👶 Introducing Generation Beta, And Why That’s A Horrible Name

Quick Thoughts by Chris Thompson
When I sat down to write today’s issue I thought it would be quick (I always think that, but it never is). I wrote about generations, how they are branded, and dove into the history of where their names originated from. This led me down quite the rabbit hole, and I really enjoyed it. Before I knew it, I had written nearly 5,000 words on the topic, and blown way past my writing schedule. I know today’s main article is a little long winded, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

In today’s newsletter we discuss the horrible name that is Generation Beta, influencer marketing company Later acquired Mavely, Elon Musk wants SpaceX to skip the Moon and head straight to Mars, A mansion in California was sold for $210 million dollars in 2024, Microsoft is spending $80 billion dollars on AI-enabled data centers in 2025, and Simone Biles might be hanging it up before the 2028 L.A. Olympics.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

👶 Introducing Generation Beta, And Why That’s A Horrible Name

It’s official. On January 1, 2025 a new generation was born, and the name Generation Beta thrust upon them (whether they like it or not when they’re all grown up in the future).

Naming generations is hard work, and it’s not like we workshop the names as a collective whole before they are bestowed. We can thank Mark McCrindle, of the social research, demographics and data analytics agency named McCrindle, for coining the name. He’s internet famous for coming up with the name Generation Alpha, named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet. How original Mark!

In Mark’s thinking, each new generation should continue this madness of being named after the next letter in the Greek alphabet. So if he has his way, the next generation after Generation Beta will be called Generation Gamma starting in 2040, and then Generation Delta to follow in 2055.

With this much lead time until the next generational naming event, I think we as a collective whole can come up with a much better name.

What’s in a name?

The thing about branding is it should stand for something. The problem with naming a generation as soon as they’re born is we don’t know what they’ll stand for or become known for.

They need time and the cultural space to define themselves.

My suggestion is we tag each new generation with a placeholder name until it comes time to name the next generation, then we take stock of what that generation has become known for, and we come up with a final name, or names, that have percolate to the top of the public’s lexicon over the last 15 years we’ve been referring to them.

Where do generational names come from?

How did we get here? We can thank Tom Brokaw, a former NBC News anchor, for popularizing the term "The Greatest Generation" in his 1998 book of the same name. According to Tom Brokaw this term refers to Americans born between 1901–1927, and who came of age during the Great Depression, then went on to fight in or contribute to World War II.

As with history, who said what first can often get left in the dust of scholarly manifestos and congressional archives. 

In 1953 U.S. Army General James Van Fleet, a retired World War II veteran and former head of the Eighth Army in the Korean War, spoke to Congress saying "The men of the Eighth Army are a magnificent lot, and I have always said the greatest generation of Americans we have ever produced."

After the Greatest Generation we had the Silent Generation from 1928-1945, named after the parenting belief that children should be seen but not heard (any chance we can go back to that?).

Then there was the famous Baby Boomers, known as the generation born between 1946-1964 after the end of World War II and the resulting “pent up energy” of the Greatest Generation when they got back from the war.

Generation X, my completely unbiased favorite generation, encompassed people born between 1965 and 1980 (shout out to all those babies born in 1977). We’re the generation known for being tech savvy, and the first generation to grow up with personal computers at home, and all the drama and mischief that came with going to raves, skateboarding, growing up with all the Star Wars movies, and being there in the early days of the internet.

I’m going to gloss over the next couple of generations, not because they are any less important or they haven’t accomplished as much as Generation X or previous generations, but rather because they haven’t had the cultural space yet in my opinion to define themselves. Sure, pop culture has labeled Millennials or Generation Y, born between 1981–1996, as lazy, but that’s not fair because that label has been applied through the lens of previous generations that have had a lifetime of work to define them. Then we round out the generational names with Generation Z  born between 1997–2010, Generation Alpha born between 2010-2024, and lastly the newly named Generate Beta who’ll be born between January 1, 2025 through 2039.

Where am I going with all this?

I started out this article with a rant about how bad of a name Generation Beta is from a branding perspective, then I shared my thesis that you can’t really apply a name to a generation until they’ve had time to define themselves, and I’ve wrapped things up with a nice walk down generational ally recapping the history of previous generations.

So I’ll leave you with one final thought. If the Greatest Generation can walk around with their chests puffed out in pride, and Generation X can throw up their arms crossed like an X in solidarity, then future generations can surely look back with the wisdom of middle-age and brand themselves whatever they see fit. Generational scholars be damned!

👩‍💻 Business

Consolidation in the Influencer Marketing industry has led to Later acquiring Mavely for $250 million dollars, and no I didn’t just make those names up.

🌖 Space

Elon Musk has proclaimed from on high that his company SpaceX intends to skip returning to the Moon and instead is aiming to begin colonisation of Mars. We’ll see what NASA has to say about that.

🏠 Real Estate

A mansion in California was sold for $210 million dollars last year, to who I must assume was either insanely wealthy or is actively pulling off one of the most successful ponzi schemes ever. It’s good to see billionaires were alive and well in 2024.

💻 Tech

Microsoft plans to make it rain on AI-enabled data centers in 2025 by spending an estimated $80 billion dollars to expand their worldwide data center footprint. That’s a lot of ChatGPT queries.

🤸‍♀️ Sports

One of the world’s greatest GOATS, Simone Biles, has shared with her fans that she doesn’t want to be “greedy” by returning to 2028 L.A. Olympics. When you’ve won all that you can, and no one can take that away from you, a real GOAT knows when it’s time to pass the torch for the betterment of the sport. It doesn’t get any classier than Simone Biles!

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.