Generation Alphabet

Today I encountered the expression ‘Generation Y’ for the first time. This generation, apparently, is the first for which the internet has pretty much always existed, and has markedly different needs and expectations concerning knowledge acquisition, time-keeping and long-term career aims, to which current educators and employers (presumably themselves of Generation X or previous) must adapt.

The concept is fascinating and no doubt sociologically useful. In keeping with the theme of this blog, however, what scares me is the implication that Generation Z, by definition the last, is only one letter away. By this time society/the planet/civilization etc. will have destroyed itself/been destroyed delete as appropriate. Trite suggestions that sociologists will simply have to start again, with Generation AA like the batteries, or Generation A+ like school grades, don’t wash with me I’m afraid.

It makes me think of a book I studied at school, Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O‘Brien, published in 1974, and apparently soon to be made into a film (thank you Google and Wikipedia). The story is set in the aftermath of a destructive nuclear war, in which possibly the only surviving girl, living in an isolated meteorological enclave, encounters possibly the only surviving man, traveling in a prototype anti-radiation suit. The title comes from the girl’s recollection of a bible-based alphabet reader, in which A is for Adam and Z is for Zachariah; as Adam was the first man, as a child she assumed that Zachariah must be the last man.

Z for the last man, or the last generation; if one is so inclined, the designation of the end of the alphabet seems to be a doom-laden portent (yes, I know they only started at Generation X, x being the unknown à la algebra, to designate the post-baby boom generation - or the “baby-bust generation’, I read somewhere - thanks again Google).

Let’s see if I cannot rationalize myself into some optimism. There must be places on the planet where the English language and its alphabet have not yet taken over, and where those born at the end of the 20th century have not had the opportunity (or misfortune) to be raised online. There must be places, in remote jungles or deserts at least, where alphabetical generational labels and information-overload technology have little relevance. Perhaps life will survive in such places long after our first-world culture has fried itself in an excess of electromagnetic radiation (X-Y-Z rays?).