ok so i’m really tired and this might not make sense but i just had an idea. you know how people like to separate millennials & gen z by the ability to process 9/11? well, what if we distinguish between gen z and gen alpha by covid-19?
millennials/gen y supposedly ends at people born in 1995, and gen z goes to 2015. the oldest zoomers alive when 9/11 happened were about 6. they’re too young to have many solid memories from before this terrorist attack, so for american gen z’s, distinguishing between pre-9/11 era and post-9/11 era would be almost impossible, especially when it comes to things like wars overseas.
the same can be said for gen alpha and the coronavirus pandemic. the oldest igens were maybe 5 when the first lockdowns started in the us. that means they probably weren’t even in elementary school before the pandemic began, and their first experiences in real school is zoom. even kids just a couple years older than that likely have some solid memories from in-person school in 2019 and earlier.
this pandemic is probably going to change many aspects of our lives forever. alphas won’t be able to fully process this, because they won’t know a world untouched by covid-19.
of course, there’s some debate about when generations “really” start and end. but in my opinion, the important thing is the social effect it has on a person, not the day they were born. these event markers help determine the generation of people in the gray area. some sources say gen alpha started in 2012, others say 2013, others say 2015. what all alphas will have in common, though, is that they won’t be able to distinguish between pre-covid and post-covid eras.
