Look, I just got interested in this topic a few days ago, so I'm not an expert or anything. But I'm really interested in how generations are organized. This might not seem very interesting, but trust me, you'll get hooked.

So I was talking to my parents about what they thought about different generations, and we had a long conversation about it. I then started wondering, what generation am I in? I thought, obviously I'm a millennial. But am I really? I looked on the most reliable source possible, Wikipedia, and it says, "researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years."

Obviously that's pretty vague, but at least I have some proof I'm a millennial, because I was born in the early 2000s. I guess I'm done. That was easy! But I felt like I needed more proof. I needed proof that no one in the United States can refuse, proof from the United States government. That didn't work out well. The only generation the United States government recognizes is the Baby Boomers, and they were born from 1946 to 1964.

Just for fun, I wanted to see what would happen if we go with 18 year sections like Baby Boomers. We could have Generation X from 1965 to 1983, and then Millennials from 1984 to 2002. That means because I was born after 2002, I can't be a millennial. What if I tried a different approach? Why were Baby Boomers born from 1946 to 1964 in the first place?

Like the name suggests, Baby Boomers were notable because of an increase in babies, a boom, that were born right after World War 2. The increase in babies died off by 1964, so that's when it ended. Well, that's somewhat helpful, because now I have a way to classify the generations.

If we went with birth patterns, I can use that helpful Wikipedia chart to help me. Generation X can go from 1965 to 1990, and then Millennials go from 1991 to around 2010. That's perfect! That would mean I'm a millennial! But wait, that would mean a person born in 1965 could have a baby at 18, and then their baby would be in the same generation as them. That wouldn't make much sense.

If we went with major events to mark the generations, like World War 2, Millennials would stop being born the same year of the biggest event of the early 21st century... which would most likely be 9/11. That would mean I'm not a millennial, because I was born after 9/11.

It's time to go to the darkest place on the internet, Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed's video, Generations Throughout History, says that people in Generation X were from 1965 to 1980, Millennials were from 1981 to 1997, and Generation Z was born from 1998 to 2010. The Buzzfeed gods have spoken, they have said I'm not a millennial. (Buzzfeed also says there's a Generation Alpha, born from 2010 to 2025, but I'll get into that later.)

Okay, lets get this straight. I have many different ways at classifying the generations, how would I choose? What if I just don't choose, and instead average them out. So that means Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964, Generation X was born from 1965 to 1984, and Millennials were born from 1985 to 2002. I don't think the averages are great either, so I would choose the equal 18 year segments to classify the generations. But that method isn't very popular, so if we want something everyone would like, the averages are the best compromise.

Either way, I'm not a millennial. No matter which means I use, either it says I'm not a millennial or there will be big problems with the method. Then what am I? Well, I'm in Generation Z, of course. Yeah, but that name is really boring, and just piggybacking off of the Generation X name. Buzzfeed cited iGen, but I don't think that's a great name either.

Back to Wikipedia! Wikipedia says Generation Z is also called Plurals (I'm guessing for the size of the generation) and the Homeland Generation (for growing up in a post-9/11 world). MTV coined The Founders as the generation name for having "this self-awareness that systems have been broken, but they can't be the generation that says we'll break it even more".

So, I guess I'm not a millennial, but instead, I'm a Gen Z-er (I don't know, it doesn't have a ring to it). But at the end of the day, that wasn't my main achievement. I discovered an interest that I didn't know I had. And I hope all of you discovered one too. Goodbye internet.

In my previous article, I briefly discussed Generation Alpha, which was featured in Buzzfeed's video. I didn't even think about this, so I decided to dive deeper. I discovered Generation Alpha gets it's name from the first Greek letter, mostly because we ran out of letters in the English alphabet.

Individuals in Generation Alpha will be born from 2010 to 2025. When I was researching, I realized that if you followed the 18 year segments, they would be born from 2020 to 2035. This is a problem, because it is generally accepted that Generation Alpha is from 2010 to 2025.

Because of this unwanted overlap, I developed a new system. Generation X would be born from 1965 to 1980, Millennials would be born from 1980 to 1995, and the Homeland Generation would be born from 1995 to 2010. Then we can have Generation Alpha be born from 2010 to 2025, but keep lengths of the generations (mostly) consistent.

Generation Alpha could also be called Generation Glass, according to generational researcher Mark McCrindle. He says they will be the most educated, most technology supplied, and wealthiest generation ever. Their oldest may be only seven, but we know a lot about what they will be.