Baby boomers (named after the post war baby boom that created them) started it by calling the generation following them "generation X". Then millennials were gen Y for a while before the millennial rebrand after the turn of the millennium for some reason. Gen Z got the nickname zoomer pretty much because it rhymes with boomer. Then we ran out of letters because the boomers decided to start at the wrong end of the alphabet, so we're doing the Greek alphabet now. Thus gen alpha, who haven't been around long enough to develop an identity resulting in a catchier nickname.

Given generations seem to be about 15 years or so, the line for gen beta kids is just around the corner I guess

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How much longer until we get the first sigma male.

[–] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Not within this century :(

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Exactly, it takes time to get a non-sequential name. I haven't heard Gen Y in probably a decade. I still hear Genzie but I suspect it's partly waiting for the Zoomer adoption, partly due to being the easiest to say. Jennay is smooth but not too clear as a standalone word, needing context like "PIN number"

[–] pixelscript@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

Thus gen alpha, who haven't been around long enough to develop an identity resulting in a catchier nickname.

"iPad babies" seems to be the closest thing we have at the moment. Only time will tell if that sticks.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 9 months ago

Generation Fucked didn't stick and tbh covers too many years.

[–] ultra@feddit.ro 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait... I was born close to the start of 2010.

Am I gen alpha?

[–] Kiosade@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah

[–] ultra@feddit.ro 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

:'(

[–] Kiosade@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Lol what, did you want to be Gen Z or something? Technically you’re on the borderline, and people on the borderlines of generations are kind of a mix of the two gens. So I guess you’d be a … Zalpha? Alphaz? Idk

[–] FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

I think it would be zalpha

Cus chronologically z comes first

Idk I just liked the way it sounded

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Unless my 5th grade kid had a kid, no. You're just getting old. Alpha's been with us for a while now.

The marker is supposedly anyone born entirely within the 21st century and living in a world that's connected to the internet 24/7 since birth. The "iPad kids".

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I tend to agree with the person you're responding to in that actual generations tend to be marked by massive paradigm shifts more than chunks of years.

Like fall of the Berlin wall through 9-11 is a generation.

9-11 through COVID is a generation.

COVID until the water wars is a generation.

It's marked by things that the basically the whole world is affected by, and we all experience it together in some way.

[–] Holyginz@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Agreed. There's isn't enough of a difference between a number of the recent gens. I feel like the millennials were the last big one that made sense to me.

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

There's gonna be a big shift in the way that we consume media that there's gonna be a difference between generations that grew up before that big shift and the generation that grew up after that big shift.

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 9 months ago

More the latter than the former. GenZ commonly includes 2005ish, and people born in the early 2000s got to experience the proliferation of the internet during their childhood

[–] VampyreOfNazareth@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

I think you are correct.