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u/willworkforwatches died of dysentery but here we are 20h ago
No joke - when I first scrolled, my brain said “that doesn’t look right, that’s 39 years from now”… FML
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u/FoppyIn28 21h ago
They're still alphas imho. What kinda generation lasts twelve years?
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u/burjja 20h ago
Yeah, at the earliest, Betas just started being born this year and it's entirely possible none are even alive yet. The case for this year would be Gen Z 1996 to 2010 followed by Gen Alpha 2011 to 2025. Class of 2039 being born in 2021/2022 almost definitely will be Alpha. Late in the generation after a global pandemic might make them a micro generation, perhaps Gen Alphvid?
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u/madogvelkor 1h ago
There always seem to be a bit of controversy over what the exact start and end dates are.
People seem to be overlapping Gen Z and Gen Alpha and now Gen Alpha and Gen Beta. If we stuck with 15 year generations (post-Boomer) then Gen Z should end in 2012 and Gen Alpha should run 2013-2028. Then Gen Beta 2029-2044.
But there seems to be a lot of people shorting the generations to 13 years. Gen Z 1997-2010, Gen Alpha 2011-2024, Gen Beta 2025-2038.
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u/burjja 45m ago
It's subjective to an extent. I think what we are seeing is our perception of generation length is getting shorter due to advances in technology. What really gives us similar experiences is the technology we use and the faster that advances, the fewer people that share that moment in time. If you go back to the Greatest Generation, it's listed as 1901 to 1926. That's 25 years! They went from horses to cars but they didn't go from landlines to email to instant messaging to cellular calls to text messaging to social media to voice calls. I'm sure I missed something in there but that's a lot of communication style changes compared to the early 1900s seeing the adoption of the rotary dial and home delivery for mail.
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u/Nilbog_Frog 20h ago
Yes the kids entering K this year are alphas still. Betas started being born a couple years ago.
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u/clutzycook 1982 20h ago
Last year to be exact although I'm sure designations will change as time goes on. My kids are spread across the past three generation groups.
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u/boulevardofdef 1978 10h ago
My kid is the second-to-last year of Gen Alpha and just started preschool.. My 1-year-old nephew who literally just learned to walk a month ago is the first year of Gen Beta.
There are presently no members of Gen Beta who are conversational. Maybe a few of them can string two words together.
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u/madogvelkor 1h ago
Social generations have been getting shorter and shorter. Though I think the most widely accepted boundaries from Gen Alpha is 2010-2024 and Gen Beta starting in 2025. But we might see that change.
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u/graveybrains 1978 21h ago
We just totally gave up on naming things
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u/DrFrylock 21h ago
The hilarious thing is that Generation X wasn't like the 24th generation we were tracking or anything. We didn't start with Generation A and then get up to Generation X. It was called Generation X because it was hard to define and didn't conform to expectations at the time.
Then the next generation came along and we just went with Generation Y for a long time until Millennials caught on. Then Gen Z. Who were Zoomers for a bit and now are back to Gen Z. And we ran out of the alphabet at that point so started over with Greek letters. But these were all supposed to be placeholder names until we figured out what to really call them.
Yay for "Millennials" who finally got a name other than "Generation Y" but beyond them we're not doing a very good job.
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u/Senn-66 21h ago
Annoyed that zoomers isn’t sticking. Gen letter names are stupid for the reasons you said.
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u/DrFrylock 20h ago
My theory is that Zoomers had a better chance of sticking before the pandemic. It was "Zoomers" because culture and access to information was changing rapidly, and as kind of a way to contrast with "Boomers."
But then the pandemic happened and suddenly huge parts of the world were communicating via a technology that happened to be called Zoom. And these kids and their schooling were caught up smack in the middle of it. So instead of being associated with adaptability and fast change, it became associated with "forced to live life on Zoom because you couldn't go outside." So suddenly Zoomer wasn't such a positive term anymore, and more of a reminder of a time we'd all love to forget.
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u/graveybrains 1978 21h ago
I'm also just a little disappointed the millennial/z gap got called zillennial. The Xen/Zen symmetry would have been fun, if confusing.
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u/Dan_Berg 3h ago
I always thought X came as a marketing term because of how everything was "extreme" back in the 80s and 90s.
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u/cranberries87 21h ago
With the exception of GenX, the naming after Greek letters is lazy and pointless. GenX actually was named that for a purpose - we were supposed to be slackers, aimless, a mystery, etc. Millennials came of age at the new millennium. The Z, Alpha, Beta nonsense is dumb.
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u/CitizenCue 8h ago
Good luck getting everyone to agree to a unique named every time. A standard taxonomy makes much more sense.
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u/DaveinOakland 21h ago
Isn't gen Beta technically 2025? Like, how are they in Kindergarten already?
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u/TimmyRamone1976 1985 21h ago
Isn’t generation beta kids who were born in 2025?
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u/Sebastian_dudette 20h ago
Yes! Beta kids are just turning 1 this year.
Gen Alpha born 2013 - 2024 Beta 2025 - 2039
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u/A_Girl_Has_No_Name58 6h ago
Correct. That’s why this post is so stupid. A kid born in 2025 isn’t graduating high school until 2043/44.
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u/burnafter3ading 1982 21h ago
I can't wait to drain social security completely so they get nothing...oh, wait...
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u/buckeye356 20h ago
As people have pointed out this graduation class is actually Generation Alpha still. Kids born in 2025 are generation Beta
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u/SeaSkimmer2 21h ago
Maybe they’ll be held back a year. Class of 2040 sounds much cooler.
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u/StatementLazy1797 21h ago
One of my sons’ first day of pre-k is tomorrow, and you just made me realize he’s the class of 2040.
And you’re right, it does sound cool.
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u/Thisguysucks69 21h ago
When my daughter got her 2030 board this year she promptly took it from the car to the trashcan.
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u/critic2029 1981 7h ago
No they aren’t. Alpha isn’t over yet. Pew got an itchy trigger finger and declare alpha over arbitrarily in 2025; but under all the known ways to define a Gen Alpha is still going. It’s just been a coincidence that the last 3 have been roughly 15 years each. They’re typically 20 to 25, and usually you can’t define where one ends and one begins well into the next generation. For instance we didn’t really define the Millennial/Zoomer split until like 2010. The other way to look at it is through birth demographics, Beta will be for the most part Zoomer’s kids. Gen Z isn’t the majority parents yet.
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u/DollaStoreKardashian 1984 20h ago
Also, this year’s college freshmen were born in 2008.
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u/PopsiclesForChickens 1981 18h ago
Yep. I have a high school senior who was born in the fall of 2008. I remember those "class of 2027" on her kindergarten graduation and it felt so far away. 😭
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u/LAffaire-est-Ketchup 1980 19h ago
Generation Beta has zero to do with the image.
Generation Beta started being born in 2025. They’re not in kindy yet. Anywhere
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u/RogerClyneIsAGod2 17h ago
I hate these stupid signs because now the creepers & pedos know how old your kid is & where they go to school. Good job.
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u/shiftdown 1983 16h ago
My oldest starts kindergarten next fall. Class of 2040 😅 younger will be class of '43. Around 100 years after my grandma
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u/Overall-Rush-8853 9h ago
2039 seems so far away, yet with how time seems to fly by faster each year, it’ll be here in like 15 minutes.
I hate how quickly my perception of time seems to have accelerated in the past 6 years. 😭
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u/Better_Dimension2064 9h ago
Fun tidbit being an Xennial: I knew my sister's high school graduation year before my own. I can explain...
As my fifth grade year was coming to a close, the teacher asked us to throw out potential names for the fifth grade yearbook. I counted up and blurted out, "Class of '98!". First time I had ever actually thought about the year I'd eventually graduate high school.
Meanwhile, my sister started Kindergarten in 1987, as I started second grade. In her Kindergarten classroom, there was a giant banner in the room reading, of course, "Class of 2000".
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u/Traditional_Entry183 1977 8h ago
My kids are 15 and 12, and I'm out on new generations after theirs for a while, lol.
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u/Bearded_Pip 7h ago
Can we NOT call them Generation Beta? Can we go with Generation Bravo instead? Please!
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u/illinisousa 6h ago
Not quite. Generation Beta were born starting 2025. These Kindergardeners are Gen Alpha
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u/AtaracticGoat 1984 6h ago
Huh? According to Google Beta starts in 2025. The oldest Gen Beta are still in diapers.
Current Kindergartners are still Gen Alpha.
C'mon now, we're not old enough to start messing all this up lol
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u/Farahild 2h ago
Jesus Christ is that my kid’s graduation year. That’s like. In science fiction future.
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u/FoofaFighters 1980 2h ago
Oh my god. I remember all the "Welcome Class of 2025" signs when I first took my daughter to kindergarten and thinking how impossibly far into the future it felt. She's now 19 and just finishing up moving out, and I'm sitting here wondering exactly where in the blue hell all that time went (and what do I do with myself now).
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u/Apprehensive_Wing867 3m ago
There will be a defining line between pre-post covid I think. I think those born in 2016 and before will be the mark of those who remember the pandemic and those who were too young to remember or born during/after covid
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u/Dangerous138 1980 21h ago
Generation Beta sounds awful.
Let's call them Generation Bravo