Putting some rigour to generations
Recently a coworker posted that children born this year would be in Generation Beta, and I was like “What? That sounds like too soon…” but then thought “Oh its just that thing when you get older and time flies by.” I saw a couple of articles saying it again, so decided to look at what was on the wikipedia article for generations and saw that yes ‘beta’ was starting.. then I started looking at the lengths of the various generations and went “Hold On”.
Let us break this down in a table:
| Generation | Wikipedia | How Long |
|---|---|---|
| T (lost) | 1883-1900 | 17 |
| U (greatest) | 1901-1927 | 26 |
| V (silent) | 1928-1945 | 17 |
| W (boomer) | 1946-1964 | 18 |
| X | 1965-1980 | 15 |
| Y (millenial) | 1981-1996 | 15 |
| Z | 1997-2012 | 15 |
| alpha | 2013-2025 | 12 |
| beta | 2026-2039 | 13 |
| gamma | 2040-??? | ?? |
So it is bad enough that Generation X,Millenials, and Z got shortened from 18 years to 15.. but alpha and beta are now down to 12 and 13? I realize that this is because all of this is a made up construct to make some people born in one age group angry/sad/afraid in another by editors who are needing to sell advertising for things which will solve the feelings of anger, sadness, or fear.. but could you at least be consistent.
I personally like some order to my starting and ending dates for generations so I am going to update some lists I have put out in the past with newer titles and times. We will use the definiton as outlined at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation
A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively.[1] It also is “the average period, generally considered to be about 20–30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children.”
For the purpose of trying to set eras, I think that the original 18 years for baby boomers makes sense, but the continual shrinkflation of generations after that is pathetic. So here is my proposal for generation ending dates outside. Choose which one you like the best when asked what generation you belong to.
| Generation | Wikipedia | 18 Years |
|---|---|---|
| T (lost) | 1883-1900 | 1889-1907 |
| U (greatest) | 1901-1927 | 1908-1926 |
| V (silent) | 1928-1945 | 1927-1945 |
| W (boomer) | 1946-1964 | 1946-1964 |
| X | 1965-1980 | 1965-1983 |
| Y (millenial) | 1981-1996 | 1984-2002 |
| Z | 1997-2012 | 2002-2020 |
| alpha | 2013-2025 | 2021-2039 |
| beta | 2026-2039 | 2040-2058 |
| gamma | 2040-??? | 2059-2077 |
(*) I say wikipedia here, but they are basically taking dates from various other sources and putting them together.. which should be seen as more on the statement of social commentators who aren’t good at math.
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