If you are over 20, there is a good chance the youngest people in your life are growing up in a psychological reality that simply did not exist when you were a child. Not just “more screens” or “shorter attention spans”, but a different landscape of identity, emotions, and learning. Psychologists are now trying to understand this group properly: Generation Alpha, the first children born entirely in the 21st century.
Who exactly are Gen Alpha – and why psychologists care so much
Most demographers define Generation Alpha as children born roughly between 2010 and 2024, the majority of them children of Millennials and younger siblings of Gen Z.(
McCrindle) Social researcher Mark McCrindle, who coined the term, argues that they are “the start of something new”, which is why his team moved from letters (X, Y, Z) to the Greek alphabet.(
Wikipedia) Psychologist Jean Twenge, known for large-scale studies on generations and mental health, suggests a slightly later range (2013–2029) and calls them “Polars”, to highlight both intense political polarization and the climate crisis as their background noise.(
Wikipedia) What everyone agrees on: Alpha kids are the first humans to never know life without smartphones, social media, streaming platforms and AI assistants.(
Wikipedia) They learned to swipe before they could read. COVID-19 lockdowns hit many of them in preschool or early school years. They are also on track to be the most racially and culturally diverse generation in history, which already affects their views on identity and fairness.(
Springtide Research Institute) For psychologists, Gen Alpha are not just “more digital kids”. They are a massive live experiment: what happens when emotional development, peer contact, learning, and even self-talk run through devices from day one.
Gen Z vs Gen Alpha: same Wi-Fi, different wiring
It is tempting to group Gen Z (born roughly 1997–2010) and Gen Alpha into one big “TikTok generation”, but data show they entered the digital age from different doors. Gen Z remembers a time before constant smartphones and grew into social media during adolescence. Gen Alpha met touchscreens in infancy and often had remote classrooms in primary school.(
Wikipedia) Research comparing the two cohorts suggests several key differences.
1. Tech and media habits
Gen Z is highly online, but they still have a memory of desktop internet and earlier social platforms. Gen Alpha is almost fully mobile-first and platform-fluid: they move between short-form video, gaming, chat, and learning apps as one environment. Studies show that by early adolescence, a majority of Alpha children own or regularly use internet-connected devices, and they were heavy users of streaming and gaming during the pandemic.(
Wikipedia) Comparative analyses indicate that Gen Z tends to value experiences and community content, while Gen Alpha is already gravitating toward more personalized, interactive and immersive formats (gamified learning, virtual worlds, creator tools).(
GWI)
2. Learning and attention
Early data on Gen Alpha students show that they respond strongly to interactive, game-like learning environments and short feedback loops. A 2024 study on Alpha students’ learning engagement found that early internet exposure changes their preferred teaching styles: they stay more engaged when tasks are visually rich, chunked into smaller steps, and allow some autonomy.(
ResearchGate) For Gen Z, the big educational shock was the arrival of smartphones in middle and high school. For Gen Alpha, disrupted schooling during COVID, hybrid classrooms, and educational platforms were normal from the start.(
Wikipedia) That difference matters for how they manage focus: many Alpha kids are used to switching tasks quickly and being constantly stimulated. Some developmental psychologists warn that this may limit their tolerance for slow, linear tasks, while others argue it simply produces a different style of attention that can be trained, not “damaged”.(
phys.org)
3. Values, diversity, and social views
Gen Z is already the most racially diverse generation in many Western countries; Gen Alpha is set to surpass them.(
Springtide Research Institute) Surveys suggest that both generations rate inclusivity and authenticity as important, but Alpha kids absorb these norms even earlier: they grow up with school materials, shows, and online creators that normalize diverse families, gender identities, disabilities, and global issues.(
Springtide Research Institute) This may build higher baseline empathy in some domains – for example, understanding different cultures – while still leaving blind spots such as economic inequality or offline local communities.
The emotional life of Gen Alpha: fragile or ahead of the curve?
One of the most charged debates is whether Gen Alpha will be “more broken” emotionally than Gen Z, who already face elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Twenge’s work shows a clear rise in mental health problems among young people in the smartphone era, especially after 2012, when social media became nearly universal for teens.(
Jean Twenge) The risk factors for Gen Z are well-documented: sleep loss due to late-night scrolling, constant social comparison, cyberbullying, and less in-person time with friends.
For Gen Alpha, first longitudinal studies suggest a more complex picture. An overview article on “the psychology of Generation Alpha” published in November 2025 notes that digital spaces expose children to more stressors, but also to more tools: information about mental health, online counseling, peer-support communities and evidence-based coping strategies are easier to find than ever.(
phys.org) In other words, risk and resource are arriving at the same time.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a key part of this story. A 2025 study on Alpha adolescents’ social media use and EI found that heavy appearance-focused use was associated with more emotional problems, but some forms of online interaction correlated with better emotional awareness and empathy.(
Taylor & Francis Online) Another 2024 study on Alpha students described them as “digital natives whose learning engagement and communication patterns are shaped by constant connectivity”, stressing that their emotional skills develop through mixed online–offline interactions rather than just face-to-face contact.(
ResearchGate)
Compared with Gen Z, Alpha kids may:
- talk about feelings earlier because mental health language is now mainstream in schools and media
- show higher comfort with text- and emoji-based emotional expression, but more difficulty reading subtle body language in real life if they lack unstructured offline play
- seek help from apps, influencers, or AI tools as quickly as from a trusted adult, which can be both helpful and risky depending on the source
The “secret” many adults miss: emotional intelligence for Gen Alpha is becoming a multi-platform skill. It is not only the classic ability to read a room; it is also the ability to read a group chat, a comment section, and an algorithmic feed – and to regulate reactions in all three. This demands new teaching strategies.
How Gen Alpha actually uses emotional intelligence
When researchers measure EI, they look at abilities like identifying emotions, regulating them, and using feelings to guide decisions. For Gen Z, these skills often show up around friendships, school pressure, dating, and online identity. For Gen Alpha, similar skills are being trained in slightly different arenas:
- Micro-conflicts in digital spaces. Alpha kids learn early how to handle being excluded from a group chat, left on “read”, or criticized in a game or comments. These situations require rapid emotion labeling (“I feel embarrassed / angry”), impulse control, and decisions about whether to respond or log off.(The Annie E. Casey Foundation)
- Self-presentation and boundaries. Many Alpha children curate profiles or avatars long before they have a traditional social media account. Choosing what to share, what to hide, and when to say no to a photo or a video becomes part of their emotional skill-set. Studies on parenting Gen Alpha show that clear family rules around tech – especially about sleep, privacy, and social media – support better emotional outcomes.(ScienceDirect)
- Mental-health literacy. Unlike older generations, Alpha kids often learn words like “anxiety”, “trigger”, and “overwhelm” from age 8–10 through school programs or online content. Quebec psychiatrists, for instance, have called for systematic mental-health education in elementary school to match the reality children already live in.(Wikipedia) When done well, this can strengthen self-reflection. When done poorly, it can lead to over-labeling normal mood swings as pathology.
The uncomfortable question for adults is whether we are ready to teach EI in the environments where Alpha actually lives – chats, games, short videos – or whether we will insist on outdated formats and then complain about their “low attention span”.
What comes after Alpha: Generation Beta and a new emotional climate
Alpha is no longer the youngest generation. Babies born from around 2025 will be part of Generation Beta, according to McCrindle and most recent demographic write-ups.(
McCrindle) If the naming logic survives, Beta will be followed by Gamma and Delta later in the century.(
generationalpha.com)
What will make Gen Beta different? There is no hard data yet – they are infants and toddlers – but several trends are clear enough to take seriously:
- AI-native from birth. While Alpha grows up with AI tools arriving during their childhood, Beta will be born into a world where AI tutors, recommendation systems, and generative tools are standard parts of school and home infrastructure. Analysts predict that both Alpha and Beta lives will be strongly shaped by AI and automation, but Beta will not remember a pre-AI world at all.(Business Insider)
- Climate and instability as background conditions. Twenge’s label “Polars” already points to political polarization and climate anxiety for Alpha.(Rooted Ministry) For Beta, climate disruption, migration, and demographic shifts will be even more visible: more extreme weather events, more public debates about resources, more visible consequences of inequality. This may raise baseline stress but could also drive a stronger orientation toward collective solutions and sustainability.
- Smaller cohorts, older societies. Falling fertility rates mean both Alpha and Beta will live in societies with more grandparents and fewer children than previous generations.(Wikipedia) Emotionally, this may push them to interact more with adults and elderly relatives, and to shoulder responsibilities earlier, especially in countries with weak social systems.
If Alpha is the test case for growing up fully digital, Beta may be the test case for growing up fully AI-assisted and climate-aware. Their emotional intelligence will probably include skills that are only emerging now: evaluating AI advice, managing eco-anxiety, balancing digital presence with privacy, and negotiating human–machine teams at school and work. At the same time, they will still need very old skills: reading a friend’s face, handling boredom, tolerating uncertainty.
What this all means for adults today
The most useful insight from current research is not that “kids these days are doomed” or “kids these days are super-humans with phones”. It is that Gen Z, Alpha, and soon Beta are emotional products of their environments in specific, measurable ways. For anyone who cares about them – parents, teachers, employers, policymakers – several practical conclusions follow:
- Stop treating screens as a single variable. Which apps, what time of day, what kind of interaction, and what happens offline matter more than total hours.(Taylor & Francis Online)
- Build emotional-intelligence training where they already are: in group chats, games, short videos, collaborative tools. That means teaching conflict resolution, empathy, and self-control in digital contexts, not only in textbooks.(ResearchGate)
- Accept that Gen Alpha and, later, Gen Beta will talk about mental health more than earlier generations. The task is not to silence them, but to help them distinguish between everyday emotions and serious disorders, and to connect them with reliable support instead of random influencers.(phys.org)
- Question generational clichés. Even the researchers who coined these labels warn against turning them into stereotypes. Generations are best used as tools to understand social change, not as boxes to trap people in.(Business Insider)
The “secret”, if there is one, is that Generation Alpha is neither better nor worse than Gen Z. They are simply being shaped by a different mix of forces: always-on tech, early mental-health awareness, greater diversity, and higher global uncertainty. The question is not what kind of kids they are, but what kind of adults we decide to be around them – and whether we are ready to update our own emotional and digital literacy as fast as theirs is developing.
