Intro

In life, the older generations have always had a say on how the youth act. But recently things have changed. It seems like people are even louder and angrier about this shift in social norms. From “Sephora kids” to Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha) allegedly not knowing how to spell, I will show you what is under all these assumptions. I will talk about why we see this huge shift and what we can do about it. This is to answer a very important question: Is society not letting us kids grow up as we should, or is this just a natural change?

Media

  • Kids’ shows and movies (8–12-year-olds)

Media consumption had always had a targeted age. Therefore, there had always been things for almost everyone to watch. But when a certain age group is neglected, what will they do?

The Gen-Z tween era had Nickelodeon shows like “Victorious” and “iCarly” that many tweens could talk about at school or online spaces. They had that media in common. Because nowadays some, if not most, people have stopped watching TV channels and moved to Netflix and Disney, we don’t have to see the same things as others. So, there is no show that almost everyone has watched.

Recently, I have realized that Gen Alpha don’t even watch shows. Shows on Netflix are usually for those aged 13+,16+, and 18+. Arguably, there is no media for 8 to 12-year-olds.

So, what do they do? There are at least four options: watch things for older people (Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials), watch things for Gen Z, watch older shows for younger people from the 2000s and 2010s, don’t watch shows at all, or go to social media.

Gen Alpha needs its own media without having to watch old things. This is exactly why “KPop Demon Hunter” does so well today. It was made for the kids, tweens/teens, and they all bonded about how much they loved the songs, dances, and characters. If we had more media like this, kids would relate more. We would not have some kids who act more grown-up than other kids.

Also, because we don’t have that much media for the kids, we end up having kids who don’t know anything other than YouTube and TikTok. Like in an interview where an NFL star was talking with a kid around the age of seven who had never even heard of the word cartoon. A lot of people online were very surprised and got concerned because cartoons had been a big part of lots of adults’ childhoods, and it was fading so fast.

I was also surprised that kids don’t watch cartoons, as I grew up with shows like “My Little Pony” and “Gravity Falls”.So, think if more of these cartoons, movies, and shows were for 8-12-year-olds, we would have fewer kids heading to TikTok and YouTube. But we have already made a mistake of not taking it seriously, so we end up blaming the kids.

  • Social media’s impact on kids

Most younger kids would not admit it, but society is giving Gen Alpha an unrealistic image of themselves. Because a lot of 15-year-olds are there, we think that they are cool, so we start adapting to their looks and demeanor. Now the line that used to be so obvious turns blurry.

Mostly, this is a non-issue, but slowly, younger kids find other trends that have nothing to do with them. They start using things like retinal and vaping, that starts damaging their health. This can also affect their intelligence because there are a lot of social media stars who don’t know what they are talking about. So, ignorance spreads faster because they tell their friends about what this one guy said.

Social media shows the most profitable things. If it is perfection, kids will start thinking that they have to be perfect instead of just being themselves. That can have a big effect on kids’ mental health. They look for tutorials and products to make themselves look polished and exactly like their favorite TikToker because the Internet is so easy to access.

But when you go down this rabbit hole, you will have 15-year-olds using Botox, so they look young forever. They start spending all their money on the ‘perfect life’ that social media has fed them at such a young age. So, our future adults will be ignorant, self-conscious, and unhealthy ‘perfect people’.

Aesthetics and cores

  • Perfection

As explained before, we mostly see perfection online. Because all social media platforms benefit from it, they decided to break perfection into aesthetics subcategories. There have always been words for how people identify, like “emo” or “preppy,” but once it becomes less of a choice and more of a trend that changes every few weeks, then it becomes a problem.

Looking for an identity is hard and important. But if you don’t want one and just want to be cool for the views, then it defeats the point of having these categories. Every few weeks, kids change their aesthetic or core. One day it is #Y2Kcore, the other it’s #oldmoneycore.

What happened to the old clothes these people bought? Unfortunately, they get thrown away most of the time, which is very harmful to the environment. With the rise of kids on social media, there is a rise in consumption, which leads to a rise in pollution.

  • Preppy (Sephora Kids)

There is a widely hated community on social media, Sephora Kids. These are kids who love Sephora products and buy from brands like “Drunk Elephant” and “Bubble” that make very good but also expensive products. These kids obsess over anti-aging and pores, which they don’t even have. They post these products on TikTok, where other kids see and think it’s the norm to use them. TikTokers like the Garza Crew popularized this trend.

Preppy is also very popular in the Gen Alpha group because it has a lot to do with skin care, and so this aesthetic got trendy. It mostly consists of bright colors and expensive skincare with a lot of scrunchies. It is very childlike, which is good, but what is not very good is that this aesthetic needs a lot of money, which not everyone has. Lots of Gen Alpha probably feel so excluded, and this is not the only expensive aesthetic trend; there is also “clean girl.”

  • Clean girl aesthetic

This aesthetic might be the worst and most damaging for a kid’s mental health. The aesthetic likes minimalism and simplicity, but there is nothing simple about it. It shows the steps to being ‘clean’ as if taking a shower is not enough. You must have expensive brands, a perfectly decorated room, and a matcha a day to be considered part of this community.

Most importantly, you must slick your hair back. If you ever come across this trend, you will see that these girls wear the same lululemon set and drink their matcha while going to Pilates. So again, making people who can’t afford to be part of all that think they are not clean.

Conclusion

Is society not letting us kids grow up as we should? Or is this just a natural change?

With all these problems, what do we do?

Well, I think we should start off by making more content for tweens that reflects how we live now, so that kids are entertained and don’t have to be on social media all the time. That will also erase the problem of self-obsession, and we will have better role models. This will help us change how we act a lot.

Kids won’t be thinking about their aesthetics all the time anymore. They will start thinking about the shows that everyone is watching. That will be a big step up because keeping up with the aesthetic trends is like a full-time job.

But there is still the problem of how kids were raised. They already know the life they are living in so well, and I don’t think it will be easy to change that or even possible. There are many differences among generations, and how Gen Alpha acts could have gone many different ways depending on the kinds of role models available.

We cannot do much for them now. Despite what others say and think, Gen Alpha are intelligent, curious, and highly capable of doing things on their own.

It could be that society made them think that they should grow up faster. They are so much more aware of problems in the world, and they can even make proper commentary on politics. So, I think they’re going to be fine.