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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Komonzia (talk | contribs) at 04:57, 1 September 2024 (→Starting and ending points of Gen Alpha?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Shouldn’t the shortened version be spelt with the letter

Generation X and Gen X.

Millenial, Generation Y, and Gen Y.

Generation Z or Gen Z.

So shouldn’t it be Generation Alpha or Gen Α α 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:602A:5268:4F01:13A3 (talk) 18:08, 19 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Because rolling over to Greek Letters when you run out of English letters is pretty common for this sort of thing. The Upcoming/Just Started generation of Generation Beta would be Gen 142.59.71.36 (talk) 18:31, 19 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia reports existing usage, it doesn't prescribe usage, and people don't usually refer to Gen Alpha as Gen A. Dan Bloch (talk) 18:57, 19 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I mean they do refer to it as that, I'm pronouncing it Alpha when I read it single letter, not A(Aye).
If we were to do that it would probably be the lower case despite that breaking tradition because I think that's what people recognize. Just pointing out all the previous ones were just the letter and we weren't writing it phoenetically (It's not Generation Ex, Generation Wi, or Generation Zee) 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:B9C6:B709:21A4:6ADC (talk) 07:07, 20 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Feel free to find reliable sources where the Greek letter is shown to be usually used by people in general, rather than anecdotes. From what I've tried to find so far, "gen alpha" is being used in news articles -- probably because the writers and readership are both accustomed to the Latin alphabet, and because A (latin A) and Α (greek Alpha) look identical. A Wikipedia talk page is not the best place to ask for the usage to be changed - for that, feel free to write to the editors of the publications where you see the usage you disagree with. Komonzia (talk) 18:03, 26 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My source here is more about being in line with the previous 3 Generations than common usage I guess.
We didn't write Gen Ex, Gen Wy, and Gen Zee. So why Gen Alfa or Beta?
Gen X
Gen Y
Gen Z
Gen Α
Gen Β
Gen Γ
Gen Δ
Checks out to me.
(Also any verbal usage is impossible to say one way or the other. Are they saying the letter or spelling it phonetically, no difference in verbal. The difference between Gen X and Gen Ex or Gen Α and Gen Alpha is written only) 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:7932:8A3D:C29E:B6AB (talk) 20:26, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Actually on that matter the Latin Alphabet stands out as all the articles all just named the letter character while the Cryllic and Greek ones are written phonetically. It's not like you can't write them phonetically, Ay, Bee, Cee, Dee, Ee, Ef, Gee, Eich, Ei, Jay, Kay, El, Em, En, Oh, Pee, Qu, Ar, Es, Tee, Yu, Vee, Double Yu, Ex, Wy, and Zee/Zed. 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:7932:8A3D:C29E:B6AB (talk) 20:31, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Wait we DO do that for the non-English letters you see in Middle English and a couple Germanic languages? I see Thorn/þorn and Eth/Eð on their articles
Ok now I'm ticked at this 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:7932:8A3D:C29E:B6AB (talk) 20:39, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ok I've found a couple of sources using Gen α, namely as shorthand. I've also seen 'Gen α slang' as a search time, that's by far the most common usage.
And I could also claim that anyone saying it verbally isn't favoring one or the other, you pronounce α as alfa just as you can pronounce V as vee or H as Aitch/Eich/Haych(depending on region), it's just modern English favoritism that those ones are written as the Letter by default (C not Cee, B not Bee, H not Aitch, Z not Zed), while for Greek and Cryllic letters we write the name phonetically (Alpha, Beta, Ye, Sha, Kje) which we also do for Latin Letters not used in Modern English (Thorn/Þorn, Eth/Eð, Eszett/Eßett), so it's not even a Latin Alphabet bias it's a modern English bias.
As much as the lack of consistency bothers me(I always favor consistency over common and I always lose those arguments, Wikipedia as a rule seems to put WP:Common far above WP:Consistency and it drives my brain nutty, batty, bothersome), I'm not going to try to change all of that. I'm not that crazy.
But I will say I don't see any issue in tossing Gen Α or Gen α or Gen Αα or something as another option. It has been used on at least a few occasions in written form, it's been used verbally a shit load(because saying 'Al-Fa' out loud isn't a spelling, both Alpha and Αα can be read out loud like that), AND it IS consistent with Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z, which aren't Gen Ex, Gen Wy, or Gen Zed/Zee. So can we toss it in as an alternate option next to Gen Alpha and do the same for Beta? Like there is 'some usage' in writing, it's spoken out loud a ton, and it fits WP:Consistency. Can it be alongside Gen Alpha in shorthand options: Generation Alpha (Also known as Gen Alpha or Gen Α) 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:ED88:1D48:54D3:D56A (talk) 18:32, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
No. Without reliable sources, this is still all WP:OR. Dan Bloch (talk) 21:23, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The end of the alphas

Hello! I’d request that the end of gen a could be stated as 2028 not 2025, the reason for this that this answer is not logical. If gen alpha starts in 2013 it would end in 2028 due to the fact a generation is fifteen years long.

information sources:

Theonethat (talk) 15:54, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Generations are a construct and are always decided by pop culture. It would be most accurate if stated as a range or as a rough estimate (~2025-2028) Ned Retherbrick (talk) 04:23, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My apologies for the late reply but I must agree with this statement! However for now we have to p,ya the waiting game and see what official sources say what the dates shall be. Theonethat (talk) 15:31, 4 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

New essay

I've written an essay, Wikipedia:Defining generations is hard, which may be of interest to readers of this page. Dan Bloch (talk) 05:40, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think at least that things like defining generations (and murky labels in general) are a good real-world demonstration of what WP:OR is (see some of the above discussions regarding whether it should be represented by a non-Latin letter) and a relatively harmless way to practice (and fail in the process) writing without OR. Komonzia (talk) 18:30, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Remove Greek Alphabet image?

As someone who removed this image pointed out, this doesn't really add anything to the article, nor does it have a clear relation to Gen Alpha. It was then added back to the article without an explanation. What does this image contribute? DonnieNova (talk) 14:32, 14 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Gen beta

Its coming, we should update this page. And make a new article for and also make a link to it. BallOfHappiness (talk) 15:11, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This was discussed about six months and the Gen Beta article was deleted as WP:TOOSOON. It's probably still too soon. See discussion for details. Dan Bloch (talk) 15:21, 27 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Starting and ending points of Gen Alpha?

The starting and ending points of Gen Alpha are still a heavily debated topic, don't you think we should be more neutral and ambiguous about it and specifically specify that it is a debated topic so the reader should take the alleged starting and ending points of Gen Alpha with some grains of salt? The page also seems to imply that people seem to unaminously agree that Gen Alpha starts in the early 2010s however I've seen various people all over the internet insist that it starts in the late 2010s or even the early 2020s, so I think it's still too early and we should be more ambiguous about it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 39.60.192.7 (talk) 03:12, 1 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"various people all over the internet" are not a reliable source. Wikipedia articles are supposed to be an emergent set of information from the sources they cite, which should be WP:VERIFIABLE and WP:RELIABLE. If you see the various Internet people insist something in an academic journal, or one of them is an esteemed sociologist, or something like that, feel free to provide links. If there is an issue with how one of the article's current sources presents the issue, then feel free to write to the editor of that publication with your grievances. Komonzia (talk) 04:54, 1 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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