Cantankerous Boomers, grungy Generation X and lazy Millennials. It seems as though each of these groups has its own “thing”― a characteristic shared by the whole generation that is easily scorned by the rest. The youngest generations make up the Seabury student body, with Generation Z comprising upper schoolers born from 1997 to 2009 and Generation Alpha consisting of middle schoolers born from 2010 to 2024. With the development of young individuals’ identities, generations consequently become increasingly defined. Students and faculty belonging to these young generations discuss the differences between Generation Z and Generation Alpha.
Sixth grader Oli DeRousse says, “Generation Z is always on their phone … and a lot of the time insecure because they’re on social media so much.” As a member of Gen Alpha, he points out similar habits for his generation: “I mean, I could say the same thing for Gen Alpha, just with an iPad,” he says.
Eighth grader Beck Abbott finds Gen Alpha humor distinctive: “I think our generation is really funny. We have a lot of good jokes, but also it comes with things like brain rot and just things that are … embarrassing to say.” An elder Alpha, Abbott feels he bridges the generational cusp: “I kind of think I mesh with Gen Z … If there was an in between of Gen Alpha and Gen Z, I’d be in that generation because … I don’t know everything about the things that other kids younger than me know, but I definitely am not educated on the older things … I would just say I’m in the middle,” he says.
Freshman Livia Roesler, though barely falling in the Gen Z pool, still feels she strongly fits on one side: “I feel like I’m just Gen Z. When I think of Gen Alpha, I think of the 6th graders.” Describing her perception of Gen Z, she says, “We let very loose. We speak our minds. While Gen Alpha does do that, they’re too honest. They will [call you out] directly, whereas we sugarcoat.”
Junior Aven Handshy subscribes to a less rigid viewpoint: “I think there’s not a whole lot that’s unique to a generation,” he says. “If anything, I think we’re probably the most tech savvy thus far except for maybe Gen Alpha, [which] is kind of the iPad kid generation.”
On a similar note, faculty member Lawrence Meier, one of two Gen Z teachers, finds categorization based on generation somewhat unnecessary: “Why are we really grouping people by, most of the time, let’s be real, arbitrary years? … It’s a very arbitrary range, and … people from several generations care, but I feel like, [as Gen Z,] we don’t care,” he says.
In spite of this, Meier identifies the tendency for older generations to judge younger ones: “[We perceive Gen Z and Gen Alpha] the same way that every generation that comes before perceives the next generation, [like] they’re [ruining something] that comes from the previous generation for some reason, when in reality it just doesn’t mesh,” he says.
Abbott recognizes this behavior within his own generation due to varying maturity levels: “I think it depends on the age. I think [people who are] 14 and 13 are kind of looking down [on younger Gen Alphas, thinking,] ‘Wow. This is embarrassing,’” he says.
DeRousse thinks that the drastic developmental differences evident in Gen Alpha contribute to this: “[Gen Z’ers] think they’re cooler than everyone. Gen Alpha doesn’t really care … how they’re perceived yet. Some of them don’t even have consciousness yet,” he says.
On this point, it seems like most agree that the characteristics of an individual hold far more value than how their generation is perceived. Meier says, “The beauty of being human and growing up [is that] everyone will have a different point of view, [and] when you start looking at those fundamental interests, a lot of them are the same thing, oftentimes with a different coat of paint.”
At the end of the day, Abbott wants to enforce our shared humanity: “We’re all humans, so this is all our first time living … Maybe realizing the differences instead of comparing … [and] pointing out the positive things … [is what’s important],” he says.
