Generation Alpha
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Originated from a 2008 survey conducted by the Australian consulting agency McCrindle Research, according to founder Mark McCrindle, who is generally credited with the term.[1][2] McCrindle describes how his team arrived at the name in a 2015 interview:
When I was researching my book The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations (published in 2009) it became apparent that a new generation was about to commence and there was no name for them. So I conducted a survey (we're researchers after all) to find out what people think the generation after Z should be called and while many names emerged, and Generation A was the most mentioned, Generation Alpha got some mentions too and so I settled on that for the title of the chapter Beyond Z: Meet Generation Alpha. It just made sense as it is in keeping with scientific nomenclature of using the Greek alphabet in lieu of the Latin and it didn't make sense to go back to A, after all they are the first generation wholly born in the 21st Century and so they are the start of something new not a return to the old.[3]
McCrindle Research also took inspiration from the naming of hurricanes, specifically the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season in which the names beginning with the letters of the Latin alphabet were exhausted, and the last six storms were named with the Greek letters alpha through zeta.[2]
Proper noun
[edit]- (demographics) The generation following Generation Z, born between the early to mid-2010s and the mid-2020s.
- Synonym: Gen Alpha
- 2016, Jeanne Meister, Kevin J. Mulcahy, The Future Workplace Experience[3], McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 160:
- Generation Alpha members will be the most diverse of all the generations. In 2011, Generation Alpha reached a demographic milestone: there were more Generation Alpha babies born to minority families than white families in the United States […]
See also
[edit]| Timeline of generations |
|---|
 |
Noun
[edit]Generation Alpha (plural Generation Alphas)
- A member of Generation Alpha.
- 2019, Jon Bentley, Autopia: The Future of Cars, Atlantic Books, →ISBN:
- According to one Coventry student, Denny Julian Deemin, Generation Zs (born between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s) will still want their own cars but Generation Alphas (born since 2005) will want a simpler lifestyle without the bother of ownership.
- 2021, Mark McCrindle, Ashley Fell, Sam Buckerfield, Generation Alpha: Understanding Our Children and Helping Them Thrive, Hachette Australia, →ISBN:
- Though the increased access to information afforded by technology is causing many Generation Alphas to experience up-ageing, it’s important to remember that they are still children.
- 2022, Madonna King, L Platers: How to Support Your Teen Daughter on the Road to Adulthood, Hachette Australia, →ISBN:
- In the schoolyard, these Generation Zs are role models to Generation Alphas in a way schools haven’t seen before.
References
[edit]- ^ Joe Pinsker (2020 February 21) “Oh No, They’ve Come Up With Another Generation Label”, in The Atlantic[1], archived from the original on 2020-02-22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mark McCrindle, Emily Wolfinger (2009) The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations, →ISBN, pages 199–212. See excerpt “Why we named them Gen Alpha”.
- ^ Mark McCrindle (2015 September 22) “Generation Alpha: Mark McCrindle Q & A with the New York Times”, in McCrindle[2], archived from the original on 2019-03-14. Quote is an outtake from the New York Times story.
Further reading
[edit]
Generation Alpha on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
