According to social researcher
Mark McCrindle in his book 'The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations' (
www.mccrindle.com.au), this is what we can expect the next generation to be called. Given the fact that the generational span has contracted significantly from 20-25 years to 15 years, he also predicts that the next generation is due to begin in
2010.
So, why '
Beta'? With generational analysis having moved from a stage of foundation to consolidation, a more predictable labelling system is being formed. There being consensus on the alphabetised theme of Generations
X, Y and Z, it is most likely that the next generation
will be Generation
Alpha (the first letter of the Greek alphabet). This nomenclature of moving to the Greek alphabet after exhausting the Latin one (A, B, C, D etc), has a
long history with meteorologists. In fact, scientists of all disciplines use the Greek alphabet as a labelling sequence and so it looks likely that the sociologists
will follow this trend with the generations too.
