We’ve all heard about Millennials, also known as Generation Y, those tech-savvy youngsters born in the 1980s. And marketing analysts are increasingly watching Generation Z, the post-1990 generation that, according to Business Insider, “doesn’t remember a world before the tech boom.” But what about the generation that comes after Gen Y and Gen Z, the infants and preschoolers of today? And what should we call them?
Mark McCrindle, social researcher and best-selling co-author of The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations, administered a national survey in Australia asking participants to name the next generation to come. Following in the footsteps of science disciplines that move to the Greek alphabet after exhausting the Roman alphabet or Arabic numerals, the leading response was Generation Alpha, and it seems to be sticking, at least in Australia.
Children born since 2010, the year the iPad was launched, are in this generation, whatever it is called, and they are already a force to be reckoned with. If you are around children in that age group, you know that they are often quite facile using tablets and cell phones. “Text mama and tell her I want to ride my scooter home,” or “Ask Siri what a baby rhinoceros is called” are typical ways my four year old charge uses technology, and she will very soon be keying in these requests herself. Technology is not new to her, or even special; it is simply an integral part of the world in which she lives, and as she grows up she and her age mates will “seamlessly interact with the world digitally, ” wrote Lisa Mayoh in The Daily Telegraph. From McCrindle’s Twitter feed, I learned that 2.5 million Gen Alphas are being born around the world each week. That means, he calculates, that in 2034 there will be 80 million of these digitally interacting young people in the U.S. and 2 billion in the world.
Dan Schawbel, the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm and the author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success, has given some thought to this new generation, and made these five predictions on his blog:
1. They will be the more entrepreneurial generation. He believes this because each generation so far been more entrepreneurial than the last. But many members of this generation, he writes, will be starting companies before they are ten years old.
2. They will be the most tech savvy and not know a world without social networking. The four year olds are already tech savvy, so this one isn’t hard to understand.
3. They will primarily shop online and have less human contact than previous generations. Today’s students report that heavy technology use has weakened their soft skills; Schawbel suggests that Gen Alpha youngsters may face psychological challenges from this situation.
4. They will be extremely coddled and influenced by their Gen X and Y parents. A trend among Gen X and Y parents is to marry later and postpone children until they are on their feet economically, which takes longer than it took Boomers. So I can see this happening too.
5. They will be more self-sufficient, better educated and prepared for big challenges. He ends his predictions on a high note, pointing out that although this generation will need to deal with global warming, budget deficits, and the absence of the social security safety net, they will have earlier and wider access to education through online sources, and will be able to continue their learning throughout their lives.
Screen time is a topic my daughter and I discuss almost daily, since she tries to limit screen time to two hours a day. That sounds like a lot, but “screen time” could include watching DVDs, network television or Netflix, playing games on an iPad or iPhone, talking to Baba on Face Time, searching for cute pictures of penguins on Grandma’s iMac, and giggling at old family pictures as they scroll on the TV. It’s amazing how the minutes add up, and, understandably, she likes to reserve time for “emergencies” such as a tired child needing a little down time during dinner preparations.
Mark McCrindle says the term “screen time” will be irrelevant in the futures of Gen Alphas, because screens will soon surround us, present in every room of the house. Now that’s spooky. I hope he’s wrong.
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Being a Millennial I have already seen the impacts that technology has had on people my age. Pokemon Go is one example of how face-to-face social interaction is evolving, even in my generation. I would say the majority of people I know, more often than not, are glued to a screen at home. As a child I grew up fixated on screens. Watching Barney and any Disney movie I could get my hands on.
My next fixation was on video games. In middle school I had become addicted to an online game called Runescape. This game allows one to create an “avatar” and interact in real time with people from across the world. A lot of my middle childhood I was tormented by my peers. I was not a popular kid and in many respects neglected by my peers as well. The online game served as a way to socially interact, and it became the only way I enjoyed social interaction. From middle childhood to adolescence, it was challenging for me to interact with others face-to-face. Only now in college have I been able to have thoughtful conversations in person, but it has taken time to develop my social skills.
I honestly cannot imagine what is going to happen to our future society if this technology fixation is already so present within my generation. Children in generation Alpha may be gaining knowledge at a faster rate, but their face-to-face social interactions maybe even more limited than mine was. Dan Schawbel’s predictions about generation Alpha seems positive, but I question what the negative consequences will be of exposing young children to technology at such a young age. Maybe there will be no negative consequences. Unfortunately, I feel like not exposing children to technology at a young age may hinder them, putting them behind their peers in terms of understanding technology, and even success in the future.
Riley,
I think all of us who care about children are concerned about the prevalence of technology in their lives. I believe that it is up to parents and teachers to maintain a “high touch” environment in which children learn the value of interpersonal relations before they are introduced to screens.
i feel parents allow children too much screen time. It seems to create anti-social behavior. I especially hate seeing children sitting around in the same room texting each other instead of talking to each other.
Are we raising a society of anti-social children? Will they be able to speak a complete sentence, or will they talk in acronyms and symbols?
I support your daughter in monitoring screen time. More parents need to do so! Children need to play, blow bubbles, ride a bike, collect bugs anything but zombiefied in front of a TV, iPad, Xbox etc. Encourage physical play instead of staring at a screen tuned out to the world around them! Engage, socialize, play!
Dena,
Thank you so much for your comments. Research supports your views that unmediated screen time displaces more productive types of activities such as conversation, problem solving, manipulative play and even running and jumping in the outdoors. Some ways we can help children to develop language skills while trying to minimize screen time are to talk with them, read to them and sing with them. That way adults don’t always need to be policing children’ screen time; if we engage them in interesting things, they will participate.