Understanding Generation Alpha

Abstract

Much has been studied and known about the twentieth-century generations with emphasis on the Millennials and Generation Z related to their personality traits, value systems, aspirations, and cultural fit at organization and societal level. Their successor, the first true generation of the twenty-first century, namely the Generation Alpha, had already made their mark in the consumerism and technology-driven world. Born in and after 2010, the eldest Generation Alpha is still in their school-years and had already influenced the trend of marketing, technology, and priorities of their millennials parent. There is a dearth of study exploring the different facets of Generation Alpha and to this end, the present paper attempts to unravel, understand, and contextualize Generation Alpha within the ecology of the twenty-first century world. Considering the present and the future to reckon, certain psychological traits of Generation Alpha along with their problems and vulnerabilities have been discussed. The paper envisages a promising future for Generation Alpha, but with caveats, requiring timely interventions.

Full text

Understanding Generation Alpha
Amrit Kumar Jha1,2
amrit@iitkgp.ac.in
1C. M. College, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar, 846004, India
2Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India
Abstract
Much has been studied and known about the twentieth-century generations with emphasis on
the Millennials and Generation Z related to their personality traits, value systems, aspirations,
and cultural fit at organization and societal level. Their successor, the first true generation of
the twenty-first century, namely the Generation Alpha, had already made their mark in the
consumerism and technology-driven world. Born in and after 2010, the eldest Generation
Alpha is still in their school-years and has already influenced decisions related to marketing,
technology, traveling, and priorities of their millennial parents. There is a dearth of study
exploring the different facets of Generation Alpha and to this end, the present paper attempts
to unravel, contextualize, and understand Generation Alpha within the ecology of the twenty-
first-century world. In spite of being the wealthiest, diverse, and tech-savvy generation, it was
revealed that the growing preference toward hedonism and small family; changing nature of
their parents’ jobs and workplace; and overarching and decisive influence of technologies in
nearly all the developmental aspects of their life, make them vulnerable to psychosocial and
developmental concerns. The paper envisages a promising future for Generation Alpha, but
with caveats, requiring timely interventions from the caregivers and school authorities.
Keywords: Generation; generation Alpha; technology; millennials; generation Z.

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Understanding Generation Alpha
1. Introduction
Life in the present 21st-century world reflect the years of combined hardships,
patience, vision, and labor of relentless human endeavors to achieve what they are comforting
themselves today with. Traveling and remembering the years of dark age to renaissance to the
era of enlightenment of modern age and now the post-modernistic world, if one could live
through them, they would underscore the saliency and value of the present day scientific and
technological advancements; standard and comfort of life and information abundance;
dedicated to the service of mankind. Referred to as the age of Internet and Communication
Technology (ICT) driven knowledge, the 21st-century has presented world an unprecedented
reality that was a distant dream in the past. The rapid advancements and use of ICT devices
(smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, play stations), 24*7*365 electricity, evolution from an
agrarian society to the service-driven economy, borderless world, dual-career families, desk-
jobs, and over-involvement in social media, among others characterizes the present advanced
world.
In this backdrop, with the evolving devices and machines, mankind seems to catch up
by evolving from generation to generation. They are the ones responsible for being creators,
consumers, and decomposers of these machines. Generational studies have documented
human beings of the modern twentieth-century era from their anchoring point as GIs
generation (abbreviated as either General Issue or Government Issue). The latest entry in the
list and the focal point of the paper is the first generation of 21st century referred as
Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha) (Howe & Strauss, 1990; McCrindle & Wolfinger, 2009).
1.1 Generation
Ryder (1965) posits generation as demographic metabolism, representing generation
as active social change which describe a recurrent and steady pattern of coming and going in

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a given historical and social events (Table 1). Manheim (1952) and Ryder (1965) observed
that a generation reflects a cohort of individuals who have experienced and responded to the
same historical events inherent within the same time period and location.
Table 1: Timeline of twentieth century generations
Sl. No
Generations
Timeline
1
GIs
1901 -1924
2
Silents
1925 - 1945
3
Baby Boomers
1946 - 1964
4
Generation X
1965 - 1980
5
Generation Y/Millennials
1981 - 1996
6
Generation Z/iGens
1997 - 2010
7
Generation Alpha*
2010 - 2025
Note: Based on works of Strauss and Howe (1991); Howe and Strauss (2000); McCrindle,
(2008); Pew Research Centre (2019). *Generation Alpha = Twenty-first century
2. Generation Alpha
Coined by a generational researcher, Mark McCrindle (2008), Gen Alpha is named
after first letter of Greek alphabet, Alpha. Their immediate predecessors, Generation Z mark
the end of Latin alphabets in the series of naming generations, paving way for the Gen Alpha
to mark the dawn of the new generation.
Born to their millennials parents, Gen Alpha are considered to be born between 2010
and 2025. Nearly 250 children are born every minute, amounting to 2.1 million Gen Alpha
born every week and more than 130 million around the globe (Lamble, 2018). It is estimated
that if all the members have been born by 2025, the number will reach to two billion,
signaling their humongous presence in future (Carter, 2016; McCrindle, 2008). Their birth
year (2010) coincides with the year where “app” was the word of the year and witness the
launch of iPad and Instagram – presently world’s most preferred brand and social media
application, respectively. They are born in an era of rapid advanced technologies operating
24*7*365 globally. Technology means world to them. From entertainment, gaming,

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connecting to peers, and even education in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, their life
revolves around technology. Recently, it was found that by the age of two, Gen Alpha master
touchscreen and easily navigate through various apps on smartphones, which their
predecessors took years (Turk, 2017), earning them the labels of generation glass,
screenagers, digital natives, and connected or wired generation (Tootell et al., 2014;
Williams, 2015).
2.1 The Ecology of Generation Alpha
For understanding the psychological traits of Gen Alpha, it is imperative to
understand their ecology of birth which will give a holistic sense of their generation locality.
Gen Alpha is in a real sense the first millennium generation compared to their elders Life in
the millennium world is quite different to that of pre-millennium age. From lifestyle; pattern
of relationships; nature of jobs; gender roles; both the personal and professional life have
changed drastically. Tele-work, flexi-time, work from home or remote working, working in
shifts, and rise in dual-career families have blurred the boundaries separating personal and
professional life for millennials, impacting Gen Alpha. Compared to their elders, Gen Alpha
are living in a different technology driven-reality, which may wreak havoc for their future
life. Psychoanalysts and developmental psychologists with the likes of Bowlby, Freud, and
Piaget have underscore the prominence of early days of life for a secure attachment, cognitive
and social development leading to a strong, stable, and adaptive personality in future. Freud
(1923) stresses upon the indispensable role of childhood and parenting for a stronger ego to
emerge, free from anxieties, vulnerabilities, and conflicts, encapsulated in ‘child is the father
of man’, axiom.
To understand the ecology of Gen Alpha, observing cultural factors will provide a
better understanding of their immediate context. In Australia, primarily an individualistic
nation, McCrinddle and Wolfinger (2009) observed an unparalleled reality before Gen Alpha

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in terms of—(a) numbers of women and mothers being employed, (b) number of babies in
paid or foster care, (c) parents being older, (d) families being smaller, and (e) lower
household population. Given their parents, the millennial, have spent more or less similar
lives in this globalized tech-world, such observations may also encompass this new
generation in collectivistic countries too like India, where preferences toward individualism
is growing. In India, traditionally, family ethos, cultural norms, high parental power distance,
and interpersonal-self dominates. Over the years, introduction of Liberalization, Privatization,
and Globalization during the early nineties and later the IT revolution has transformed India
socially, culturally, and financially. Gradually, millennials move toward cosmopolitan cities
in search of better job opportunities and standard of life. From this disequilibrium, emerged
fragmented societies, paving way for nuclear families; dual-career jobs; proportionate rise in
the standard of living; need for materialistic pleasures, furthered by the advent of
consumerism and ICT.
In this backdrop, came the Gen Alpha, whose birth years nearly coincide with the
global financial crisis of 2008. The worst economic disaster post the Great Depression of
1929, put their millennial parents into a zone of economic despair. Arriving as a ray of hope
and shine, Gen Alpha ensured the continuity and stability in their parents’ life. They are a gift
to their stressed-out millennial parents, who prefer a small family with growing preference
toward one baby family (Rampell, 2015). Subsequently, they are the most pampered and
wealthiest in terms of materialistic possessions and gadgets, making them an instant
gratification seeker, selfish and overindulged cohort (Carter, 2016).
2.2 Generation Alpha and Vulnerabilities
Mannheim (1952) suggested the term ‘generational location’ for the problem
subjective to every generation and unique to every cohort belonging to a specific historical
period of time. Gen Alpha bears no exception. Compared to their predecessors, they are born

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in a time when the world was recovering from the global financial crisis, new avenues of
digital technologies and social media were up to penetrate the whole world, change in family
structures, never-ending climate change debate, among others with the recent COVID-19
pandemic in the list.
For Gen Alpha, vulnerabilities emerging out of digital technologies are second to
none. From psychological and physiological impact including cognition (Wilmer et al.,
2017), sleep (Jha et al., 2019), and impaired social and emotional well-being (Augner &
Hacker, 2012) to cyber threats and addiction, the list is ever growing. Gen Alpha life started
connecting more with Alexa or Siri (voice box assistant of Amazon and Apple) than with
their parents or friends. More than enjoying the outdoor activities or real life play, they hop
upon mobile games like PUBG, Xbox, and Pokemon, within their comfort zone inside home.
Such has been the widespread use of online gaming that American Psychiatric Association
and World Health Organization have classified them as disorders, namely Internet Gaming
Disorder and Gaming Disorder, in DSM-5 and ICD-11, respectively (APA, 2013; WHO,
2016). In one of our study, we found that an adolescent spent an average two hours on mobile
gaming with sheer consequences on anger management and socialization, leading to
loneliness and aggressiveness upon withdrawal (Arora & Jha, 2020).
Physiologically and psychologically, changes in brain plasticity (or neural wirings),
cognition, sleep disturbances, and obesity, constitutes the future problematic trend for Gen
Alpha. Neuronal changes due to games and internet use in children are uniquely sensitive to
neural plasticity. It delays the development of microstructures in the cortical brain regions
and reduction in brain tissue density, leading to deficits in cognition (Takeuchi, 2016). Sleep
carries a major survival value for mankind, but, marred with casual attitude toward sleep
followed by technology use at night. The time meant for sleep is being trade-off with
technology use at night-time by texting, chatting, playing games, and watching movies.

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Using such sleep eroding-devices leads to more screen time, further elongating the exposure
to blue-light emitting diodes, leading to less production of melatonin hormone (or sleep
producing hormone) and disrupting sleep-wake cycle (Figueiro & Overington, 2016).
In the opening line of a UNICEF report on Children in Digital World, Keeley (2017)
alarmingly observed the growing access and easiness of bullies, sex offenders, and traffickers
in targeting their prey, here children, while staying anonymous. With the growing
technology, crimes have become digital in nature too. The report categorizes three types of
digital risks — (i) content, when a child sees any unwelcome and inappropriate content like
pornographic and violent images or any hate-speech or racist material; (ii) contact, when a
child comes in contact with someone seeking inappropriate behavior; and (iii) conduct, when
a child does something risky.
Cyberbullying, a willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers,
cell phones, and other electronic devices (Hinduja & Patchin, 2014), online child sexual
abuse, and self-generated sexually explicit material has become quite common in the young
generation. Nearly 53% of the sexual content and conduct victims are children less than ten
years old (Internet Watch Foundation, 2018). Globally, one out of six parents admit their
children experienced cyberbullying and one in six knowing a cyberbullied child (Ipsos,
2018).
In a recent survey, it was found that on average a child spent approximately 7-8 hours
on mobile with the maximum time devoted to the internet, social media, gaming, and texting
(Twenge, 2017). They have been lured to believe that every problem has solution courtesy
technology and is available round the clock, much more than the availability of their
caregivers. Technology has overpowered humans, impairing social and emotional skills,
affecting relationships, which will become fatal as Gen Alpha grows up. Their immediate
predecessors, Generation Z, was found to be the most vulnerable age group for suicide in the

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most youthful nation of the world, India (Patel et al., 2012; UNFPA, 2014). WHO (2014)
further cautioned that suicide accounts for the second most leading cause in youths. Such
worrying trend of their elders, who were either unknown to or partially exposed to the
technology in their initial years of life, set a wrong precedent for Gen Alpha.
The change in family structure, child-rearing practices, and nature of the job in terms
of helicopter parenting, small and nuclear family, dual-career family, and work from home
put an excessive toll on the parents too. Theories by Bowlby (1973) and Freud (1923) had
explicitly emphasized the importance of healthy parenting in the first two years deemed
crucial for the development of a healthy attachment and relationship(s) for child in later part
of life. However, the present pattern of parenting appears to be polarized with excessive love,
affection, and continuous monitoring of the child on one hand and taking the help of
babysitters/maids/foster caregivers during the time when they are out on the other.
3. Nurturing the Future: The Road Ahead
The future holds bright for Gen Alpha but with alarming and persistent caveats in
future. With the exploding population, rising mental health crisis (Pitchford et al., 2019),
rapid advancements in technology, viz. Artificial Intelligence, robotics, including humanoids,
leading to job automation and employment crisis, the crisis might get mightier in the same
proportion, COVID-19 being the fresh example.
Turkle (2011) while referring the obsession with technology, observed that mankind
has reached ‘the robotic moment’ in their history when they are friendlier and caring to their
devices more than their fellow beings. Gen Alpha, who is already battling many
technological-borne issues, should be trained in the same league to detach themselves from
their slavery. Jha et al. (2019) while observing the deep human-technology unification in day-
to-day life, calls for a healthy and integrated approach, where both can be assimilated, for
technology to stay and play the role of a powerful redeemer and not a nemesis to mankind.

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For a robust future of Gen Alpha, millennials parents have to play a pivotal role in their
subjective, psychological, and digital well-being through timely presence and interventions.
The American Association of Pediatrics (2016) has recommended amount of adequate
screen-hours age wise for parents to ensure that screen time doesn’t consume time slated for
academic and health activities.
4. Suggestions for Future Research
Future research on Gen Alpha should cater to their well-being (subjective,
psychological, and digital), academic, social and emotional skills and promoting
responsibility towards the society. Given their increasing affluence and intelligence, studies
must include technology, value, ethicality, relationships, culture and aspirations as their
underlying themes. The need is to understand them from their subjective perspective of life.
Besides, studies shall also cover the family structure, both joint and nuclear family, work
from home and work-life balance in conjunction with their implications on Gen Alpha.
5. Conclusion
Born in a rapid technological era, as compared to their parents, Gen Alpha presents
exciting combination of opportunities, adventure, and explorations for the future. Driven
socially, Gen Alpha share their life and thoughts publicly and knows no boundaries. They
will presumably grow up being creative and unconventional. Given the zeitgeist in prospect,
probably, the need for achievement, autonomy, and recognition, along with competitiveness,
narcissism, ambiguity intolerance, impulsivity, attention-seeking, and risk-taking behavior
will probably predominate and become salient in Gen Alpha with the passage of time. With
proper parenting and guidance, the prerequisite is to install in them the right virtues and
values, which are in line with the societal and traditional ethos. It is essential to inculcate in
them the essence of being human, managing emotions, forming stable relationships, and a
healthy-assimilation with technology in daily life. With the right mix of outdoor activities

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including play and forest bathing, regulated use of technology, authoritative parenting,
education and instilling the 21st-century skills namely adaptability, curiosity, critical thinking,
persistence, teaming, social, and cultural awareness (World Economic Forum, 2016) will go
long in shaping them to be an asset for family, society, country, and the world in future.
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