What Do We Call Gen Z (AKA Anyone Born After 1995)? How About “Generation Scapegoat”?

“The Thumbies” is another option.

Last week, the New York Times asked their readers under the age of 22 to help them classify their own generation. How nice of them!

Given that the oldest bunch of “millennials” are inching towards the age of 40, the Times felt it was, ahem, time to properly acknowledge the generation that comes after (those born after 1995) unsatisfied with the pre-existing titles Generation Z, Post-Millennials, The Homeland Generation and iGeneration.

Those names are… not great. But the new reader suggestions… are not great either.

They ranged from “Sisu Generation”, from the Finnish word that “roughly [translates] to determination in the face of adversity”, to “Spimes”, based on the idea of an object “hooked to the internet of things”.

Of course, it wasn’t just under-22s who responded. A 91-year old reader chimed in with “The Thumbies”.

Another suggestion: “Don’t call us anything. The whole notion of cohesive generations is nonsense.” Some also offered the single word, “Doomed”.

The NY Times had a favourite: “The Delta Generation”, which denotes “change and uncertainty in mathematics and the sciences”.

But the most popular suggestion on their Facebook page was “Generation Scapegoat”.

All of this is to say: Surely, we can do better. Chime in below, Thumbies!

Photo: iStock.com/AprilCarlsonPhotography