Millennials gave birth to ‘Generation Alpha.’ Are
these kids already doomed?
Born between roughly 2010 and the end of 2024,
“Generation Alpha” is the demographic successor to Gen Z. Its oldest members
are not quite ready for a quinceañera, while its youngest will be conceived in
the coming weeks.
When the last of them arrive this December, they’ll
close the largest cohort of children ever to exist on Earth. There are already
concerns that the kids aren’t “alright.” The overwhelming majority have yet to
graduate elementary school, and 1 in 5 are still in diapers, yet they are
widely being called “feral,” “illiterate” and “doomed” on YouTube and TikTok —
where alphas themselves make up a large and growing share of users.
Blame bad parenting by millennials or tech companies
or both — but many of those responsible for setting the discourse online agree
we should be worried for them.