Generation Alpha: Childhood at the height of digital civilization

Throughout history, man has resorted to techniques and methods that contributed to moving him from a primitive stage to another, more advanced and civilized stage. He began to employ all the natural elements available around him to serve him and his development. He collected sounds and symbols that were then transformed into 7,139 different languages, then shortened distances by inventing cars and planes, until he became bored with his reality, to build another #virtual_reality (Virtual Reality/ ), in which he chose his own reality. 

According to Ibn Khaldun, “man is the son of his environment.” His culture and behavior are merely an extension of the elements of his own environment. Whenever space-time (time and place) changes, his personality, lifestyle, and way of thinking change. Therefore, it is natural that the knowledge of two different generations sometimes encounters clashes and contradictions. After documenting most of the historical events and the imprints left by previous generations, and in light of #technology reaching its peak, we can only imagine the future of a generation that grew up in the midst of #digital_civilization, which is the #Alpha_Generation.

Generation Alpha comes after Generation Z,  and most of their parents are Millennials . Social researcher Mark McCrindle classified them as “born from 2010 to 2020.” Coinciding with the launch of the “iPad” and “Instagram” in 2010, It is undoubtedly a generation that was exposed to #technology before learning to read.

• “ Scrolling children’s dopamine:

The effect of #technology begins to appear in the early stages and before the awareness of this generation is complete. This is through the emergence of emotional confusion that results in a kind of neutrality or coldness in dealing with oneself and others, as children aged 8 to 10 years consume approximately six hours on screens daily, according to the website (Common Sense Media, 2015) . Because of the scrolling technology , which requires moving from one content to another by moving the screen, the user is forced to spend long hours on his device without a distraction to stop him. If the first content makes him laugh, the next makes him cry, and the next inspires him… he will experience a group of different feelings that his mind cannot comprehend in a short period of time. Children’s (not yet developed) brain will become emotionally confused, which will affect how they deal with their feelings in the future.

• A generation that is difficult to attract:

Information is considered valuable when it is not simply available to everyone, but due to the speed and ease of making it available on the Internet in current times, it gradually loses its value. This appears through a comparison between today’s students and students of the previous generation, as the latter faced difficulties in finding what they wanted, through extensive research in books, encyclopedias and magazines. Therefore, the brain’s working pattern changed after the #digital_revolution, undoubtedly due to the increased rate of mental distraction. In a study conducted by (Journal of Communication, 2014), it showed that every time students moved from content related to studying to another related to entertainment, their excitement/happiness increased in anticipation of the switch, in contrast to moving from entertainment content to studying, which is accompanied by a decrease in excitement. This will result in difficulty attracting their attention and a lack of concentration and patience in completing work that takes a long time or simply listening to a voice message that is more than two minutes long.

Despite the threats of #technical_development and digital speed to reduce concentration, they provide advanced scientific methods that facilitate study for most students, thus contributing to a higher level of learning. Researcher McCrindle believes that 90% of Generation Alpha will obtain a high school diploma, which is more than 10% of Generation Z teenagers , and it is expected that 50% of them will complete their university studies .

• Professional mobility:

 The requirements of the labor market are changing and the nature and form of jobs are changing, to keep pace with technical and technological development. As a result, Generation Alpha will occupy job positions that do not yet exist. The biggest reason is #artificial_intelligence. A report issued by the Institute for the Future/IFTF shows that 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 have not yet been invented. Therefore, most schools have begun educating their students through information classes to prepare them for a future in which #information_illiteracy is eliminated. Moreover, the future generation will most likely resort to using #digital_currency , after many countries began experimenting with this currency in their central banks, such as China, Japan, and Sweden, and the Central Bank of Brazil launched the #digital_currency “Drex” in 2024. .

• His priorities are to make a change:

In light of the climate changes that threaten the Earth, the youth of the future remain the only hope for changing this reality. Thanks to activists in the field of climate change, who are the most influential on Generation Alpha, especially on #social_media, this influence is reflected in bringing about positive changes not only in the climate problem, but in various aspects of life. According to a report (Wunderman Thompson Commerce, 2019), 67% of children between the ages of 6 and 9 would be one of their top interests in saving the Earth.

• Transformation in health infrastructure:

A person’s health structure changes with changes in his health system and habits. It is possible to notice a physical/morphological change or health effect on the alpha generation. For example, nut allergies increased by 40% from 2004 to 2019, according to the newspaper (The Economist, 2019). A report from the newspaper (USA Today, 2014) also mentioned an increase in symptoms such as dryness, eye strain, fatigue, and headaches due to children consuming many hours in front of screens. In a study conducted by (The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2019)  on the effect of screens on the mental structure, researchers found that children who spend more than an hour a day in front of screens without parental intervention showed less development in the white matter in the brain. It is responsible for cognitive and linguistic skills.

• On the social level:

The first group of Generation Alpha will reach adulthood in the year 2030, and the United Nations expects an increase in the proportion of the population to reach 9.7 billion people in the year 2050, due to the increase in the level of life span due to medical development, so the world will witness the highest proportion of the population over the age of 60 years. However, the average number of children per family will reach 1.5 due to many factors such as the late age of marriage and the preference of most women to complete their studies rather than stay at home.

In the end, the picture of the future is still somewhat blurry, as it is threatened by economic, cultural, and sometimes even health factors (such as the Corona pandemic). The role of parents remains the most important and effective in guiding and directing a generation towards the right path, armed with the experiences of previous generations and learning from their mistakes, to ensure a promising tomorrow for them and their children after our departure.