Harrison Alexander Cheng is among the first members of the new Generation Beta, those born between 2025-39. Harrison was the first baby born at Auckland City Hospital this year, arriving at 12.07am on January 1. Photo / Alex Burton
Harrison Alexander Cheng is among the first members of the new Generation Beta, those born between 2025-39. Harrison was the first baby born at Auckland City Hospital this year, arriving at 12.07am on January 1. Photo / Alex Burton
A new generation began on January 1 – Generation Beta, which will consist of those born between 2025 and 2039.
The generation expected to live to see the 22nd century will experience ongoing changes in technology and healthcare, but also the challenges of climate change and a declining birth rate.
The generation will account for an increasingly diverse New Zealand, including 20% of people identifying as Māori by 2040 and representing a third of those in the education system.
Okay, Beta.
You rocked up with a hearty wail after the clock struck midnight on January 1, the first arrivals in a generational cohort that rolls through to 2039 and is expected to live to see the 22nd century.
Life right now is pretty simple – sustenance in and out,a whole lot of sleeping, and the occasional peep at a world that’ll one day be yours to explore, enjoy, and maybe even change.
But what kind of world will it be for Generation Beta?
Two-week-old Harrison Cheng’s parents aren’t quite sure, beyond it being one of ongoing technological advancements.
“I think he’ll be mainly part of [the] AI generation where there’s a lot of automation and new tech coming through,” Alexander Cheng says of his son, the first baby born at Auckland City Hospital this year, arriving seven minutes after midnight on January 1.
“So yeah, a very, very different future compared to what we’re used to,” the 27-year-old (Gen Z) Remuera-based dad says.
Leona Cheang and Alexander Cheng welcomed their first child, Harrison Cheng, on January 1. Photo / Alex Burton
Cradled in the arms of his mum, legal counsel Leona Cheang, 27, the newborn’s in the right place to combat one of futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds’ biggest fears for his generation – thankfully, one his parents don’t have to worry about just yet.
Members of Gen Z (1997-2009) and Gen Alpha (2010-2024) have been described as being among the “anxiety generation” after experiencing easy, tech-enabled dopamine hits and “too much, too soon”, Clark Reynolds says.
“My youngest is Gen Z and she’s never lived in a house without Wi-Fi. She’s 24 and never had terrestrial television.”
Members of Gen Z are the first digital natives, but individual experiences varied depending on their families’ economic circumstances, a barrier no longer applicable for the Betas, she says.
“My concern for the next lot is that somebody thrusts a phone in their face, because it does keep a toddler quiet. I don’t mean to sound like some old fart … [but] we haven’t, as a society, caught up with some technologies we’re using, and what the impact will be.
“There’s a lack of human connection if there’s too much technology early [in life]. Kids need to be held, and talked to, and read to.”
Harrison Cheng and his mother, Leona Cheang, pictured soon after his January 1 birth. The Auckland baby is among the first of a new generational cohort, Generation Beta. Photo / Alex Burton
Harrison’s parents are right in saying artificial intelligence will be a bigger part of his life than theirs.
It’ll be “so standard, we’re not even going to be calling it AI”, says Clark-Reynolds, a tech entrepreneur and professional director who, through her company FutureCentre.NZ, works with companies on future strategy.
“Most people are already using AI without knowing. Google Search has already started giving you the recommendations it thinks you’re looking for, and I’m super-happy if my phone [alerts me]: ‘Oh, you’re going somewhere, should I book an Uber for half an hour before you need to leave?’”
There’s no need to understand how it works, just as those of previous generations didn’t need to “be a plumber to use a tap, or an engineer to turn on a light”.
What Harrison and his peers will need is the ability to think critically, as social media platforms’ ditching of fact-checking clears the path for those peddling misinformation and disinformation.
“I saw [on Facebook], ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s penis pumps caused the LA fires’. With Facebook deciding not to fact-check, people are having a brilliant time playing with it, but you need to know what’s irony and what’s not.”
It's been a cold summer in Wellington, says futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds, and it'll be the coldest anyone alive now – including the newest members of Generation Beta – will ever know, thanks to climate change. Photo / Marty Melville
Generation Beta will also be the climate change generation, with the first summer of the earliest members’ lives “the coldest [they’ll] ever have”.
“They’re not going to have any knowledge of a world that isn’t on fire, and the places that aren’t on fire will be underwater.”
The world is also running out of antibiotics, due to a lack of new medications and the spread of antibiotic resistance, but advancements in gene technologies should see the end of incurable chronic diseases, with “big hopes” for gene-related conditions such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease, she says.
GLP-1 agonist medications such as Ozempic come off patent in a decade, after which cheaper and more widespread generic options will be available.
This could allow Generation Betas to avoid diabetes and obesity.
“There are always side effects, and this is not medical advice, but in 10 years’ time, the changes that’ll make to health and nutrition is going to be enormous … we’ll expect to see one in 10 people on the planet on these drugs.”
Auckland-born Harrison Cheng is among an increasing number of New Zealand-born children of parents originally from Asian communities, sociologist Paul Spoonley says.
Harrison, whose parents emigrated to New Zealand from Malaysia nine years ago, will also be part of New Zealand’s most ethnically diverse generation ever, sociologist Paul Spoonley says.
“When he’s 15, he’ll be part of a community which is made up of Māori and Asian communities, which is very different even from the year he was born.”
The Asian communities, which includes those with Indian heritage, will represent one in four Kiwis, but in Auckland that figure will increase to two in five.
“They’ll have a younger median age, so they’ll make up a quarter of the school-age population. At the moment, three-quarters of Asian communities are immigrants, but by 2040, many more will be New Zealand-born and raised.
“In terms of Harrison, it’ll be interesting to see how he answers the question, ‘To which ethnic group do you belong?’ Will he hyphenate, and what labels will he use – New Zealand-Malaysian, New Zealand-Chinese?
“And what sports will he play? Probably not our traditional sports like rugby, but much more likely basketball, badminton, table tennis or football.”
Young Māori of the near future will be immersed in their culture in a way Māori generations haven't been since before World War II, sociologist Paul Spoonley says. Pictured is Te Puke Primary School's kapa haka group during Te Kete Matariki last year. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
At least 20% of New Zealanders will, for the first time since the 1860s, self-identify as Māori by 2040, and represent a third of those in the education system – which itself is estimated by the Ministry of Education to be down 30,000 by 2032 due to a declining birth rate, Spoonley says.
“They’ll be the kōhanga reo generation – they’ll be immersed in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori in a way that Māori generations have not been since pre-World War II.”
This changing demography, especially in the education system and combined with falling birth rates spurring increased immigration to supply needed workers, will change how we live and what we see as important, Spoonley says.
“All this means that some of the anti-immigrant/anti-Māori and nationalist politics that we currently see seem to be a product of white anxiety and nationalist conservatism.
“Demography will rapidly change these politics, certainly by the 2030s.”
Generational cohorts had their place but it was important not to imply everyone in that generation was similar, especially among different ethnicities, sociologist Paul Spoonley says. Photo / RNZ
Caution towards labels implying everyone in a generation is similar is important.
Even now, the differences within generations might be more significant than those between generations, Spoonley says.
“Māori or Pasifika New Zealanders are, in many ways, very different from Pākehā New Zealanders, as we are discovering at the moment.
“There’ll be matters in common – the significance of online and digital technologies – but very different experiences and life chances on matters such as employment prospects or home ownership.”
A healthy, happy life is the greatest hope of baby Harrison's parents, says mum Leona Cheang.
As for their Generation Beta bub – 3.74kg (8lb 4oz) at birth and growing – a healthy, happy life is their greatest hope, his parents say.
Yes, there’ll be plenty of technology to help him on his way, says Cheng, a banker.
But there’ll also be mum and dad.
“Whatever he does, we’ll fully support it … I think it will be a bright future for him.”
Which generation are you part of?*
1901-1926: The Greatest Generation
1927-1945: The Silent Generation
1946-1964: Baby Boomers
1965-1980: Generation X
1981-1996: Millennials
1997-2009: Generation Z
2010-2024: Generation Alpha
2025-2039: Generation Beta
*Some start/finish years vary slightly by source.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
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