All of the Generation Alphas have now been created and this year marks the start of the slightly irrelevant activity of grouping a new generation together – welcome Generation Beta.
The next 14 years that follow will see Beta babies born and it’s predicted they’ll make up 16% of the world population by 2039.1
While the first members of Gen Beta are just about opening their eyes, what are the key influences for this next generation?
Technology
It’s little surprise that technology dominates the discussion in terms of experiences of growing up in a new generation. While Gen Z were labelled ‘natives’ to the digital world, and Alpha’s growing up with even more proliferation of content, social media and the emerging AI opportunities (and threats), for Beta’s, AI and automation will be far more integrated into education, work, daily life and entertainment.
The futurist and demographer Mark McCrindle highlights that helping Gen Beta build safe and thoughtful digital identities will be essential, alongside encouraging a strong sense of individuality online and in real life.
A changing world
Born into a world experiencing a breadth of conflicts as well as ongoing climate change, will also shape their outlooks, coupled with the impact of younger Millennial and Gen Z parents and their perspectives on sustainability and climate change.
Finding solutions and innovations will factor too. 71% of millennials and 67% of Gen Zs think climate change should be a top priority for the future, how will this shape the upbringing of their children?2
Socioeconomic Divide
The consistent theme since beginning to write and share Engaging Youth reports/updates, has been the growing socioeconomic divide children and young people experience in the UK.
The impact of the pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis has only broadened the gap within Gen Z and is now well established for Gen Alpha. Not only does this shape prospects when it comes to education and work, it’s also impacting on quality and longevity of life.
Factor in other intersectionality’s and you’ll potentially have the starkest divide within a generation yet. Where all things are not equal as you grow up in the UK.
New challenges
There are already significant demographics shifts ahead within Gen Alpha, but this will only continue with Gen Beta. Declining birth rates and a mix of longer life expectancies and shorter for those in lower socioeconomic groups, may shift the focus from over population to population sustainability.
You can sign up to weekly Engaging Youth updates on this website and if you’d like explore how understanding youth voice and trends could benefit your organisation and campaigns email me at rebecca@threadandfable.com
Comentarios