What is a generation?
Literally-speaking, it is a crowd of individuals who arrive in the world around the same period, growing up through similar moments and times and most importantly influences.
What are the 'official names' for these generations. Learn them now.
1. Lost Generation: 1883-1900
The group of people who stepped into adulthood around the time of the First World War is often called the Lost Generation.
It includes individuals born between the early 1880s and the turn of the century, growing up in the the first decades of the 1900s. They became the earliest young adults of the new century and came of age by the First World War.
It was novelist-poet Gertrude Stein who dubbed them the Lost Generation in a conversation with writer Ernest Hemingway. He portrayed their purposelessness and disillusionment with ideals, after the devastation of WW I, in The Sun Also Rises (1926).
2. Greatest Generation Or GI Generation: 1901-1927
Often called the GI Crowd, they came after the Lost Folks.
They were the people who lived through the effects of the Great Depression and many of this generation served in World War II, hence the GI reference.
3. Silent Generation: 1928-1945
Also called the Traditionalists or the Builders, mainly in an American context, the SGs were individuals born on this earth between the late 1920s and the mid-1940s.
In the US, at least, they were considered silent because they were said to prefer conforming and not vaunting their opinions.
4. Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
The Boomers are called so because they were results of the mid-century Baby Boom, post both world wars.
Born somewhere between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s, they lived during a period marked by prosperity, innovation of all kinds. And hope.
Many in this set later became the mothers and fathers of Millennials and Gen X folks.
5. Generation X: 1965-1980
The X bunch, also called slackers, born from the year 1965 through to 1980, were moulded by the events around them -- the fall of Communism, the arrival of the video and video games, music evolving from rock 'n' roll to heavy metal, hip-hop, grunge, rave; higher rates of divorce; women joining the workforce in far larger numbers.
6. Millennials/Generation Y: 1981-1996
Internet babies, belonging to the Information Age, they are thought to be the first 'global generation'. They became adults in the 21st century
William Strauss and Neil Howe -- who were behind the Strauss-Howe generation theory, that postulated a 'reoccurring generation cycle', whereby similar values and beliefs would come back in vogue, courtesy an obligatory churn -- came up with the Millennial term, because most children of this gen would be graduating from high school by the year 2000 and starting their adult life in the new Millennium.
Millennials were the first tech-savvy generation. And unlike earlier generations, more socially adjustable, 'cool', possessing the ability to work together, unafraid of authority and keen on work-life balance and are not worker bees saving the hive.
7. Zoomers/Generation Z: 1997-2012
This cohort had to grow up in an atmosphere influenced by the financial turmoil of 2008.
Their childhood unfolded alongside the advent of smartphones and digital technology and were termed digital natives taking easily to trends like social media, sexting, digital learning, selfies and more.
They grew up in post-9/11 times, where global terrorism had changed the way the world was thinking.
They go by the labels of iGeneration and Homelanders too.
8. Generation Alpha: 2013-mid-2020s
Today’s youngest are of the Alpha group, some have just arrived. Their parents are usually Millennials.
The Alpha world is quite different from previous generations because it is an entirely digital place.
9. Generation Beta: From Present
Those born in 2025 are the first members of Gen Beta. Their future is unknown. Will it be a planet where global warming has wreaked havoc? It is likely be a highly AI-driven world.