No, Eleven-Year-Old, You Are Not Gen Alpha
Understanding the Importance of Generational Identity
People love to talk about generations without understanding them. A generation is a cohort grouping of approximately 18–25 years. There are a lot of delightful memes going around now that humorously use “Gen Alpha” slang, where adults clumsily fumble with new terms like rizz, skibidity Ohio, sigma, and gyot. These endearing generational markers run the risk of creating more pseudo-generational identities.
I already explained in a prior essay why Gen Z is a micro-generation of young Millennials, born between 1997 and 2012. It is similar to my own micro-generation, Xennial — a cohort located between Gen X and Millennials, born from 1977 to 1983. In the generational theory put forward by Strauss and Howe, micro-generations are not very consequential in their cycles of history. Thus, I’m a Gen Xer on the younger side, just as many self-identifying Gen Zs are, in reality, younger Millennials. I should also reiterate that Millennials’ actual birth cohort spans from 1982 to 2004. So what is the…
