This new year 2025 welcomes a new generation, known as Generation Beta. This cohort includes children born between January 1, 2025, and approximately 2039, succeeding Generation Alpha (2010-2024), Generation Z (1996-2010), and millennials (1981-1996) on the generational timeline. Generational cohorts have grown increasingly important as we seek to understand the distinct experiences and qualities that define different age groups. The economic, political, and technological landscapes of one generation have an impact on the next.
What is Generation Beta?
Gen Beta, often known as Generation Beta, refers to people born between January 1, 2025, and around 2039. This generation will grow up in a technologically advanced society that includes widespread usage of artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and immersive digital experiences. It is dubbed 'Beta Babies' and will succeed Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Mark McCrindle, a social researcher who has played a crucial role in identifying generational labels, predicted in his blog that Generation Beta will account for approximately 16% of the world population by 2035, with many likely witnessing the beginning of the 22nd century. The new generation will face unique difficulties such as climate change and social inequity, which will shape their identities and beliefs as they adjust to an ever-changing landscape.
Here's a look at year-by-year guide to different generations:
Baby Boom Generation (1946–1964)
Gen Z may regard Baby Boomers as out-of-touch grandparents, but this group experienced a wild youth that is rarely spoken of. Boomers are named for the population "boom" that happened following WWII, and many young people from this generation disregarded their parents, opposed the Vietnam War, and founded the "Summer of Love." Boomer parents notably altered parenting by being the first generation to consider their children's perspectives about growing up, and they pioneered the concept of holding family meetings.
Generation X (1965–1980)
Generation X, sometimes derided as the slacker generation, experienced the AIDS crisis, MTV culture, and a transforming landscape that would lead to LGBTQ+ rights. Their parents were the first to employ helicopter parenting techniques. Unlike Boomer parents, who famously let their children play outside until the streetlights came on, Gen Xers are significantly more concerned about their children's social and educational development.
Millennial Generation or Generation Y (1981–1996)
Millennials lived through 9/11, remember when Amazon just sold books, and are the first generation to have experienced childhoods with and without the internet, which now plays an important part in their daily lives. While Boomers may accuse Millennials of being self-centered and impatient owing to their excessive use of technology, this generation has shown to be extremely community-oriented and ecologically sensitive, attributes that will be passed down to their children.
Generation Z (1997-2010)
Generation Z children are the first to be born into a world where they know nothing except continual contact with one another, albeit via phones, screens, and tablets. Gen Z, like millennials before them, is often ecologically sensitive, open and welcoming of others, and extremely politically aware even though many of them are not yet of voting age.
Generation Alpha (2010–2024)
Generation Alpha includes children born between 2010 and 2024. They are the first generation of children who will never remember a time when social media did not exist, and they are considerably more tech-savvy than any preceding generation, making social media a powerful tool with the potential to transform humankind in a variety of positive ways. On the flip side, this dependence on technology could lead to reduced attention spans and fewer in-person connections.
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