35 Comments

I remember when Millennials were called Generation Y like "why bother." I was okay switching to Millennial 😂

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Yeah...lol

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The picture you posted was perfect for this article. I will laugh all day about that image and how perfect a fit it was for this piece.

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"The Savage 1337 N00b Slayer Generation" lmao help

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Generation Alpha has a dope name, but we should do something for the beta. Ha who am I kidding by the time they hit twenty I will just call them "get out of my lawn you pesky brats!"

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lol! I didn't think of that

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It does sound kind of cool to be called Generation Alpha compared to being refereed to as a Millienal sounds too dopey.

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We were almost called Generation Y

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That's just inept. Are we really that awful to be blessed with such lame names?

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Thanks for the shoutout!

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It's a great Substack!

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The next time I see a person smiling to themselves ( you know, they've got earbuds, either on a call or having a funny thought ) I'm gonna walk right up to them and say: " Thalia? Is that you? " . Because you have to be smiling when you come up with these muses :)

As for the next nomenclature, great ideas above. I hope it's a happy term. Or make it a symbol ( like Prince ). A good ‘ol yellow happy face.

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Yeah, I do have fun thinking of them. A lot of my ideas come while talking with friends and family so we do laugh when I think of it. Thanks for the compliment!

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Ok Alpha, just doesn’t have the same bite as Ok Boomer does.

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"Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" was written by Douglas Coupland in 1991, and it's where the term Gen X came from.

Decent book, but my favorite one of his is "Life After God". If you want the stories and thought processes of people in the counter-culture of that generation, he captures it amazingly well with these books. Tops any understanding of it you might be trying to glean from listening to the top grunge-rock albums of the time.

Imagination and culture started dying out after Gen X, which is why all the names for subsequent generations are so lame. No one could come up with anything better than to copy and paste Coupland. At least, I can't name any authors within those generations who have managed to capture their own zeitgeist, but perhaps there's no blame because there's not really any zeitgeist to capture anymore. I know, whomp whomp. (exactly: this is how the world ends...not with a bang, but a whimper)

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As one of the last GenXers, I’m quite happy being part of the microgeneration called the Xennial.

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I would love to hear the names for previous geneations… like before Boomers. I remember ‘Greatest Generation’ for those who fought in WWII… but before that? How did the namers do?

Looking forward to the new committee report.

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indeed

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Later, in a corner of John’s desk-drawers, they found some notes from the most recent Generation Naming Discussion.

Crossed out in the middle of the page:

THE LAST GENERATION

with a scribbled comment, “TOO LITERAL. HOW ABOUT ALPHA?”

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Speaking as a Boomer, I think all generations after us should be renamed "Whiny Little Punks." But that's just me. My older brother thinks I'm too soft on them.

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LMAO. We all think that, even if we pretend to sympathize with the “challenges” these punks harangue us about endlessly. Buck up, Buttercup.

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Funny and true! You may want to check out a decent recent book called generations by jean twenge - she did an excellent job breaking down last 5 gens over last 100 years but she does seem to have a bourgeois unsympathetic vibe toward the younger folks complaining about the crazy cost of living and a crappy Global Warming debt ridden future - both 100% true but she just does not get it.

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Thalia, well, my generation was called the Baby Boom, because after the conflagration of WW2, all our parents wanted to do was settle down, have some children and have a more peaceful life. Large numbers of children were born from about 1945 on and I was one, 1952. Certainly cannot blame them for that. As for the photo at beginning of this piece, I like the old man's face. Life certainly shapes our face with all the experiences we have, both good and bad. Not one of us escapes getting old, if you are privileged to survive! Earn that face!

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You can't convince me that AI didn't write this reply.

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Apr 11
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Precisely what a machine would say

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Alright let's be nice.

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That was a fun read even though it neglects the fact that the naming of the generations typically hasn't happened by the members of the generation. The titles mentioned seem far removed from being deserved but maybe that does not matter to anybody born recently? Will we soon ask AI to come up with names?

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as usual, not gen x’s fault everyone wants to copy us.

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