Douglas Coupland author of Generation A

In a hotel room in Covent Garden, Douglas Coupland is musing on Twitter. “It’s a dumb name. I think they should change it. Maybe call it Churchill. Or Marlborough. Have you Marlboroughed today?”

Hmm. It appears the man famous for popularising one of the snappiest and most appropriated phrases of the 90s, Generation X, might have lost his touch. But most likely he’s playfully but ­purposefully coining a term that is ­unlikely to enter the popular vernacular.

The ubiquity of the title of his 1991 debut novel is something of a ­bugbear for the 47-year-old author –so much so he titled his new novel Generation A in reaction to it.

“I hope this is the final ­silver bullet in the unkillable zombie that was Generation X,” says the laconic Canadian. “I spent 18 years wondering if this was going to go away? So I thought I should ­attack it head on.”

Generation A, which structurally mirrors its namesake, is set in the near future, when ­humans are ­suffering from information overload and bees are thought to be extinct.

So, when five unconnected people scattered across the world are all stung at the same time, it causes a sensation.

They become instant ­celebrities before being scooped up by authorities and deposited on a Canadian island, where they pass the time telling stories.

It’s a book about the ­importance of storytelling and the danger posed to us by sensory bombardment.

So is Coupland, a writer described by a critic as having “his eye so firmly on the ball he’s virtually clairvoyant”, anxious about the future?

“Well, I think if there’s a choice between people ­giving up their cellphones or the bees disappearing, I think you’ll be hard to pressed to find anyone who’ll give up their cellphone.

“That can get a bit dark. But I’m more hopeful than not hopeful.”

Does he ever get nostalgic for the pre-internet, ­Generation X era of the 90s?

“No. Things were slower and more contemplative, but that contemplation has led to all the technology there is today, so it’s chicken and egg.”

If he had to choose a year to go back to, he says it’d be 1995. He said: “That was a fun year, everything was incredibly optimistic. But I still prefer the present moment.

“I don’t think the world has felt so futuristic as it does right now,” he continues.

“Before, technology was happening, but it felt like you were in charge of it. Now no one’s in charge.”

He cites Bill Gates’ famous Think Weeks, during which the Microsoft chief brainstorms with fellow boffins on the future of technology. “The richest and smartest people on earth get ­together and they can’t predict what’s going to ­happen. They didn’t predict Twitter.

“We just have to sit and wait for the next epoch-defining­ technology to emerge from wherever it’s coming from.”

While we’re waiting, you can follow his updates on Twitter. Sorry, “Marlborough”. But don’t expect an endless stream of visionary ­wisdom. “I use it for haiku moments during the day,” he says, “not to be profound. Like, I was in a restaurant in ­Edinburgh the other day, and they said, try our new ­vegetarian mini-haggis. Why would you want to mimic the most disgusting type of meat?”

Answers to in 140 characters or less.

Generation A, published by Heinemann, £16.99