demographic.
Note that these slices are only a few years wide: 5-10 years at most. The implication being, this tranche (at the margin) is not affected much by the adjacent tranches (older and younger), has some internal ideological/cultural cohesion relative to those other tranches. Where is the evidence for such cohesion? It is all/mostly marketing bullshit.
Fight me.
Once, long ago, I was in the Pepsi Generation.
Well, well. This is Year Zero, right? Generation Alpha is certainly fitting, although Gen Alphas embrace huddling in safe zones having proper social distancing, and that is not a good harbinger of future prosperity and success.
I (and only I) call myself Generation Assassination. I'm surprised that no sociologist noted that the Kennedy and King assassinations had an outsized impact on the late-late-Boomer's childhood.
Although Generation Covid is a great name, I don't expect the Powers That Be to recognize the latest influence any more than they recognized mine.
The only cohort that endless obsesses over the generational stuff are the Gen Xers. Ever notice they never mention their silly foibles, but instead just point their fingers up and down to all the other generations? They are a tiresome lot.
"...those who will be born over the next 5 years...what are these people going to be like — "
Ought to be fine. By the time my 1-yo grandson is seven, he'll just wanna ride a bike, play ball, watch cartoons, eat crap and be unaware what a racist little shit he is. I'm already jealous.
The rapid pace of technology is rendering generational changes moot. Advancments in RGN (robotics, genetics, nanotechnology) is is on a hyperbolic upward curve and is far outpacing society's ability to adjust to it. It isn't about generational change, anymore. We are already trying to readjust to changes happening within a decade. Soon it will 5 year, 2 year increments, and shorter timespans. How does society adjust to a workplace totally filled with robotics, increased lifespans, AI, near magical technology at our fingertips? How do you distribute those benifits?
Added: Not sure where to put this, but since the post is about Alphas and Covid - Trump is at a rally this afternoon and to a townhall this evening. After recovering from Covid a week ago. Alpha.
The singularity isn't near. It's here.
I am a GenX. I come from a War Baby, not a Baby Boomer. My values are different than the Boomers or the Millennials. I had children later in life. One is Gen Z and two fall into the category of GenAlpha according to this classification. Yet they all would be products of the WarBaby/GenX parenting - decidedly different from Boomer/Millennial parenting, I would suspect. I think that's where the distinctions lie. Time will tell the affects of all this on us all.
If they turn to Marxism, they will be know as Generation Zero.
Is it just me, or do all of these "Generation ___" names refer exclusively to white Americans of that particular time period?
Why this obsession with boxing a “generation” under a trendy name, as a monolith that you can define and differentiate against other straw men?
Diversity (i.e. color judgment) dogma that denies individual dignity, intrinsic value, inordinate worth, normalizes color blocs, color quotas, and affirmative discrimination. Diversity, not limited to racism, sexism, is a progressive condition under the ostensibly "secular" Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, relativistic, politically congruent quasi-religion ("ethics").
The singularity isn't near. It's here.
A progressive (i.e. monotonic) process will inevitably approach a dysfunctional convergence (black hole... whore h/t NAACP) or produce creative destruction (white hole). In a social context, principles and competing interests matter in order to mitigate progress.
I’m so old I don’t have a generation.
On some level I think this labeling of generations may do more harm then good.
It's a gimmick. Perhaps part of the gimmick's purpose is to cause conflict, but mostly it seems to be useful but useless short-cut for stupid editorials.
That feral little boy in the old movie, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
He became the humble narrator of a major motion picture.
If they asked my opinion I’d say I’m torn between Generation Get Off My Lawn and Generation Shut the Fuck Up.
The LEAST alpha generation ever.
So once the Latin alphabet was exhausted, he hopped over to the Greek one—'the start of something new.'
Like with hurricanes?
The only cohort that endless obsesses over the generational stuff are the Gen Xers.
It's typical that young people focus most on defining themselves as a generation. Gen X was two generations back, and Xers are already fifty or close to it. For a while now, it's been the millennials who've done most of the complaining about Boomers (as the Boomers complained in their own youth about people over thirty).
I don't see Gen X having left much of an impression. They gave us 90s grunge, but what else? They have to share rap with the next two generations. And their writers were mostly late Boomers. I see Gen X as something like the Silent Generation of the Fifties, caught between two more assertive generations. They were in the shadow of the late Boomers (who were themselves in the shadow of the rebellious, spotlight grabbing early Boomers), and now the baton has passed to the next two generations.
I saw an article the other day arguing that kids had benefitted from several months of concentrated attention from adults they'd become accustomed only to get glimpses of through their lives to that point.
My kid is in this generation and we've already started to refer to him as his friends as the COVID generation.
They're gonna be the Lost Generation, with nothing to do but to stare at their phones and wait for the UBI payment to arrive each month.
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