A screaming child who had his iPad taken might come to your mind. Alpha Kids are reportedly not doing well in school and many are subject to the algorithms of today. They will have a front row seat to the future we are headed towards.
Do you have hope that Generation Alpha will live happy and fulfilling lives?
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Keep in mind, some of the children in Alpha had their schooling methodology switched up during the Covid-19 pandemic. They went from learning in a classroom environment to learning in an online environment for a couple of years.
The teaching strategies do not translate the same across those two mediums, and the teachers had to adapt to it as fast as they could, but they were not experienced online teachers.
Teachers with 10, 15, and 20+ years of classroom experience all of a sudden had to teach their classes online. They has to learn the system themselves, as well as teach their students how to use it.
Many schools were underfunded and were not able to offer adequate technology to accommodate for this change. Many families couldn’t even afford internet, so governments had to establish voucher programs to fund low-bandwidth tiers of internet for them (which develops at the speed of red tape government).
At least one adult had to be home with their children if schools were online-only, so they had one less income earning presence in the home, unless they were able to work online themself. That affects the longterm financial goals of each family, which they might still be recovering from to this day.
By the time children went back to a classroom setting, they were missing some key skills that they would have picked up normally. Now you have 3rd graders returning to a classroom in 5th grade, but they still have 3rd grade reading levels. They have to learn 5th grade level material, and take 5th grade level testing. The online material they learned online during the covid years were a completely different set of educational material versus whats used in a classroom, so now the students have to adjust AGAIN.
Anyway, thats just my thoughts on it.
Covid definitely had a strong immediate negative impact on kids’ education, but the trend of children struggling more in school over time is older than that. Until recent decades, there was an observed increase in children’s IQ over later generations, called the Flynn effect. Children were on average expected to be 3-5 points higher in measured IQ than those born a decade earlier. But we have reversed that trend after peaking somewhere around the 80s. There are likely a lot of contributing factors, but they should all be environmental rather than genetic. So hopefully later generations will be able to reverse the trend again and support their kids’ development in ways their own parents had neglected.
I wouldn’t worry too much about IQ numbers falling. It doesn’t fully capture human intelligence, and definitely has some biases (IYKYK).
The IQ test has had a profound impact on psychology and society, offering a standardized measure of cognitive functioning. Yet its limitations are significant. Cultural biases, reductionism, limited predictive validity, and a history of misuse all complicate its role as a definitive measure of intelligence. While IQ tests can be useful tools, they must be interpreted cautiously and supplemented with broader measures of human ability.
Ultimately, criticisms of IQ testing remind us that intelligence is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that cannot be fully captured by a single number. The challenge moving forward is to balance the utility of IQ tests with a recognition of their limitations, ensuring that assessments of intelligence are both scientifically rigorous and ethically responsible.
https://simplyputpsych.co.uk/psych-101-1/criticism-of-the-iq-test
Honestly, they seem kind of dumb, which I’m not blaming them for.
But that could just be the typical “next generation sucks” vibe you get from every aging generation.
I really hope they aren’t actually dumb because that’s going to make my senior years a lot bleaker.
My buddy teaches 5th grade, so kids born in 2016 or so who were learning to read during covid. He definitely noticed a drop off in general. Mainly reading, but also math. Also telling the time. Apparently a few couldn’t even tell the time on a digital clock.
Not being able to tell the time with a digital clock is crazy.
I’m worried about the world we’re leaving them
lol they are the lab rats for unholy ultracapitalist social experimentation in the quest for endless growth. we hit diminishing returns expanding outwards a hundred years ago so now we’re colonizing human eyeballs and attention spans and it’s not looking great for the colonists.
I have high hopes actually. Yes, they faced and are facing a lot of very frustrating trouble, but they are also much more aware of all sorts of issues. I picture the average Gen Alpha as sensitive, empathetic, passionate and nihilistic, which in sum isn’t a bad start imo.
I used to picture Gen Z like that too, until a large percentage started voting for fascists
My daughter is Gen Alpha, 2014. It’s hard to believe she will be a teenager next year, I can’t believe how fast 12 years have flown by.
I really hope this country can start turning things around and Trump becomes a distant memory and women start getting the rights to their bodies back. Will be a long time before that happens in my state.
I think her generation is going to pay heavily for our failures but I believe they come out stronger in the end and more united against what will make their lives hard.
I happen to have an alpha. They’re only just over a year old but they’re already incredibly smart and kind. I do have my worries, but I also have high hopes that there will be a correction, at least when it comes to the youngest ones. There will always be shit people raising incredibly shit kids, but… I can hope
Gen Beta started in 2025, so they might be a Beta!
I’m hopeful that we’re in the midst of a right wing extinction burst that will be over in 5-10 years. They will get to participate in the rebuilding that follows.
I’m fearful that we’re seeing the launch of a new dynasty.
My Gen Alpha children will probably lead happy and fulfilling lives. Sure they don’t have a privileged childhood but they have food security and two loving parents which is the best predictor of future adult happiness that I know of.
Youngbloods can’t read, but they will rock you in Playstation
I don’t play Station
Looking at what politics gen Alpha favors…we are fucked
People are surprisingly adaptable.
You can be sure there will be fallout from social media, generative AI, and cutting corners in our education system. Is this going to set us back in terms of “progress”? That depends on how you measure progress.
Once things break down, and they will break down because they can’t be maintained without the skills that built them, people will have to relearn how to do things they’ve relied on tech for, including how to think critically.
Undereducated and ignorant doesn’t mean stagnat and lacking in ability. The world they find themselves in when they hit 40 may be harsh, but that might help to cement the lessons it teaches more quickly. It will likely be painful, but it would be painful for someone from Gen X or a Millennial as well. They’ll have to learn to adapt to a new climate, a new economy, and a new culture that we can only speculate about. Much of the knowledge and philosophy we’ve considered essential to daily life may be useless to them anyway.
So, as a generation, they’re “lost” to us… but probably not so lost they can’t find themselves after we’re gone.
Happy and fulfilling lives… I prefer Matthew Inman’s take on the subject of happiness. By that standard, some of them will probably find satisfaction and fulfillment in things we don’t yet know or understand.
yes
I know this is old man yelling at cloud rage bait, but no, I do not have hope for them. maybe for some of the older gen z, but kids in the last 10 years, unless they have amazing, tech literate parents, hell no, they’re screwed.
