Are we ready for Gen Alpha?
Think you only just wrapped your head around Millennials and their avocado toast? Or Gen Z and their hyper connectedness? Cue the next generation on the conveyor belt of pointing out what makes us different – Generation Alpha.
Have you only just wrapped your head around Millennials and their avocado toast? Or Gen Z and their hyper connectedness? Cue the next generation on the conveyor belt of pointing out what makes us different – Generation Alpha.
For those who aren’t familiar with the term coined for children born since 2010, they have been officially classified and with the youngest Gen Z’s turning 17 and 18, Gen Alpha makes up most of today’s kids and teenagers. As an unrelated aside, I feel a little sorry for the meme culture likely to surround Gen Beta in a few years’ time… but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today!
Last week I attended the International Association for the Studies of Youth Ministry conference in Sydney. I was incredibly blessed to sit at the feet of many wonderful researchers who are paving the way to understanding and better practice for those who work with young people in the church. The papers we read and heard are not yet ready for publication or public response, however, I want to share a thought I had while engaging with some of the sessions.
What we’re really looking for and hoping for out of life, remains largely the same, regardless of generation or life stage. How we think about that and how we seek it may change from generation to generation, but at our core we are far more similar than we are different.
Part of my job with the Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT’s Pulse Team in the past three years has been to lead congregations through Growing Young consultations. The key things that Fuller Theological Seminary identify as needs in the lives of teenagers and young adults that become the basis of the whole consultation is what forms their identity, belonging, and purpose.
What I have found myself saying all the time in Growing Young consultations is that ultimately, we are all either striving towards or striving to maintain those three things in our lives. Who we are, who our people are, and why we are here, are in many ways, the big questions not just for young people, but for humankind. Those of us old enough to have had all three of those things feel fairly settled at once, know what a delight it is to live a life in which those questions have been answered. And those of us who have done any journeying at all in life post-adolescence, know they aren’t set in stone forever and our lives are marked by ongoing disruptions to one or more of those things at different points in that journey.
I am greatly encouraged by this, because it ultimately means that anyone with a genuine desire to engage meaningfully with young people, already has the core life experience required to get started. You know deep in your soul how it feels to face those three questions and not know the answer.
While it is true we largely hold that in common across the generations, it is also true that we are formed and grow up in vastly different worlds from each other. The oldest Gen Alpha’s were still in primary school throughout COVID, meaning they were formed as children in their homes, with their families, largely separated from school and extra-curricular socialisation.
Politically, they are the first generation to grow up in a world where the performative antics and polarising rhetoric of Trump and his global contemporaries is just – what politics is.
Technologically, they are the first generation to graduate school in a world where AI is a fact of life, and they have never known a world without the touch screen. Professionally they will graduate from various institutions into a world that is already experiencing many of the predicted disruptions AI and robotics promises. So, considering that, what are Gen Alpha themselves telling us matters to them, particularly when it comes to faith?
The Fuller Youth Institute recently completed a study with 3,000 Gen Alpha’s (full study linked in side bar). Here are 4 of their findings:
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Family Matters – todays teenagers self-report that family is the biggest influence in their lives. They are more likely to trust family than friends in matters of identity formation and belonging, and significantly more likely to trust family than religious leaders in matters pertaining to faith development.
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Home Matters – they are most comfortable, feel they most belong, find purpose, and explore faith at home. While it is true home is not safe for many, those who have a safe home prefer it over their friend groups and third spaces.
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Mentoring Matters – they consistently say they crave nonjudgmental relationships with adults who listen and follow through.
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Spirituality is Hybrid – while the church struggles with whether to have a strong presence in the digital world, they are already learning spirituality from it. They claim both church community AND digital space significantly form their religious and spiritual identity.
So, are we ready for Gen Alpha?
They are being formed in a world vastly different to the one we grew up in, but just like us, they are looking for identity, belonging, and purpose in an ever-changing world. And they are looking for genuine and nonjudgmental adults who care about them.
The best advice is not to focus on the things that divide, and to remember that you know exactly what it feels like to not have all the answers and to be an empathetic ear and consistent presence for the young people in your midst.
