Back to
those years (Gen Z or earlier than that), when you’re still a child, what kind
of attire did your parents dress you up in? What kind of hair style did you
have at that time? What kind of products did your parents choose for you, did
you dye your hair? Wax it?
If you are an
individual born between 1990- 1999, you’re most likely sad because you’re no
longer “young” anymore! The term, “young” here doesn’t mean that you’re old, it
projected there are more new born babies coming. And, the cruelest fact is –
the 90s babies are no longer babies anymore, so who is the baby now?
Ouch, that
is really a true fact that we (those who come from Gen X or earlier) are really
outdated compared to the Gen Alpha – those child who born in 2010 (Holroyd,
2011). So what makes them different from us?
So what are
the differences between children who are born in Gen X and Gen Alpha? Let’s
have a look at the pictures below.
1. Gen X did not
have any social media accounts. Even if we do have them, we are not as popular
as people like Jacob who is only 3 years old but already has 52.7k followers.
Plus, we don’t have social media like Instagram at that time.
2. Gen X did not
dress up stylish a la K-pop. We, Gen X, only experienced “bowl haircut” or buzz
cuts, but Gen Alpha experienced stylish undercuts just like Brad Pitt’s fury
haircut. Plus, some of them even perm their hair when they are still a baby!
3. Our parents,
most of them are just ordinary typical parents who are working and who take
care of us. But, parents of Gen Alpha especially mothers invest much effort and
time into their children. They are housewives but are also “managers” and
“spoke persons” for their children. Their parents also manage their social
media accounts, of course. Some of the children like Jacob (as shown in picture
below) are considered some of the most popular figures in Malaysia. In one
particular case, he even appeared as ae model for advertising purposes or photoshoots.
In addition, there is news coverage for this stylish baby boy as well.
A few
questions to ponder upon are; what is the identity for children nowadays? Are
they just normal kids enjoying their childhood? A fashion icon? Or a potential
artist?
As shown in
the pictures above, we are able to see that Alpha children have several
identities. Firstly, they are still normal children enjoying their childhood
but just they enjoy themselves in different, more luxurious ways compared to
Gen X. Technology and digital gadgets are no longer novelties for them. They are
no longer bounded with the television schedule to watch cartoons. This is
because they watch cartoon through YouTube nowadays! Unfortunately, we watched
cartoon either scheduled from television programme, CD/DVD or even tape
casettes. In addition, most of them aged below 4 years old are already keen to
use digital devices like iPad and iPhone to watch cartoons or play games.
Next, Alpha
children are fashion icons as well. They have a keen sense of fashion and they
even requested to choose what to wear on their own. Compared to us born before
Gen Alpha, we usually wear what our parents select for us. But, today, the
trend has started to change. Alpha children appear different significantly
compared to Gen Z. In consonance with the trend, there are many retail shops
especially retail stores that have started to invest into children’s attire
such as Cotton On, Burberry, H&M, Uniqlo and so forth. Nowadays, we are able
to find children’s departments easily when you walk in into any retail store.
Regardless of parent’s influence, this variety has helped shape the Alpha
child’s fashion sense indirectly.
Apart from
that, some of them have high potentials to become artists in the coming future.
They are experts in posing and even have experienced working with production
teams; for instance magazine shooting, advertising, television reality show and
so on. Even though they doing the “job” with their parents’ supervision, this
indicated that Alpha children have high confidence level compared to the
others. Some of them are even experts in the art of taking selfies where they
know how to focus on an object, use a camera and sometimes even help their
mother take photos.
Undeniably,
this generation’s children are very different from children of previous
generations. As a matter of fact, with the advancement of technology and
development of society, children started having multiple identities in their
daily lives; as a normal child, as a fashion icon, and as a potential artist.
Somehow, aesthetic seems to be placed importantly in their lives even though
they are still young. Does such development benefit Alpha children? In my
opinion, it largely depends on how an individual judges the variety identities belonging
to a child.
Reference
Holroyd, J. (2011, July 20).
Talkin’ bout my label. The Sydney Morning
Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/
By Ng Mei Chee (42680)
The world we live in today is vastly different from the world we used to live in. With the emergence of social media, everyone is under heavy scrutiny by the public to maintain an image, especially if you are a celebrity, socialite or a social media icon. I think Alpha children can only be what they are if they have parents who are any one of them-- famous in some way. As social media icons, they have a reputation to uphold, and since we do not have that kind of fame or fortune, our children will most likely live like how we did. After all, parents are the ones who mould their children, and if we don't subscribe to the values that parents of Alpha children hold, we will not have to worry about our children living like Alpha children. However, this does not mean that there is anything wrong with Alpha children-- they merely grow up differently than we did. As for whether this benefits Alpha children in any way, I don't think there is a black an white answer to how children should be raised, and it is up to parents to raise them in ways they believe is right.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that the lifestyle of alpha children is totally different with our generation. The lifestyle of the alpha children is mostly technological based. In other words, they have been exposed to the technology devices since they were a baby. I agree that they have been used as a fashion icon, showed off by their parents in current days. I have observed that many small children today are holding at least a technology device on hand, including smart phone, iPad or tablet. They are now playing the online games more often than playing with other same aged children. This in turn verified the fact that the alpha children are more depending on technology.
ReplyDeleteThose who born in 1990-1999, it is not our generation anymore… I do agree with this passage, there is a big gap between Generation X and Alpha Generation due to the coming of technology. Society has been shaped by technology. This is a trend where everyone has to know how to use technology. I mean at least the basic either you are a child or an elder. If not, you will be considered as “out”.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, this is a bad news for Alpha Generation. Yes, they may know everything around the world but they will remains only “talking with the gadgets”. They will depends on technology. With the emergence of technology, I feel that children in Alpha Generation will becomes low in EQ. This is because they lack of interact face-to-face with people. They may lack of the experiences to deal with people. Another thing is, they can always Google to search the answer. Search engines can become another dependent tools for them.
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ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, the environment we were being born into is the main difference between Generation Alpha and us who were born before Alpha children. Sterbenz (2014) argued that human interactions had been transformed by technology. In fact, Gen Alpha were born in the technology-based digital environment whereby a major part of their lives involve technology. Instead of living in a written and verbal world, Gen Alpha are now more influenced by the visual and and video because of their attachment to the technology.
DeleteIn addition, as technology is a part of their everyday lives, Gen Alpha are predicted to receive the most formally education in history by beginning school earlier and studying longer (Holroyd, 2011). Moreover, one out of two Gen Alphas is predicted to be able to obtain a university degree in the future since they will have more access to more information than any other earlier generation who born before them (Mccrindle, 2015).
In short, I personally think that attachment to the technology does benefit Alpha children in a sense even though the Alpha children grow up very differently than we did.
I agree with statements above mentioned that the generation now is no longer the same as the previous. This is true as we keep moving forward. In my opinion, as with all generations, the time and the way we grow up impacts on our choices in life and how we behave. For the question raised in the blog post which is “Does the advancement of technology and development of society benefit Alpha children?”, I would take the neutral stand. It is not rare to see a kid with gadget nowadays. This shows how lucky they are to have more access to information earlier in the life. For example, the daughter of my cousin sister uses Ipad to learn the alphabet song and play toodle games when she is only 4 years old. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that technology hurts one's soft-skills, for instance communicating in person. The alpha generation spend more time in playing with gadget rather than talking to people. So it be like they are the most connected generation yet spending the less time talking to others in person.
ReplyDeleteWhen children are famous at this age, I wonder, what happens when they outgrow this "child" identity? As in, what happens to these children when they are no longer children since they are being adored as children on social media, not necessarily as adults? Another point that I thought about is - do the children themselves approve of being popular on social media if they know what social media are? We all know their parents make them famous, but do the children themselves want to be famous?
ReplyDeleteWhen you put children in the spotlight, one of the disadvantage to them is that their whole life is online. From the time they took their first poop to the time they learnt to walk. Parents never seem to take this into consideration when making their children famous. If in the future the child is grown up and wants some privacy, it's not gonna happen. Years of their growth is publicised online and it will be really easy for potential employers in the future to find all these out.
Therefore, in a nutshell, I do not agree with parents making their children famous online.
Sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's weird. Back in the days, parents would just talk about their kid's achievements to friends and family, probably even to strangers. But today, social media has become a platform for parents to show off their kids achievements, looks, failures, etc. The difference is that not only friends and family are told but also strangers. There was a recent story on a 3 year old girl who died from leukemia in the Philippines, her story was told online by her parents - making Caitie famous even after her death. Her parents said that it was a way to create awareness on leukemia and also a way to treasure her journey. Courageous Caitie gained support from all over the world.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent, we must always protect our child and their privacy, even if they aren't old enough to decide whether they want be famous or not. Thus, parents shouldn't go overboard with posts and pictures of their child.