As I have gotten older, I have found it so shocking to realize that my generation is not the youngest and newest generation anymore. I was born right on the cusp between millennials and gen z, but I think I belong more to the gen z category. I just barely remember Hey Arnold, but I watched every episode of Wizards of Waverly Place. I owned more silly bands than jelly bracelets.
Since I was born and grew up right at the start of the generation, my generation was the newest one for quite some time. Imagine my shock when I realized that there’s a new generation now, and that many of them are teenagers. Generation alpha contains kids that were born between 2010 and 2024, meaning some of them are now 15 years old. It is so difficult for me to wrap my head around this. Pretty soon, there will be famous generation alpha musicians and actors. There will be generation alpha kids in college and in the workforce.
I think it’s pretty commonly agreed upon that though we may be growing up in the same places and with a lot of the same values and traditions, each generation faces their own unique set of problems. Millennials struggled to enter the workforce as a huge recession devastated them right as they were graduating college, setting some of them back for years financially. Gen z is trying to get a start on their adult lives and start families and purchase homes in a very late-stage capitalist society, all while facing pressure and expectations from growing up with social media. And of course, every generation before has had problems of their own, but I’m sure no one wants me to rant all day on the subject.
Generation alpha’s unique set of problems has definitely already begun. And if the pressures of social media are tough for gen z, I can only imagine how extreme it must be for the kids who were basically born with a phone in their hands. I know there are always bigger and badder problems in everyone else’s minds, but I’ve noticed that each generation tends to lack sympathy for the others. It’s hard to understand things you haven’t lived through, but I think it’s really important to try.
That’s why you will never hear me say phrases like “kids these days” or “when I was your age.” Because the world is totally different now than it was when I was their age. Not better or worse, just different. So no, it doesn’t bother me that clothes that were in style when I was growing up are trends for the younger generation. It doesn’t bother me that they’re just discovering movies and music that I have always known and appreciated. I hope generation alpha and every generation after continues to bring back old fashion styles and music and make it their own. Most importantly, I hope they do develop tendencies and behaviors that are different from the ones my generation has, because they will need to be different in order to thrive in their current realities.
I’m not under the impression that the world is going downhill because kids are obsessed with their phones. I think about how when I was growing up, those older than me used to say kids my age didn’t have good manners anymore, that we didn’t respect our elders. And now that we’re adults, I see those same “disrespectful” characteristics being used by gen z to challenge authority and to ask important questions. This quality has empowered us to demand kinder treatment from the workforce, from family members, and from each other. Manners may have dwindled with my generation, but the moral compass hasn’t. This is just one example of many that reveals that not all changes between generations end up being bad ones. Maybe kids being obsessed with their phones is going to turn out to be a great thing.
