Image credit: Peter Merholz on Flickr.

Are we running out of alphabet? We have Generation X (born 1965–1980), we have generation Y (a.k.a. Millennials, born 1981–1996), we have Generation Z (1997–2012)… so what shall we call today’s children, born (mostly) to millennial parents after 2012?

Actually, no worry about running out of letters: not all letters are in the Latin alphabet. The Chinese script has enough ideograms to last us for millennia… but before we go there, there is the Greek alphabet, now gaining fame for naming Coronavirus variants, and indeed the post-millennial cohort are now officially “Generation Alpha”.

So why am I, a workplace productivity expert, writing about this? Because Gen Alpha kids are already seeing issues with my favorite subject, computer-mediated information overload.

Faster and faster

I was reminded of this when riding in an elevator at a shopping mall last week. With me were a mother with a small child some six years old, and two young men in their early twenties – older Gen Z. The child was absorbed in a videogame he was playing on a smartphone, and the two men were trying to talk him out of it by expressing pretty negative views on how “kids these days” are always gaping at their screens, and how when they were kids things were different. I was amused by seeing millennials going “O tempora, O mores” in the manner usually reserved for the elderly; in fact I reminded them that when they were kids they’ve played their share of videogames. Yes, they said, but in their day it was different: they had no smartphones, and their screen immersion was less all-consuming.

So as with everything, the generational change is also accelerating with the breakneck speed of technological change; and the youngest children are subjected to the kind of digital excess that twenty years ago was plaguing grown ups in the workplace. What are we to make of this?

The Glass Generation

The penetration of smartphone use into the hands of children is well known; pre-COVID surveys have shown that around 25% of children under 10 had their own smartphones, and recent data has the number at 49%, a rise no doubt affected by the need to keep children busy during lockdowns. Throw in the children who use parents’ phones, tablets, and computers, and the fact that 46% of 6–11-year-olds have an active social media account, and it’s small wonder some call Alphas “The Glass Generation”.

So is this a bad thing? Well, given observations like “24% of Gen Alpha kids spend more time with their friends online than face to face” there is certainly cause for concern. As someone noted, for Gen Z social networks were a new tool that was developing as they were growing up; for Alphas it’s a way of life. They are, in fact, the first entirely digital natives, born into an environment of connected portable devices and knowing no other lifestyle.

The bad news

The implications for social and personal development may not yet be fully understood, but researchers are expressing concern that the total dependence on digital tech carries a number of risks for the people these kids will become. Specifically, they worry about:

• Reduced attention span and concentration. We see this with earlier digital natives, and it can only get worse.
• Less creativity and imagination. The constraints of playing with physical toys, crayons and paper, and just the outdoors environment were conducive to using one’s creative imagination in ways that a screen cannot promote.
• Social interaction problems. All this online interaction may have saved the day early during the pandemic, but face to face social skills may become impaired.
• Depression and loneliness. Researchers are noticing a correlation between social media addiction and unhappiness.

Some good news

Of course there is also the other side: using digital devices and interactions develops new and different skills, and novel forms of creative expression and human interactions. Consumption of carefully selected media can be a positive influence on children’s mental development. In fact, the general tendency to disdain the young generation is timeless, and people have been critical of the Millennials too. For my part, after seeing millennials launch startup companies with incredible positive energy I tend to be optimistic that young people will find their way to use their environment well.

Oh, and another cause for hope: it may turn out that the Alpha generation will stay away from Email, a major cause of information overload for previous generations. One interesting possibility is that they will relegate much of their communication to AI-mediated voice interfaces.

Still, how the pros and cons will balance out remains to be seen.

Where information overload comes in

Generation Alpha’s intimate connection to digital tech comes at a time when the Internet provides ready access to more information than ever before. Content of every kind is a finger swipe away: music, written content, games, news, movies and videos… Of course, even my generation could lament that “there are more films made than I will ever get to see” – but that was just a matter of theory: the movie theaters in my home town had a handful of films in any given week. To today’s children the reality is that thousands of films are waiting to be watched right now, all quite available at a moment’s whim.

The bar to consuming information is now so low (not even the need to put on a coat and go to the public library or blockbuster store) that all that information can become stressful. Likewise, social media allow instant intrusion on one’s life in a way that even email could not. And this torrent of information has children reeling as they try to cope with it. Some specifics can be seen in the research report “Information Overload and Children: A Survey of Texas Elementary School Students”; 80% of the schoolchildren surveyed reported being overloaded, and were feeling confused, frustrated, depressed, disturbed, overwhelmed and upset – hardly how you want our young generation to feel!

What YOU can do about this

If you have children in your home, you should start paying attention to the issues of excessive information consumption. Limiting screen time is an obvious strategy, and one that may even work with younger children; at a minimum, do that.

However, it is not enough to limit the time by edict; you should bring the child on board, by having a frank conversation about the problem, the child’s feelings about it, and possible strategies for coping with the information flood. The children may be more responsive than you expect. Children are smart, and they are very aware of the problem they’re facing – but they need your help to get a handle on it. I remember when my daughter was a school kid, she was watching way too much TV; all I had to do was ask her to make a list of all the programs she was watching regularly, and once she saw the list she cut back of her own accord.

A child can also use your help in coping with the task – often assigned at school – to find specific information online. Google is great, but without good search skills it only adds to the problem. As an experienced adult you may have search skills (and the skepticism that allows telling real knowledge from fake) that your child still has to learn.

By partnering with the child to solve the problem, you will help them become a better person able to cope with the brave new world where technology can be their best friend or their worst enemy; and while at it, you will clear time for both of you to interact and get closer.

And if you have a say in the schools – or if you’re a teacher – you may want to launch some serious action to address the problem at the school’s level. There is so much that needs to be done to help generation Alpha get in control of information overload!

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