Gen Alpha

Gen Alpha, the first generation to grow up with smartphones and social media, is facing numerous challenges. Excessive screen time has been linked to developmental issues, such as communication and motor skill challenges. Their attention spans have decreased, affecting their ability to focus and learn. Influencers and online content have a significant impact on their behavior and perceptions. Additionally, the lack of accountability and consequences in education is a major concern. However, with proper guidance and support, Gen Alpha has the potential to become trailblazers and shape the world in unimaginable ways. The future remains uncertain, but there is hope for their success. Gen Alpha is the first generation to have never known a world without a smartphone or social media. To be fair, it wasn't exactly their fault, but their parents. This generation of kids was basically handed smartphones even before they knew how to walk, and this bad decision created the iPad generation. Almost every kid has gone addicted to their smartphones, watching TikTok, playing mobile games, which is basically proven to affect their development, both socially and mentally. On August 21, 2023, a study involving 7,097 mother-child pairs dived into the impact of screen time from the ages of 2 to 4. Mothers self-reported various skills, like communication and motor skills, and the study discovered that kids with more than four hours of screen time were significantly more likely to face challenges in communication, personal and social skills, and fine motor skills. That same year, the topic of alphas getting glued to the internet started to gain traction on social media, with the popular caption, hashtag iPad kids. These showcased a number of TikTokers displaying how Gen Alpha acts when stuck up with their iPads. While these might look overly reactive and a bit overstretched, you should really be scared of Gen Alpha. In 2021, another study in the National Library of Medicine explored how the screen time of younger kids changed during COVID-19. Their average weekly screen time increased by 1.75 hours per day in the first pandemic period and by 1.11 hours per day in the second pandemic period. If you still think this addiction to social media doesn't have any significant effects, ask yourself, how long have you gone without looking at your phone? This problem is not just with Gen Alpha. Even though most of Gen Zers did not start using smartphones as early as Gen Alpha, too much exposure to social media is a plague that affects us all. Now, what is the fate of Gen Alpha and the internet? With the advent of short-form content like Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, our brains are being reconfigured to get quick and easy entertainment. Content creators have had to employ several improvements like cutting out intros and overloading viewers with fast transition edits or else they get bored easily. The attention span of kids born between the ages of 6 and 12 have dropped from 12 seconds to just 8 seconds, even less than a goldfish's 9 seconds. Surprisingly, top content creators estimate it to be even less and craft their videos accordingly. So while you might not see this as a big deal, this has severely impacted the lives of Gen Alpha kids. They are finding it hard to focus during lessons as there's no subway surfer or skippity toilet to keep them engaged. They can't study, they no longer can fail classes, and they can't maintain conversations. Kids are awesome, and they've always been. In the past, every kid engaged in sports and exciting adventures with their friends. These outdoor activities weren't just fun, it was a crucial development stage in their lives to build relationships and improve communication and teamwork. While gadgets make our lives easier, for kids born in the digital age, these gadgets are their life. Today, the world is about to witness how artificial intelligence will reshape the lives of these alphas. With the influence of AI-driven algorithms in education, it's safe to consider them dangerous to the kids. We can see how popular programs like ChatGBT are already changing how college students carry out their homework. Even while these tools hold great potential for enhancing education, the reality paints a different picture as many kids often use their mobile devices for anything except studying. A number of them are addicted to gaming throughout the day, while others are in chat rooms discussing irrelevant topics with their peers. It gets more worrying when you take note of some of the products and services some influencers promote on social media. Recently, people like DJ Khaled and Fat Show promoted OnlyFans pages, claiming it's the only way to light. Imagine how much influence he must have had on these little kids. Other studies reveal that online influencers have power over a kid's mind, changing their perceptions in a way that affects their general behavior. Unfortunately, this is only one of the aspects of the challenges they face. Gen alpha kids are struggling, and this is because quite a number of them cannot read or write. Just a quick look at the internet and you'll see many viral video clips with teachers complaining and tagging these kids as being unteachable and hopeless. So this finally brings us to one prominent challenge faced by gen alphas, their perceived lack of accountability. As a kid in Canada, you can practically skip homework, ignore the teachers, fail exams, and still find yourself in the next grade. Meanwhile, the topic of failing students has made headlines in recent years, especially after a teacher was fired for breaking the school's no-zero policy and failing students who missed tests or assignments. Even while these kids keep displaying lackluster behavior to learning, they keep getting away with it. In 2022, a record of 650 midwestern K-12 teachers left their profession for reasons related to bad student behavior. My mom was a teacher and actually recently retired due to similar reasons, and it just became way too much for her to handle. Apparently she got exhausted trying to avoid conflict and fairly grade these lazy students. You literally have kids who cannot read at the 3rd grade level but are now in the 6th grade. And the crazy thing is that they will keep getting moved along to become the next teacher's problem because you literally cannot do anything about it or hold them back. A recent survey shows that 70% of gen alpha's parents are millennials. While these kids are not held accountable for anything, their millennial parents keep backing up every one of their dumb behaviors. They typically want to be their children's best buddy and simply wish to avoid being disliked by their kids. Now where has that gone us? In 2022, it was revealed that in the US, 30% of grade 1 level kids did not reach reading expectations. A 2023 study shows that just as many students are behind grade level as their previous year. While it's easy to blame these kids for failing on their own part, don't you think that Gen Z are at fault for raising the worst generation? I have a firm belief that nothing will destroy your life faster than having everything you could have ever wanted all on demand. This applies to everything concerning gen alpha kids. When hunger strikes, fast food and snacks are always within reach. If boredom sets in, they can play games and watch videos on digital service. So how far has that gone them? Consider that in the 1970s, the average American child started watching TV regularly at the age of four. Today, children are already exploring the digital world at as early as four months. Meanwhile, everyone's cool with it since their kids are always occupied. But in reality, the young ones are watching things like skivvy toilet and anything else that's going to rot their brain. But there's a darker side to this instant access world, early exposure to adult content. Today, many kids are having unrestricted access to explicit inquiry content due to inadequate monitoring. These kids might stumble upon explicit content unintentionally like opening unsolicited messages, receiving spam emails, or mistyping website addresses. In the long run, these unintentional exposures will lead to intentional exposure and then addiction. The bad part is, it's happening at an age where they should be learning about these topics in a healthy, age-appropriate way. This raises concerns about the potential long-term impact on their views of relationships, treating others, and healthy sexuality. According to the American Psychology Association, kids encounter online pornography at the age of 13.37. Some as young as five years old. Another survey by the NSPCC Childline reveals that one-tenth of 12 to 13-year-olds are already addicted to pornography, which is absolutely crazy. These kids are experiencing hyper-sexualization in a way we've never seen before. And even though Gen Zs were exposed to it, we were never this bad. This easy access raises concerns about parental awareness and control over these kids. However, we can't completely give up on these kids. Despite the challenges they face in this ever-changing world, this generation possesses immense potential for greatness. Meanwhile, everyone has a part to play in molding their lives. Parents, teachers, policymakers, and society need to help them to strike a balance between the good, the bad, and the ugly things of technology. Generation Alpha could surprise us. With our guidance and their inherent potential, they might emerge as trailblazers, reshaping the world in unimaginable ways. After all, the fate of our world rests in their tiny, capable hands. In the end, only time will tell what the future holds for these kids.