THEThe time that passes between one generation and another is decreasing: come on “traditional” 25 years, reported for example by Treccani, in shorter time periods. It seems like yesterday that we welcomed the advent of Alpha generation, those born between 2010 and 2024and it’s already time to move on. 2025 marks the beginning of Generation Beta. All those born up to 2039 will be part of it, and they will be the first born children of the Gen Z (approximately 1997-2012). They will pioneer AI and social engagement, in their own way.
Goodbye Alpha, 2025 will be the year of Generation Beta, the first children of Gen Z
Although Betas have not yet been born, some things can be predicted about them based on their surroundings. The social research expert (founder of the research institute that bears his name) did it Mark McCrindlethe one who had coined the name of Generation Alpha. «Let’s anticipate that the Beta Generation will be a technologically integrated generation, as well as curious, which values diversity, embraces change and difference. These are the themes of today that we expect to continue for years to come. That’s what we can predict, but obviously things will happen that we can’t predict.”
The one that will debut on January 1, 2025, will be the eighth generation since we started giving names to those born in certain historical periods. It is of course about rather subjective divisions. So much so that the span of years, especially in the latest generations, is not always shared (the end of Gen Z for example is given between 2009 and 2012).
The generations after Generation Beta
In the future the generations will be indicated with the letters of the Greek alphabet and will identify standardized time frames of 15 years, which will enable future analysts to conduct more comprehensive analyzes and global comparisons. After the Beta there will therefore be the Gamma Generation (born in 2040-2054). Then the Delta Generation (born 2055-2069), and so on.
That is, an approach derived from the social sciences was preferred to alters who in the past have named generations based on a very important historical event that marked them. See the Greatest Generation born during the Great Depression of the early 1900s. Or the Baby Boomers linked to the demographic explosion after the Second World War. The fact that the intervals between one generation and another has been shortened comes from the fact that great innovations that influence the world population follow one another at a very rapid pace.
From the Lost Generation to the Silent Generation: time windows and characteristics
Here are the generations up to Beta, and the main characteristics.
Lost generation (1883-1900). There definition is used by Ernest Hemingway in Movable feastpublished posthumously in 1964. The writer was referring to individuals born at the end of the nineteenth century: they are those who witnessed the end of the Belle Époque and the rearmament culminating in the First World War, in which many of them participated.
Greatest Generation (1901-1927). Coined by journalist Tom Brokaw, the expression indicates the generation that experienced the repercussions of the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression in the USA. They are the young men who fought in the Second World War.
Silent generation (1928-1945). He refers to the people who grew up in America during McCarthyism and then became the “silent majority” during the youth protests of the late 1960s.
Boomers and Generation X
Baby boomers or Boomers (1946-1964). The name derives from the population boom following the Second World War. They are the generation that invented ecology, carried forward the great feminist demands and the fight against racism. The same, for their grandchildren, they are bearers of conservative or paternalistic values and have a naive approach to society (hence the expression “Ok Boomer”).
Generation (1965-1979). The noome comes from the title of a book written by Canadian writer Douglas Coupland in 1991 and immediately considered “the portrait of an era”. The “X” indicates a hidden generation, numerically inferior to the previous one and partly grown in its shadow. And that is in an era of substantial economic well-being and in a world divided into blocs (the Cold War). Influenced by American culture, it is the generation that witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the advent of the Internet.
From Y to Alpha
Generation Y or “Millennials” (1980-1994). The term Millennials (who came of age in the new millennium) it was introduced by American sociologists William Strauss and Neill Howe, authors of several books on the topic of generations. Growing up in the digital age, they lived and suffered the waves of economic recession of the first decade of the 2000s and developed the need to balance work and private life more than their parents.
Generation Z or “Centennials” (1995-2012) or Zoomers. It is the generation of digital natives, who inhabit social media as “real” life. They have a strong propensity for social activism, especially on the climate change front, and measure their job satisfaction on passions rather than on financial compensation.
Generation Alpha or “Screenagers” (2013-2024). The name comes from “screen”, to say that for them Internet technology has been an integral part of daily life since birth. Their childhood was marked by the Covid19 pandemic and an international context marked by tensions.
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