So this is 2025.

Here we are, a quarter of the way into the 21st century. Anyone reading this have any ambition of making it out—lasting until the 22nd century, that is?

That's on my mind because I read today that this will be the first year of Generation Beta. That is to say, the first members of this new generation will be born this year. These kids will mostly be the children of Gen Z (1995–2009) but maybe also the youngest of the millennials (1980-1994). I suppose Gen X could still be in the running for any of us lucky enough to be rich enough to attract young women—even the baby boomers are still going in that regard, just look at Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, both recent new fathers.

Anyway, Gen Beta continues the trend of using Greek letters, begun by Gen Alpha (2010–2024). One can imagine the jokes these kids will run into, puns playing off the use of beta for unfinished software. The fellow who named the previous one and seems to be naming this one, Mark McCrindle, says he switched to Greek letters to give these two generations a different feel, since they will be raised in a world completely different from those of us who came before. I kind of think you could say the same thing for basically any generation born since 1900, but there you go.

It is pretty crazy to think about how Gen Beta will be raised. They will be the first to be surrounded by AI. Most of us are now getting used to ChatGPT and other LLMs and it's starting to feel kind of normal, if still amazing when we stop to think about it, but to these kids, they won't know anything else. Depending on how fast the rollout is, this generation may not be able to remember riding in a car that doesn't drive itself).

The most interesting thing to be is that like Gen Alpha, these kids are going to come up in the Internet world. They are going to talk to people from all over the world as they are growing up. There no longer is local culture, at least not as much as there used to be. 1980s America was very different from 1980s Japan, for instance. But these days, 2020s any country in the developed world is at least a little similar, because we all talk to each other, we all share the same memes/videos/pop culture, the world has become so much smaller and more united that it was.

The oldest of Gen Alpha will be reaching 15, by the way. I'm still getting used to Gen Z slang, but now Gen Alpha will start to control the new slang. I suppose I am insulated from English slang a little since I don't live in an English speaking country so I don't hear it daily as many of you might, especially people like @bozz who are in jobs where they interact with young humans daily, but I'm on the net and the net is still primarily English.

By the way, speaking of Gen Z slang, did you see the rewrite of Harry Potter using Gen Z slang? It's wild. Here's Chapter 1, or go here to see all the chapters and books that have thus far been "translated".

Anyway, my tea pot is boiling so rambling over. On to my 3rd day of the year!

David is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.