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Topics: Mental Health, Social Media, Viral, World News, Twitter
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Mental Health, Social Media, Viral, World News, Twitter
The generation after Gen Z is here and it's name may not follow the pattern you'd expect.
Boomers, Millennials, Generation X, Y and Gen Z - it's hard to keep up with the nicknames for each age range of people currently haphazardly navigating life on this planet.
And now there's a new one to add to the mix. Prepare yourself for the arrival of the next generation:
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If you're born between 2010-2024, first off, what are you doing roaming the internet? You're barely out the womb.
On the other hand, congratulations, because you've eared yourself the title Generation Alpha - which despite sounding like you belong to a frat house, is actually quite a cool-sounding name.
In his book The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations, Mark McCrindle predicted the arrival of Generation Alpha and explained why its name doesn't really follow how you may've expected after Gen Z.
Look, we get it, after Gen Z there's literally nowhere else to go - it is the end of the alphabet.
But it's slightly confusing that the next generation's name has seemingly decided to go back to the start of the alphabet with the letter 'A'.
Fear not, because there is method to this seeming madness.
McCrindle writes on his website: "Just over a decade ago, when I was researching my first book The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations, it became apparent that a new generation was about to commence and there was no name for them.
"This was just after the Atlantic hurricane season of 2005, when there were so many storms that the normal alphabetic names had been used up and so for the first time, the Greek alphabet was used.
"In keeping with this scientific nomenclature of using the Greek alphabet in lieu of the Latin, and having worked our way through Generations X, Y and Z, I settled on the next cohort being Generation Alpha - not a return to the old, but the start of something new."
However, it's still all a bit much for us Gen Zs, millennials and boomers to handle, some confused with the name for the next generation and others just completely bamboozled in general.
One person said: "It's quite literally backwards."
"The f**k is a GEN ALPHA," an X - formerly known as Twitter - user said.
A third commented: "IS THIS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO GET OLD?"
"Next gen gon be gen sigma or sum stupid shi like that," a fourth wrote.
And a final admitted: "GEN Z SOUNDS LIKE A** I WANNA BE A GEN ALPHA."
And it turns out some people are already predicting what sort of group this next generation is set to be.
A user named BornIn1999Trump2020 predicts: "Born After 2010, These children have no chance of being successful in the future.
"At least half of Gen Zers can function and understand what is going on around them, with Gen Alpha this will not be the case.
"Gen Alpha will be uninterested in 9/11, be majority atheist, and have been looking at smartphone screens since they were born.
"Being raised by Millennials means that the brainwashing will have fully set in by now.
"This means Gen Z is our last chance to avoid becoming a communist hell-hole with no personal liberties.
"If only the good in Gen Z procreate there is a slight chance our nation can overcome this, but we have dug ourselves quite the hole at this point."
As Owen Wilson would say, wow.
And another user called BrickSpace resolved: "Unlike Gen Z, Generation Alpha will have no memory of the pre - smartphone era (this era began in about 2012). They have entertainment at their fingertips, since most adults now own a Netflix account.
"They will have been educated in a different way to previous generations, since they have been aided by computer technology in most lessons for their entire life, unlike Generation Z, who will have received this partway through their school career.
"They may be less cautious with hygiene than older generations, since they would have been too young to understand the Coronavirus when it happened, or they may not remember it at all.
"This generation is, as of the time of writing this, too young to have culture, so it is hard to say what humour they will appreciate. However, with easy access to YouTube, just like Gen Z, they will probably develop a Random XD sense of humor."