Generation Alpha

Thoughts on Demographics, Naming, Branding, and STEM Compression.

What will we call the kids after Gen Z (late 1990s to late 2010’s)?

Turns out its Generation Alpha. Several futurists and demographers have been using this phrase to describe the next crop of kids (born from 2010–2025) for over a decade now. My kids (born 2015 and 2019) are alphas.

This name is obvious in retrospect when we realize restarting the count, using Greek letters this time, is the simplest and easiest naming convention. Wikipedia’s Generation Alpha page says foresight consultant Mark McCrindle coined this name in print in 2008. A brief internet search shows that many others independently came to the same conclusion.

I enjoy the implications in the name alpha, that these kids will be superempowered by new machines, platforms, crowds, information, and wealth creation options, and especially, by Personal AIs (see my Medium series on PAIs for more on those). These kids will likely also be superempathic, on a growing range of social justice issues. On the negative side, many will be overly insulated from belief diversity, conflict and debate, and some will be too self-obsessed and entitled. At any rate, they will be the alpha kids of the coming age of AI. Gen Beta, Gamma, etc. will surely follow. Each will also have their own alternative names, like Millennials for…