It’s a family reunion! The teens are throwing the football around, the uncles are having a burping contest, and granddad is telling a VERY inappropriate war story. Fun all around!
…And 7-year-old Timmy notices none of it. He’s glued to his iPad, watching his favorite cartoon characters sing the same short song for the fortieth time today. What’s going on with Gen Alpha and screen time?
Parents have always said “It’ll rot your brain” about TV, video games, or what have you. But this time, could it actually be happening? We’ll look into the grim future on this episode of The Infographics Show- why brain rot will doom Gen Alpha.
Gen Alpha has a big problem. These kids, born after 2010, are starting school and their behavior is drastically different from other generations. And it’s not just teachers that are noticing it- the whole world is talking about it.
The oldest are just entering middle school and the younger ones will be entering the school system soon. Teaching these kids is a whole new challenge. They’re behind on the basics before they even start.
In class, it’s a struggle to get them to behave or concentrate and they are almost dependent on their devices. Their attention span is the worst teachers have ever seen. Moral panic?
False alarm? Or something more? Gen Alpha is the third generation to come of age in the digital era, but the experience has been different for everyone.
Millennials grew up in the age of the home computer, when the internet experience was mostly about browsing websites, playing games, and deleting your browser history before you logged off. Time on the computer was usually limited, and it didn’t play a big role in entertainment. Gen Z was the first digital native generation, the first social media generation, and they grew up with devices - but smartphones still weren’t too common when they were coming of age.
To them, the internet was a tool and a way to socialize. But for Gen Alpha, everything changed. The majority of these kids were raised with a smartphone already in their hands.
The focus of the internet had shifted from written material to videos and images, and that meant that they would be watching videos before they could talk or read. There were many warnings about the perils of this, with the WHO actually advising that kids under five should spend no more than an hour in front of screens, and kids under one shouldn’t see them at all. But mom gets busy, dad wants some quiet time, and junior gets placed in front of the iPad.
And now we were seeing the consequences. Doctors have been studying the effects of screen time on kids for a long time, and they’re starting to see problems that haven’t shown up in past generations. For one thing, a 2015 study showed that the frequency of nearsightedness had doubled in the United Kingdom in the last half a century - potentially related to the heavy use of screens and the tendency to place them close to the face.
Eyestrain related to close-up use of hand-held devices is a common concern, to the point that it’s actually been nicknamed “Computer Vision Syndrome”. Symptoms include dry, irritated eyes, eye strain, fatigue and headaches. Given that all this might make it difficult for kids to concentrate on books or read the board, it could be contributing to Gen Alpha struggling in school.
But could the problem be going deeper than just the eyes? In 2019, JAMA Pediatrics investigated whether the early use of screen time could actually alter the brain structure of kids. They took MRI brain scans of kids three to five, and gave them cognitive tests after interviewing their parents on screen time habits.
And the results were shocking - the kids who spent more than an hour alone on a screen had less-developed white matter in their brain, and generally showed lower linguistic and cognitive skills. This is the period where the brain develops most rapidly, so this could have lifelong effects. Gen Alpha kids are being set up to fail.
Let’s be honest, we all had our idiot trends as kids. Millennials were shouting “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” and “Wazzzzup! ” at each other!
Gen Z had Annoying Orange! So it’s not fair to place all the blame on Gen Alpha. But there is a difference - Millennials and Gen Z didn’t grow up with screens playing constantly, burrowing into our brains like digital parasites!
The internet landscape has completely shifted towards micro-content and viral videos, with smartphones kids can access it anywhere, anytime. This all started with the rise of Baby Shark- and we apologize if you now have that song in your head again. And that led to the rise of the content farm.
The biggest culprit in this is YouTube, or rather the people who took advantage of it! While there are plenty of channels out there delivering great music, informative vlogging, or ahem, entertaining animated videos about news and science- there are also countless content farm channels pumping out short, low-effort videos, often featuring popular cartoon characters dancing or doing silly skits. These videos are designed to be catchy and addictive - intentionally designed to hook kids.
And the algorithm keeps feeding them more of the same, locking kids into an endless loop of mind-numbing content for as the parents allow them. And that’s led to some scary statistics. There’s no question that Gen Alpha kids are spending more time on devices compared to Gen Z - It’s estimated that 39% of Gen Alpha spends at least three hours a day on screens - and 24% spends at least seven hours.
That’s the majority of their waking hours, and it doesn’t drop when they get older. Part of this isn’t their fault - there was something big that happened a few years ago, and suddenly kids stopped going to school for nearly a year or more. They were quickly shifted to remote schooling, spending all day on Zoom, and just like that, everything could be done on screens.
And when it was time to shift back, the transition didn’t go well. Teachers not only reported significant attention span issues, but serious behavioral problems too. These kids weren’t just struggling to focus in class- they were getting into more fights, and not only had trouble mastering the material, but seemed completely uninterested.
Many of them came in with strong opinions - some of which had no basis in reality - and were belligerent when challenged on it. And the culprit, once again, was the internet. Micro-content is increasingly becoming the favorite way for Gen Alpha not only to be entertained, but to learn.
And surprisingly, not everything can be learned in one minute. The main culprit is one of the biggest boogeymen at the moment - TikTok. This viral video site has been accused of everything from being digital crack to being Chinese spyware.
But its biggest problem might be that you can find everything there - including blatant lies. The site is notorious for hosting influencers who break down complex issues into short, easy-to-digest videos, often claiming to reveal the hidden truth that schools don’t want kids to know. There’s just one problem - most of it is fake.
After all, remember when Vladimir Putin opened the oldest vault? If that doesn’t make sense to you, you’re not alone! But in 2024, a user on Twitter - wait, X - went viral for claiming that the Russian dictator had opened something called “the oldest vault”, which contained portraits of biblical figures that proved they were all Black.
The only problem was…this never happened. It was entirely made up- a conspiracy theory spun from debates about the origin of mankind. And before anyone could verify it, it had spread halfway around the world.
And teachers are battling to catch up. The rise of short-form content on social media has left teachers struggling to compete and adapt to their students’ new attention spans. A quarter of TikTok’s users are between the ages of 10 and 19, and an in-house survey showed that most only want to watch videos a minute or less.
Some teachers have started to adopt this format, posting fast-paced recaps of lessons on social media - after all, if you can’t beat them, join them. This might work for some subjects, but as these kids get older, it will be increasingly more difficult. And then there’s the fact that some people say they can’t understand Gen Alpha - literally!
Is Gen Alpha talking in a different language? Not really - every generation has its own slang. But something is a little different about Gen Alpha slang, in that it often doesn’t seem to have identifiable roots.
It’s been described as nonsense words, coined online seemingly out of nowhere and spreading super-fast. Why is “Goblin Mode” used to mean rejecting social norms? How does “Throw it” get turned into “Yeet”?
As these phrases break containment, more and more older people are getting incredibly confused. And there’s one phenomenon that might sum up all these issues. If the term “Skibidi Toilet” fills you with confusion, you’re probably not alone - and you’re probably not 12!
A bizarre viral video, involving ugly man heads sticking out of toilets and singing in nonsense words, went mega-viral when posted by YouTube creator DaFuq! ? Boom!
First posted in 2023, it has now spawned hundreds of videos depicting humanity’s war against these bizarre toilet creatures - with each video typically getting tens of millions of videos and still coming off as completely Greek to the average adult. So what does “Skibidi” mean? No one really knows!
Unlike other slang terms, it doesn’t seem to have a fixed meaning. A Gen Alpha fan might say “That’s so Skibidi” and it can mean something is cool, something is crazy, or something is bad depending on the context. Good luck guessing!
Gen Alpha slang culture, lack of attention span, and lack of traditional socialization has led many teachers to quit, and it’s caused a bit of a panic among adults. Millennials are typically the parents of Gen Alpha kids - are they raising a group of ill-mannered internet addicts with brain rot? Gen Alpha doesn’t think so.
Gen Alpha is the first to admit they’re a digital generation, but teen influencers say that’s opened them to experiences no one else has had. They say that being able to get news from alternative sources allows them to cut through mainstream media bias. They defend short-form content as a way to learn a little about a lot.
And they say that the internet has allowed them to be creative in ways no one else had the opportunity to - a perfect example is the website Roblox, which over half of American kids under 16 belong to. This gaming site offers children the chance to code their first video games in a safe and affordable environment. But many of the things they think are positives are a double-edged sword.
Gen Alpha is more open online than any generation before them, continuing a trend that started with Gen Z. Many of them are discovering their gender identities at an earlier age, or realizing that they may be on the autism spectrum, often thanks to influencers sharing similar experiences. But this has also led many to overshare online and reveal a lot of information about them.
The term “Stranger danger” has no meaning to these kids, and parents struggle to regulate their online behavior. But there are some signs things are changing. Gen Alpha social media has largely been influenced by Gen Z influencers, and phenomena like “BookTok” have made many of them interested in reading again.
This generation is just developing its interests, and it’s impossible to predict a generation’s long-form trajectory just from their online behavior. But one thing is for sure - these kids are being influenced by the digital world in ways no other age group ever was, and it’s not possible to know how this will play out long-term yet. For the first time, these kids aren’t solely being raised by their parents and schools.
There’s a third parent in the room - the algorithm. Unlike the internet of millennials and even Gen Z, most of the sites Gen Alpha frequents are driven by algorithms that adapt to their interests, encouraging them further and further down the same rabbit holes. That can make it harder to redirect kids.
These are the kids who spent their formative years during the pandemic, and that kind of disruption is hard to overcome. And so, the traditional 40-minute school period is becoming more and more of a challenge. Which is why some teachers are being proactive.
They can’t undo Gen Alpha Brain Rot on their own - but they can work around it. More and more teachers are adapting their lessons, breaking them up into short lectures and short work periods, keeping things fresh and not letting the kids get bored. If Gen Alpha’s brains have been rewired, then the educators of the world will simply find a way to work with that - and reinvent learning.
Of course, there is another option - but the kids won’t like it. Schools around the country have been considering cell phone bans during school hours- including in districts in New York, which are looking to bring back a ban that was lifted in 2015. This will essentially be a daily digital detox, allowing the kids’ brains to hopefully reset and give them no choice but to focus on what the teacher is saying.
And to say the reaction from Gen Alpha has been negative would be putting it very lightly. And that is definitely NOT Skibidi - or is it? Want to know more about the craze that’s sweeping Gen Alpha?
Check out “Skibidi Toilet Explained” or watch this video instead!
