Gen Alpha is no longer the youngest generation. The youngest in society are Gen B.
Those born in 2025 will reach the year 2100 (the 22nd century) and will be directly involved in the changes brought about by artificial intelligence. A unique generation that must be carefully guided towards these changes.
For several years now, we have often heard talk about specific generations: Baby Boomer, Generation X, Millennial, Generation Z, and so on. Labels that were originally born for the needs of demographic and sociological research, but which have over time also entered everyday language. But what does it really mean to belong to a generation?
The Treccani Encyclopedia defines a generation as “a group of individuals of more or less the same age”, but in addition to the union of people born and raised in the same historical period (demographic element), the interest in generations is related to the fact that these people share experiences, stages of life and important historical events. These events (of a social, cultural, political and technological nature) profoundly influence the values, behaviours and aspirations of those who experience them. For this reason, knowing the context in which a generation was formed is essential to understanding its choices, visions and lifestyles.
What does "Generation Beta" mean: definition and period
Generation Beta (Gen B) is the successor to the so-called Generation Alpha and includes children born between 2025 and 2039. On average, a generation covers a time period of about 15 years. This is a feature of the most recent generations, as traditionally a generation was considered to be 20–25 years, which coincided with the time between the birth of the parents and the birth of the children.
In fact, as the latest list of generations proposed by the McCrindle research institute shows, in the last century only one generation has had such a long duration; for the others there has been a lot of variety and only the last generations have been "standardized" at 14–15 years.
List of generations according to McCrindle:
Builders (before 1946) | Duration: variable
Baby Boomers (1946–1964) | 18 years
Generation X (1965–1979) | 14 years
Generation Y (Millennial) (1980–1994) | 14 years
Generation Z (1995–2009) | 14 years
Generation Alpha (2010–2024) | 14 years
Generation Beta (2025–2039) | 14 years
Generation Beta babies will primarily be the children of Millennial parents.
Why it will be the most digital (and most watched) generation
The characteristics of children born in Generation Beta are numerous. First of all, according to the Italian Pediatric Association, this will be:
the first to be confronted with the pervasive impact of artificial intelligence from childhood,
surrounded by digital ecosystems that will influence not only education and training, but also personal choices and the future in the labor market.
The BBC adds that this generation will not only make up 16% of the world's population by 2035, but many of them will also see the 22nd century.
The weight of technology and especially artificial intelligence will be essential for Generation Beta. For them, AI will not be a novelty, but a natural part of everyday life. They will grow up with digital assistants that instantly answer their questions, and schools will increasingly include human-technology collaboration in the learning process.
This means “smart” environments, where AI is present everywhere: in education, in play, and in exploring the world. But it won’t all be rosy: it still remains unclear how hyper-connectivity and AI will affect children’s neurological, emotional, and behavioral development.
Other challenges
When they reach adulthood, around 2050, the children of Generation Beta will face challenges such as: population aging, migration, climate change and the impact of new technologies. They will be fewer in number due to the decline in birth rates, but also the first to have the tools capable of transforming reality in real time, in a collaborative and symbiotic way.
