Gen Alphas will have poor life skills – social researcher

SS: So we have every reason to expect that the future, however uncertain, will bring more prosperity, more technology, more working solutions to current problems. Isn't it redundant to say that Generation Alpha will be the most advanced ever, if all generations are headed into progress together? 

MM: Well, they'll be the most formally educated generation ever. They'll be the most materially endowed generation ever just because of the growth of wealth in the emerging world. They'll be the most technologically savvy generation ever, now what they have at the youngest age is phenomenal, and the most globally connected generation our world has ever seen. Now, will all of those amazing characteristics create in them the biggest impact of a generation ever or the most enlightened generation ever - that is yet to be seen. But I do think that they are equipped to solve these new problems that we're facing in our world from environmental ones to issues of global equality. They're approaching those new problems with fresh eyes. And I think that gives us a great sense of hope. 

SS: Talking about the problems that we're facing Gen-Zers or the Zoomers like we call them here in Russia, already pay little attention to boundaries of race or gender, nationality, religion, are there any limits left for Generation Alpha to push? 

MM: Well, that's true, you know, that they have known nothing but diversity in their world. And I think having such connectivity is so useful and for them from the youngest age, you know, they pick up the device, they're just a few clicks away from any piece of information on the planet. Their friendship feed is global, their news feed, the stores they shop on aren’t local but global. But yes, I think that there are some barriers that they will break down. For example, they are now in a world where they are more empowered as young people than any other generation of young people has been. When you were young, you looked up to the older generation, you wanted to be older, because that's where the power was, the influence was. Now we have a youth-obsessed society where people want to be young, and the early adopters of technology, the brand influencers, the social media influencers, of course, are the younger generations, and so they have more power, more leverage, more influence than any generation before them at their age. And I think that, that that's a great opportunity that they have and gives them great responsibility to deal with some of these social challenges that we're seeing emerging in our world. 

SS: And also thinking about generational markers, I mean the most important one I can come up with is technology. A generation that did not have a washing machine had a life that was drastically different from the one that had. A generation without the Internet will be quite different from the Internet generation. What is Generation Alpha’s technological divide that makes it different from the previous generation? 

MM: Well, I mean, things that we take for granted now they won't have, you know. An analogue watch is going to be a thing that most of them will never know in this digital world. Car keys, because now it's about smart keys for cars if even they get their driver's license because it's an Uber- or a transport-as-a-service world. Because even their credit cards have moved to payment digital forms because their ID is in a digital form, they won't need a wallet or a purse because everything is on that device. And so even the basics that we would carry around, keys and wallets and credit cards and of course cash, will not be something of their experience. So they will bring this true digital mindset to these daily areas of life. You know, it's not about the physical space but of course, learning online and indeed remote working or working from home or other options as well and that will flow through all areas. In other words, we are decoupling location from study or workplace or shopping or connection and social interaction. And they, of course, as digital generations will just think that way from the youngest age. 

SS: You know how parents nowadays post photos of their newly born kids on social networks and they create this digital accounts for them before these kids even can walk or talk or take a decision whether they want to be on social media or not, have a profile or not. What effect will this digital presence from birth have on Gen Alpha? 

MM: Well, it doesn't come without challenges, of course. You know, they'll have the biggest digital footprint of any previous generation, as you said. Probably by the time they're one or two years of age there are more photos of them than of their grandparents and great grandparents, great great grandparents put together for their entire lives. And the amount of video. And just their digital footprints are pretty big now because from the youngest age, they're online, they're on social channels, they're chatting and sharing. And so they just leave a long legacy, a long history, you know, that can be great in that they have if you like a digital diary, they have a digital history that they can look back on and recall stages in life. It has a downside because, well, when you're a teenager you share things and say things that you probably don't want coming back to you 10 or 20 years later when you're a senior leader or an influencer. So there are some problems with this. And we see very keenly one big problem that this younger generation faces through the digital, and that is cyberbullying, putting down each other. Sometimes, they will say things, they will share things that will threaten online amongst their peer group, things that they would never say face to face. There's a sense that because we're connecting through the digital, there's an anonymity, we would say or interact in a way that we wouldn't do if we were physically together and that can be a problem as well as, of course, the darker side of the internet, the security side, the personal safety side that does come with this digital world. 

SS: Technology is advancing, do kids of the future risk losing those life skills that we humans actually just need simply for our brain development? I'm talking about handwriting or mental arithmetic. 

MM: That's a great point. And it is true. And when we've surveyed teachers around the world, we have found that one of the deficits they noticed with young children, and we're talking about primary age, you know, children just starting to get close to their teenage years now, is that their life skills are not as well developed as they would expect or as they have seen in the past. Their sophistication, their knowledge, their technology skills are great, but being able to choose the clothes or manage and keep their bedrooms tidy, or cook a meal or as we move into those teenage years or beyond, even basic things that kids in the past could do from outdoor play, playing a game, coming up with some activity to fill some time, even having the social skills of stepping out of their comfort zones and shaking hand introducing themselves, being able to go camping, light a fire - some of these timeless human skills are not as well developed with this generation. Not only a technological and digital, but many of them increasingly are being raised in an urbanized environment, in vertical communities of units and apartments rather than the horizontal ones of homes and streets, where there is, as an American researcher called, “a nature deficit disorder”, where they have fears or worries about the outdoor world because they've only ever known a built environment, an urban one. So there are some challenges that we do need to address in life skills with this generation. 

SS: Also, studies show that younger people aspire to be Elon Musks and build their own thing based on what they enjoy, invent their job instead of sort of opting for a predefined career in some big organization. I mean, that's what we used to go for. Will the world of Generation Alpha be the world of a myriad of independent startup-like businesses instead of a corporate-dominated world? 

MM: Well, they certainly are more entrepreneurial, and as you said, they've been inspired by those entrepreneurs, by the digital Silicon Valley tech startups, you know, and they have been some great role models for them. But at the same time, you know, we in the society need an array of skills. And, of course, not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Now, it's a great set of skills to have to think entrepreneurially even if they are working within a larger organization, because they can think in terms of that they don't need line managers or hierarchy, they're going to work well in a flat structure, in a collaborative environment, which is the one that we have now. They can think through complex problems because they're used to handling multiple challenges. They can work collaboratively even if some of their team members are on Zoom or are tuning in from another location. So they do have a great set of skills in that regard. But they are going to need those traditional ones of being able to work across people of different generations to be able to resolve conflict and indeed to have the skills of public speaking, to be able to step out of their comfort zones even to manage money, you know, financial literacy. These are skills that they will need not purely technological or entrepreneurial. 

SS: You know, generation discourse is built on contrasting one generation with another. For instance, baby boomers are supposed to support the conservative and authoritarian style of parenting whereas my generation has a more liberal reputation seeking to be friends with their kids. Kids happiness matters much more than kids being successful, etc. How will the generation gap between Generation Alpha and other generations look like? Can this be possible that the generation gap will cease to exist altogether? 

MM: Well, in some ways, you know, those generation gaps are being bridged. But, as you said, what will be the characteristic of this generation? Will they be more liberal or more conservative? Will they be more, I guess, structured or more free-range in their approach? What we find in our generational research is that the generations tend to be more like a pendulum that swings back and forth than just a pathway that heads ever on in one direction. In other words, each generation is a reaction to what they saw in the past, their response to what has gone before. And so we see this generation of alphas, the children of the millennials or Generation Y as actually being a bit more structured, a bit more conservative in their outlook. Indeed, this global coronavirus pandemic has shaped a bit more of that conservative value in them. They've seen that jobs can be lost, that stock markets and economies go up but they go into recessions, that volatility is the new normal and that security matters, that savings and money for a rainy day is important. That has been shaped in him over these recent months and of course, we've got some months, perhaps years to go. It is a bit like those global issues of the wars or the great depressions, what we're experiencing at the moment, and that does forge in a young generation resilience, character, fortitude and the ability to adapt and respond. So we see that the alphas will end up being fairly conservative and structured and risk-averse, savings and job security will matter, and they won't be as perhaps focused on the superficiality…  

SS: But do you think they are going to remember all of this? They really are only 10 years old. 

MM: That's true. And that means that we can't work out exactly what that will be like by looking at who they are, although we do research them, but by looking at their context. It's often been said that people resemble their times more than they resemble their parents. And that's really the case. The age of which we're exposed to, even a global event that we're all living through, that determines how embedded it becomes in our psyche. And so we can learn a lot about who they will be based on what they're experiencing, and also by their parents, and we do survey their parents, the 30-somethings, a lot, and so we know something of how they're being raised. 

SS: I'm also thinking, for instance, the Golden generation can be contrasted with the boomers very comfortably - they have different values, different history, the actual baby boom, the youth rebellion of the 1960s... Then you have the Generation Z, it's not much different from Generation X. And then the Generation Y that's not that much different from the Alpha. Why divide them into different generations at all? 

MM: Well, that's an important point. And, you know, let's keep in mind that as humans we have more in common than probably divides us. And we're seeing that at the moment, as we look globally at fears, insecurities, uncertainties, you know, amidst what is impacting us all around the world, so we do need to keep that in mind. And particularly in this era, we need to try to find the commonalities and not just find the differences. But we're also aware of the diversity that exists, whether it be cultural, gender, whether it be socio-economic or geographic. We're not all the same, and there are differences across the generations as well. We find that the generational differences are more robust than even some other differences we might look at like geography or socio-economics because we are who we are by our generation for three reasons. Firstly, as a generation, we're at the same age as each other and different to those, I mean, generation, those in their childhood years are clearly at a different life stage, and therefore have different priorities to teenagers to 20-somethings to 50-somethings. But we're not only who we are because of life stage, but also the experience that is shaping us. And while we've all been eight, or nine or ten, we haven't all been eight or nine or ten, in 2020. And these are unique times to be shaped and so that will lead to differences. And thirdly, the events or the experiences that we live through are quite different for each generation. You mentioned the baby boomers that was so shaped by the 1960s and rebellion or the Gen Xers that experienced the emergence of the Dot-com era and indeed, your recessions in the 1990s, geopolitical changes, the world order as we knew coming to an end, the Eastern Bloc shifting, you know, democracy and glasnost  and perestroika, and these sorts of things shaped us as Gen Xers. Well, the Gen Alphas of today are also living through different times. So our age and life stage, the events and experiences, the technologies, all of those shape us and do further define differences across generations. 

SS: You know, I always wondered whether this whole generation labelling is like a big marketing scam, and I'll tell you why. Because I find myself finding a common language very easily with someone who is 90, just as much as I find it with a 10-year-old. And I also feel like there’s no such thing as generation gap, it's just different experiences that are lived and people are people, I mean, we still stay humans with our basic human needs. What do you think? If it wasn't for the mass marketing of the generation labelling and gaps, is there really such difference? And is there such thing as generation gap? Or it's just age difference really? 

MM: Yeah. Well, yeah, that's important to think through. And as I said, there is age, but there is time and events and social markers and experiences and technologies that also do shape us. We do a lot of research of those who are dealing with them. And that is teachers, you know, they are who we research and try to equip so they can best engage with students. And they tell us, particularly those that have been at this profession for a long time, that this generation of young people are different to previous generations. You know, yes, a 10-year-old is a 10-year-old in terms of brain development, in terms of maturity levels, in terms of felt needs and wants and the support that they need, that the curriculums that they're going through, you know, that doesn't change too much. But the world around them is changing and clearly being 10 amidst a global pandemic, being 10, when you've got a device in your hand that can connect you with any part of the world is different to being 10, as my generation experienced before the PC, and indeed, in more country separated times, so that does create some differences. As for the marketing side, you know, I think we all need to be wary of that because the last thing that we want is for marketers to define and cut and slice a generation and think that they can sort of sell to them at ever younger ages. In fact, I think that that will not work at all for companies today because this generation are the most savvy when it comes to marketing. They're the most aware of the technologies and the agenda globally, and certainly not afraid to push back on that if we think that we can push something on them. 

SS: Okay, tell me this, should there be separate generational analysis for different world regions? I mean, our generation is shaped differently in different parts of the globe.  ‘Cause I’m thinking experience of millennials in Russia, which in their childhood have gone through changes of tectonic proportions, can't be really compared to the experience of the millennials in, again, the States. I don't know, are Gen-Zers in Australia the same as they are in Africa? 

MM: Well, more similar than previous generations. So, you know, if we went back to, say, the 1950s and looked at teenagers in Georgia or teenagers in America or teenagers in Sweden, you know, there was a lot more differences than teenagers across those same nations today, because they are all connected on the same platforms, whether it be YouTube or another visual, video-based form, whether it be searching through Google or other platforms, they are all on the devices, it is a digital world that they share. They are more aware of the global issues, the gaps that we all know, that separated us internationally have come together. There is more global awareness. There are global brands, there's the opportunity to travel now, - not at the moment because of COVID, but generally, - the ability to travel for young people today has never been greater. And all of that means that we have brought the world together. The other thing that we see in countries like Australia, or we found in the US, or New Zealand, or Europe is, of course, we’re more culturally diverse. And this was not the case in the 1950s or even the 1970s. This is a generation that are growing up in the West, alongside people from South America and Africa and Europe as well. There is more of this connectivity globally and culturally diverse connections than ever before. So it's definitely a new era. It's a smaller world. There's more connection for this generation. And that means yes, there are still those geographical differences across the generation, depending on where they live, but they're far closer together, whether it be Brussels, Beijing or Ballarat in Australia, than it used to be the case in the past. 

SS: Do you think the fact that life expectancy is growing and people are starting adult life later, like having kids later in life, will make an impact on a whole generation and will change things? 

MM: Yeah, that's a great insight and that is what is happening, you know, we are living longer right around the world. And while in the developed countries that longevity continues to rise, in the emerging world the life expectancy is increasing at an even faster rate. So wherever we are around the world, almost without exception, life expectancy is increasing. And what that means is, and it comes along with increasing disposable income or wealth, that there’ve become more options in those younger years, in the teenage years and the 20-somethings, because there are elongated study years and there's a delay in marriages, people delay their earnings years, they have more options in terms of opportunities to travel and to experience new things. And so it's as if the childhood years have been extended. Now, they're still going to get into the workforce, but it's as if, because they're going to live longer, they've spaced out those particular life stages. And just as we've seen in the West, marriage in the span of a couple of generations move from something that took place in the early 20s, to now something that's really not taking place until the early 30s, and family forming at that stage. So we're seeing right across the world, the pushing back of these life stages, as we do more study, move through more careers and delay the family years later than previous generations had. So yeah, definitely the life stages have changed today, compared to what we used to know. 

SS: Mark, it was so wonderful to have your insight on what's to come in the new generation and is there such thing as generation gap really, or is it all marketing, because I wanted to ask you that from the very first minute but I waited till the end. Well, anyway, thank you so much. It was wonderful talking to you and wish you all the best of luck. Stay safe.  

MM: Thank you very much. It's been a delight to chat with you and I appreciate it and I'll catch up down the track all the rest. 

SS: Definitely. I hope we'll talk again soon.  

MM: Thank you.