Using a collective term to define a group risks being insensitive, prejudicial and playing into the sin of stereotyping individuals with gross generalizations. And still we do it because it's easy and useful, and more often than not, has no malice attached. Sometimes it's based on generally accepted criteria, such as gender, religion or nationality, though all of those have proven not to be as black or white as they once were (no pun intended). Others are based on specific factual markers, like college graduates, pickleball players or even column writers. And still others are made up for convenience to create a non-natural cohort, one whose boundaries are somewhat arbitrary, inexact and even porous: think soccer moms and metrosexuals, or conservatives and liberals.
To this last category add generations. Marketers, cultural commentators and the like have settled on labels to define a set of affinity groups based on when the underlying members were born. Never mind that within each group there is a nearly infinite variety of backgrounds, styles and approaches to every task and view presented. Researchers say that that infinity is not as big as it might seem, and in fact there are a large number of defining characteristics shared amongst those in the pool.
Those proclivities and touchpoints have been well documented for each of the named tribes: Lost, Greatest, Silent, Boomers and X, Y and Z. With the noted caveat that variations do exist, and that you may not see yourself as driven as other Baby Boomers, or as independent as other Generation X'ers, on the whole you and your brethren share distinct commonalities. And that makes creating these artificial groups of some use to plot potential trends.
As might be expected, it's all about influence and power based on economic, political and social ranking, with the focus on which gang has or doesn't have that mojo in a given arena. While it is a continuum, it is hardly a straight line, but rather one that bobs and weaves and ebbs and flows as society changes. But if there is one constant in the entire exercise, it's that it eventually flows from old to young and keeps on going. And that means that the future is not about the so-called Millennials or even Zoomers, but their eventual replacement, the Alphas.
Defined as those born after 2010, the oldest are barely bar and bat mitzvah age, and so have yet to begun to make any substantive mark on the world. That said, like each of the other cohorts, social scientists say they share certain traits. Perhaps most elemental, born into a digital world, and having their pre-Wonder years shaped by a multi-year global pandemic, they have a most malleable sense of, well everything.
To them, devices, tools and appliances are not exclusively devoted to any one pursuit. Likewise, home and work, not to mention leisure and education, are (or can be) accomplished in virtually any space. Materially they have more "things" than any prior generation, and see all of them as disposable and replaceable vs. durable and permanent. That also means their attention spans tend to be shorter, as they are comfortable toggling from one state or thing to the next. Their lives define multi-whatever.
Their social orientations are similar. Their family lives include a high percentage of what used to be called "non-traditional family structures" as those are increasingly the norm. Friendships are defined by online as much as in-person interactions, and likely include individuals from far outside their immediate geographic area and social group. That means diversity for them is not an aspiration but the status quo. It also means they see economic inequality very clearly; whether they will decide to do anything about it is an open question.
How this will play out is anyone's guess, as they are just starting to become an economic factor, and politically are years away from making an impact. But it's just one more step. Generational researcher Mark McCrindle, who coined the term Generation Alpha, sets its upper limit as those born before 2024. Which also means that we are reaching the end of this cohort, with the as-yet unborn Betas just down the road. But in the meantime, if you want to know where the world is going, you best check in with your nearest 13-year-old.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford is a Boomer, with all its privileges and baggage. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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