LogFAQs > #970606290

ReturnOfFa posted...

did it ever follow the alphabet?

No. It was only "Gen X" as a play on "Brand X" - literally a reference to how generic the generation was. Essentially, they're so lacking in a unifying cultural identity that no one could come up with a better name.

Then lazy people called the next generation "Gen Y" at first (until they reclassified them as Millennials), so then lazier people decided the next generation after would be "Gen Z" (or Zoomers, to play off Gen Z and Baby Boomer), and so on.

The main problem is that generation-based terms (and timeframes) usually aren't all that scientific. It's less that sociologists all get together and come up with an official academic definition for them, as much as pop culture tends to come up with random ideas and then eventually one of them catches on more than the others. Which then sort of retroactively becomes the official interpretation.