Kids born after 2013 live in an entirely different world from everyone else. As we have seen on social media, they are addicted to using technology, cannot comprehend basic rules and are growing up entirely too fast thanks to media influencers and questionable parenting skills.
Although Generation Z kids also grew up with technological influences, it has never been so bad to the point where we could not go five minutes without our tablets or watching television. It has come to the point where we must question if Generation Alpha is developing the way they should.
The biggest problems with Generation Alpha’s development are parenting structure, social-emotional factors, and classroom behaviors.
To begin, one of the main roots of a child’s development and behavior comes from the parents and the environment that they grow up in. Of course, the parents of Generation Alpha are Millennials, which is a scary reality to think of. They are raising kids in an age where technology controls everything, so they implement this in how they discipline and occupy their kids when they do not have the time to “raise” them.
For example, if a five-year-old child is crying at the table in a fancy restaurant, the first thing that a 20-something-year-old parent would do is stick a phone in their face so they can be quiet - this happens consistently in any environment.
This routine is very detrimental for the child, as they will start to become more reliant on that technology to feel calm and at peace, and that is not fair to them. They need to be taught the fundamentals of how to behave in a public or private space, what other resources they can use at their disposal besides technology, and how to efficiently react to issues that arise for them.
Next, it is obvious that Generation Alpha is using social media at an unprecedented level. Some 63% of Generation Alpha value having the latest technology. This horrible addiction to technology at such an early age. Children can develop delayed social-emotional development, as well as a huge lack of creativity, imagination, and participation in personal hobbies that do not involve technology.
Using these apps at such an early age can also create self-image issues, especially for young girls, as they are constantly seeing images of grown women and thinking that they need to look like that as well. That they need to have perfect lips, hips, hair, and everything in between. It is all a trap for insecurity issues and comparison battles.
Finally, Generation Alpha is a complete mess in the classroom. Not only was this generation born in the digital age, but they had a huge interruption in their normal social and educational development in school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These kids were completely isolated, so they are simply not used to the school environment, and as a result, do not behave well in their classes and cannot retain information that well.
Many teachers on social media platforms have spoken out about this ongoing issue with Generation Alpha in the classroom, with many quitting or changing their form of employment because of how tiring it is re-teaching them the basic concepts they should have already learned at home - reading, spelling, math, etc.
Again, none of these developmental issues are Generation Alpha’s fault. It is the environment that they are living in that is creating all these problems. However, I believe that if we do not change how we discipline these Generation Alpha kids, and decrease the amount of technology they are using, we are going to have a lot more on our plate in the future.
