I’m a gen z (26F). I know we don’t have the best rep either, but almost every gen alpha I know is really mean. If I was that mean as a kid, my parents would’ve whooped my ass all the way to Mars. Because there’s NO WAY I would’ve gotten away with some of this stuff.
Here are a few examples:
– Multiple times now, I’ve seen kids aged 9-13 at cosmetic stores, which itself is fine. I liked experimenting with makeup at that age too. But when the staff tries to help them, they sound so incredibly rude. I’ve heard these kids multiple times making fun of a staff member’s skin, weight, makeup, hair, the list goes on.
– I have a step sister who’s Gen Alpha and well… she’s spoiled. Recently, I got her Miu Miu shoes that she wanted that were on sale at Tkmaxx and when she found out they were from Tkmaxx and not the Miu Miu store, she refused to wear them. Also, it’s like she has never heard the word “thank you”. At her age, the most expensive thing I owned was a laptop. I would’ve been laughed at if I asked for Miu Miu shoes.
– I’ve overheard a bunch of gen alphas on the train talk rudely about jobs that other people do, like “I swear if I ever end up with a 9-5 job I will k*ll myself, I don’t want that, I’m just a girl, I’ll marry a rich old guy” at the ripe age of 13/14. Okay, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want a boring office job at that age either, but I did have passions I wanted to pursue, not including marrying a rich guy.
– I’ve heard of/seen multiple other instances at my step-siblings’ school where kids bully others for not wearing some fancy designer brands or expensive skincare, boys bullying each other for their jawlines and being too fat/skinny, etc. When I was meeting my step sister at her school once, I had a girl walk up to me and say without hesitation that “orange is really not your colour, get a new jacket” as I was wearing an orange coat.
There are multiple other instances I can think of on top of this. I remember that when I was that age, people could be mean, as kids are, but nothing like this, ever. At most I got slapped around a bit, coke and menthos put into my locker, and cyberbullied on Facebook. Nothing to this extent, though.
Why is this? Is the entire generation just so TikTok-brained that this is what we’ve come to?
Comments
School isn’t just for academics, it is also very important for social development. A lot of these kids missed a lot of that during the pandemic and either lag behind in maturity as a result or backslid on it during that time.
You haven’t seen the older generations when THEY were younger.
Gentle parenting is some of it. Millenials grew up with boomer parents who were overbearing and sometimes abusive and they don’t want to treat their kids like that, but they swung too far. Now they’re not disciplined or corrected, and god forbid if a stranger ever tries to correct THEIR child.
You shouldn’t beat your kids obviously, but you really shouldn’t be their best friend either.
Alot of them are being raised by TikTok instead of parents.
teenagers suck, it transcends generations. i was absolutely the worst version of myself at that stage of my life. i do, however, think that the younger generation is socially stunted because of the pandemic and having grown up behind a touchscreen.
it’ll keep getting worse. us millenials have witnessed the end of what Britain was.
I think it’s phones and social media. That’s what I heard from every teachers. They grew up too fast from online exposure from young age.
Kids are growing up with the internet now, it’s a blessing and a curse
Theyre hanging around their GenX relatives 🙂
could it have anything to do with the area you live in? i would hesitate to label an entire generation. my kids and i are outsiders in the school district my kids attend and we all notice how differently both the kids and the parents behave.
My daughter is gen alpha and I must be doing something right, bc she thanks everyone for everything, even really small things. Just earlier she thanked me at least 3 or 4 times for cleaning her room. She is incredibly grateful but she can definitely have her attitude, but I think that’s normal for preteens and teens. But I’ve noticed it, too, and I think influencer culture and the internet has a lot to do with it.
I do feel like social media is reeeallly affecting how people, especially young people think and behave. I feel like the standards have risen soo much and they’re just not realistic.
Now, I would argue that it’s really hard to gauge the change from the past though, unless you were much older and were, say, a teacher who could notice this change over time. All of the things you mentioned have existed previously, you might’ve not just picked up on them. And nowadays you won’t pay attention to the regular kid who doesn’t cause a disturbance.
I actually noticed this pretty young myself. I’m 29 (’96) and have heard that I’m arguably both a millennial and gen z, so I think I most identify with “zillennial”. But I remember being like 15? and me and my friends thinking some of, more of, the younger generation was rude. At that point we weren’t even that old so we noticed it in kids maybe 5? years behind us. The main thing we noticed is that we always used to look up to and idolized the older kids in the neighborhood they always just seemed so freaking cool. Lol but these younger kids were trash talking us at the same age.
>If I was that mean as a kid, my parents would’ve whooped my ass all the way to Mars.
This is the answer.
I used to work at a major cosmetics store, you probably know the one. It has the reputation of being a playground for young tweens who think they need retinol.
These kids were either terrors who destroyed products and displays while annoying other customers and being absolute demons to staff (and would often steal) OR they were the sweetest, most respectful kids. There was no in between.
Kids are mean. Always have been, always will be. Some kids are extra mean and extra entitled. It’s not unique to alpha. I’m an old gen X and I remember kids being the same way back then.
I struggled with bullying and mental illness when I was a tween/teen. I’m would absolutely have not survived what kids put themselves through these days.
It sounds like gen alpha is obsessed with “aesthetics”. Appearance has always mattered to that age range, but to be so outwardly judgmental, to me seems like a gen alpha thing. Zero filter.
My theory is that this has to do with being a generation raised on the internet. Let’s face it, the concept of being anonymous boosts our ability to remove our filter. Older generations have had values for manners that we picked up on in society. How to be polite, and interact with other people. These kids are chronically online… no manners here lol. So this is just a reflection of what they are absorbing.
It’s sad to think what all of this commercial consumerism exposure is doing to their self-image and self-worth. Having it tied into aesthetics so much is going to be a problem I’m sure
I have had the opposite experience with Gen Alpha, so it might just be where you live.
You’re asking why a generation raised on remote schooling and TikTok struggles with social skills? If face-to-face interaction isn’t prioritized during formative years, that disconnect tends to stick. The real question is: how do we help them reintegrate before they’re out there trying to land jobs?
Pendulums. GenZ was way too virtue signaling wanting to look progressive and “everything goes”, so next gen is pushback against that as the pendulum swings. Story as old as time.
I think Gen Z is kind of an exception to the standard and is a lot softer than other generations. Listen to any Silent Gen, Boomer, or Gen X tell stories about when they were kids. They were mean as hell and got in some shit. A lot of the “zero tolerance for bullying” stuff started taking off when millennials were kids, but was really in full swing during y’all’s childhood.
Fast forward to 2016, and the pendulum swung back to “fuck your feelings”, and then Covid, the poor socialization for kids who missed out on school for years who don’t know how to behave properly. Now they’re little shits.
Congratulations. You’re an adult now. Because the surest sign of being an adult is being horrified by the behavior of the generation that follows yours.
Boomers were horrified by my generation’s behavior. And we (Gen X) were horrified by millennials. Millennials were horrified by your generation, and someday Gen Alpha will be horrified by whatever follows them.
It’s one of the oldest traditions that human beings have.
This is what happens when parents don’t spank their kids. Millennials complain about the failings of the boomers and their parenting methods/style, but it’ll come back full swing.
Hard times make strong men, strong men make easy times, easy times make weak men, weak men make hard times.
Every generation are spoiled little shit heads to some extent. I remember looking at the kids a few grades below me right after getting out of high-school when I would still visit (and it was easy to visit) my teachers that I had kept in touch with and thinking “What the fuck, we would have gotten our asses kicked if we acted this way” and we would have. And I don’t mean that figuratively. What’s acceptable behavior changes. I won’t say it’s always okay. But it’s a fact of life. The jobs thing? Talked about in the elder millennial (my) generation. Our parents would sometimes say bigoted stupid shit like “Get good grades or you’ll end up working at a convenience store” or “If you don’t want to pick up trash start paying attention”. And that was at a time when you could actually live on your own and still have some fun on a convenience store salary. Designer brands? Let me tell you about JNCOs in the 90s. Big ass jeans like 18″ wide legs. $80-$100 a pair when you could get a pair of pretty good Bugle Boys for $4 at pretty much any store. Or like $10 for Wranglers or Levis. Being fat or skinny was something to get bullied for in the 90s. Being queer? Holy fuck that was bad. Just being accused of being queer meant you were likely to be abandoned completely by everyone but maybe your closest friends. Some stuck around and some didn’t. It usually meant getting beat up sometimes badly too. And maybe gen Z had it better. I don’t know for sure. I know that some of the kids I taught and mentored in Gen Z had similar experiences to me. What you’re describing about Gen Alpha sounds very similar to what I experienced as an elder Millennial minus most of the homophobia.
It’s the parents 100%. The entitlement from the parents transfers right down to the kids
Sorry to tell you but you’ve gotten older. The rose coloured glasses are starting to cover your eyes. You are now part of an unbroken line of people dating back to the earliest moments of recorded history complaining about “the youth of today”
Internet/social media.
It’s always the answer. Every generation since Millennials has spent more and more time being shaped by it. This is the result.
I don’t think this is new. Kids, especially like tweens or whatever lack functional empathy. Like I feel like it’s common knowledge that middle school-aged girls are legit the meanest mfs on the planet.
50 year old dad with Gen Alpha daughter here!
I don’t know what the fuck is going on half the time and have nothing constructive to add.
I’m not religious but I was watched over by my grandma in the 90s and she was. Once I got to teenage, I knew my grandma and parents would be disappointed by any bad decisions, or just don’t get caught. But ultimately, I knew what was expected of me behavior wise and I never wanted them to think ill of me because I’m following my “friends”.
Kids nowadays seem to think there are no consequences and no one is expecting them to be decent young people. They need to do what the other kids do or they won’t be accepted. Which is dumb af cuz 99% of them won’t be their friend past high school anyway.
So bad behavior is cool. No one thinks for themselves, they only follow examples from other kids who aren’t actively thinking for themselves.
So being respectful and being open to learn is dumb to them. There aren’t consequences so why be better? I’m just glad I didn’t grow up in front of a screen and perpetually online. It’s good to use your brain and not be controlled by the algorithm or be in groups that don’t look outside their own bubble.
idek my little sisters lowkey are assholes
Whooping asses is now “extreme abuse”, as is yelling and removing access to social circles (unhealthy). Parents can’t do shit anymore and I can’t wait for gen alpha to wreck every parent.