Did you know that there is a growing generation known as Generation Alpha? Further, within a couple of years, they will outnumber the Baby Boomers, and many of them will live to see the 22nd Century.
Generation Alpha is none but the children of Generation Y, and often the younger siblings of Generation Z. More than 2.5 million are born globally every week. When they have all been born (2025) they will number almost 2 billion- the largest generation in the history of the world. Generation Alpha is defined as those born between 2010-2024. When it comes to presence in social media, they shape the landscape and are the popular culture influencers, the emerging consumers. Gen Alpha is the most materially endowed generation ever, the most technologically savvy generation ever and they will enjoy a longer life span than any previous generation.
They will stay in education longer, start their earning years later and so stay at home with their parents later than even their predecessors, Gen Z and Gen Y. The role of parents therefore will span a longer age range- with many of these Gen Alphas likely to be still living at home into their late 20s.
Why are they called Gen Alpha?
So, from shorter attention spans to the gamification of education, from increased digital literacy to the impaired social formation, these times impact us all but transform those in their formative years. Generation Alpha began being born in 2010, the year the iPad was launched, Instagram was created, and App was the word of the year- and so from their earliest years, they have been screenagers.
The story goes like this, just over a decade ago 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 instead 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.
Generational definitions are most useful when they span a set age range and so allow meaningful comparisons across generations. That is why the generations today each span 15 years with Generation Y (Millennials) born from 1980 to 1994; Generation Z from 1995 to 2009 and Generation Alpha from 2010 to 2024. And so it follows that Generation Beta will be born from 2025 to 2039.