After Gen X, Millennials, What Should Next Generation Be? (USA Today)

Generation Wii, iGeneration, Gen Tech, Net Gen, Post Gen, Pluralist Generation, Gen Z—these, and many others, are among the suggested names of the next generation of American consumers whose birth dates begin around 1995. Generational labels of socio-groupings have come roughly in 20-year increments and gone: GI Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials. Still forming, the next generation—if nothing else—will be the technically savviest yet. Along that line, it is a generation known for posting everything on social networks. Also worth noting about this generation is that it will be America’s last generation with a Caucasian majority, says Jack MacKenzie, EVP at Frank N. Magid Associates. However, what a generation is does not decide its name. “Generational labels don’t always reflect reality,” said psychology professor and generational writer Jean Twenge. “Often, they reflect the hopes of what people want a generation to be.”