Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #294 Generation Alpha with Mark McCrindle

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#294 Generation Alpha with Mark McCrindle · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
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  Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the time poor parent who just
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: wants answers now. So it almost is like a global
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: experiment putting smartphones and devices and social media in the
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  Speaker 2: hands of children from literally their toddler years. And this
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  Speaker 2: is the first generation to have that. And now here's
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  Speaker 2: the stars of our show, my mum and dad.
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  Speaker 3: Gooday.
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  Speaker 4: This is doctor Justin Coulson, the author of a bunch
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  Speaker 4: of books about raising happy families, like Misconnection, While your
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  Speaker 4: teenage daughter hates you, expects the world needs to talk
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  Speaker 4: and twenty one days to a happier family. Here with Kylie,
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  Speaker 4: my podcast partner and my life partner, wife and mum
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  Speaker 4: to our six kids, and Kylie. Today we're having a
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  Speaker 4: conversation with the author of a book called Generation Alpha,
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  Speaker 4: Understanding our children and helping them thrive. Mark McCrindle joins us. Now,
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  Speaker 4: welcome Mark.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Justin, Kylie. Great to be with you,
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  Speaker 2: and Justin love your work and find it really for
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  Speaker 2: myself so great to be talking with you.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's so nice. It's great to be with you. Mark.
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  Speaker 4: Have been playing around with your brand new book, Generation
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  Speaker 4: Alpha and flicking through reading a good portion of it.
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  Speaker 3: Haven't gotten to the end yet.
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  Speaker 4: I have to confess that I hate saying that on
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  Speaker 4: a podcast interview, but I just I want to be transparent.
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  Speaker 4: But I've read a good portion of it now and
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  Speaker 4: I love this conversation about the different generations.
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  Speaker 3: I've always resisted it.
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  Speaker 4: I feel like I'm a gen Xer, and I kind
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  Speaker 4: of never felt like I really was a gen X
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  Speaker 4: person until I read your book and I was like, man,
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  Speaker 4: that's exactly who I am, and I felt.
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  Speaker 3: A little bit annoying.
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  Speaker 4: So for parents who are not familiar with the different generations,
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  Speaker 4: can you just walk us through from the baby Boomers,
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  Speaker 4: the gen X gen y into where we are now
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  Speaker 4: with our generation Alpha, the kids that are being born
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  Speaker 4: right now.
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  Speaker 2: Sure. Well, I'm a fellow gen Xer myself. So the
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  Speaker 2: generation before us, as you said, are the Baby Boomers.
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  Speaker 2: They're the grandparents of today now. I excited for them
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  Speaker 2: to move into that next stage with kids. And then
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  Speaker 2: it came us to us gen Xes and just the
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  Speaker 2: reason for that label. In the early nineties, as the
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  Speaker 2: gen X cohort was emerging, we didn't have a label.
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  Speaker 2: An American actually Canadian writer said hey, we're not like
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  Speaker 2: the boomers. Just call us X, you know, we defire label,
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  Speaker 2: and that anti label became the label not only for
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  Speaker 2: Generation X, but then Generation Y, also called the millennials.
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  Speaker 2: But the Gen y's are now hitting their forties, so
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  Speaker 2: they are in the parenting years, right in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of it. And then we get to Generation Z, which
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  Speaker 2: are the teenagers and twenty somethings, and we got to
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  Speaker 2: the end of the alphabet. And so a few years
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  Speaker 2: ago I was looking at all this, we need to
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  Speaker 2: think about this next generation because they're about to be born,
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  Speaker 2: and I just followed the scientific approach, which is using
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  Speaker 2: the Greek alphabet. So Generation ALPHA are those born from
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  Speaker 2: twenty ten through to twenty twenty four. So obviously the
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  Speaker 2: children young children of today and will continue to be born,
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  Speaker 2: six thousand of them being born in Australia every single week,
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  Speaker 2: and they'll be quite a large generation in the end.
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  Speaker 5: So Mark, I've got a question for you. How do
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  Speaker 5: you characterize millennials. I mean, they're are main parents of
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  Speaker 5: today's children.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the little ones.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, these millennials, also called Generation Y, were born
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  Speaker 2: from nineteen eighty through to nineteen ninety four. So if
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  Speaker 2: you're a parent, a new parent, a young parent. Chances
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  Speaker 2: that you're in that age group, and this is the
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  Speaker 2: generation that we're coming of age as technology was. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: the Gen Wise will remember, you know, they had the Internet,
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  Speaker 2: They even had very early devices pretty much laptops, but
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  Speaker 2: they didn't have the digital technology that their children are
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  Speaker 2: now having, these Alphas are having. And so you know,
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  Speaker 2: these millennials were different to us Gen x's. They were
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  Speaker 2: a bit more globally connected, a bit more into the technology,
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  Speaker 2: had mobile phones from a young age, but not the
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  Speaker 2: smart devices of today. So even between the Gen Wise
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  Speaker 2: and their children, there's quite a digital gap.
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  Speaker 4: Mark that brings us to the reality that children today,
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  Speaker 4: this Generation Alpha, are pretty much born with a screen
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  Speaker 4: in their hand. People have always joked about that as
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  Speaker 4: we were growing up, even these kids were addicted to screens,
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  Speaker 4: But nowadays kids it's such an integral part of their life.
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  Speaker 4: And in Generation al for you talk about the great
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  Speaker 4: screen age, can you tell us what you discovered in
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  Speaker 4: your research about kids today who are being raised in
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  Speaker 4: this technologically advanced world.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they definitely are this digital, globally connected, screen based
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  Speaker 2: technology saturated generation. And as you say, you know, born
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  Speaker 2: into this world of screens. That's literally the case because
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  Speaker 2: the year they began being born twenty ten was the
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  Speaker 2: year that the iPad came out, the first of the tablet,
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  Speaker 2: and the year that the word of the year was
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  Speaker 2: the word app the year that Instagram was launched. So
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  Speaker 2: tells us something about the visual and social media world
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  Speaker 2: that they have only ever known. And so it almost
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  Speaker 2: is like a global experiment putting smartphones and devices and
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  Speaker 2: social media in the hands of children from literally their
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  Speaker 2: toddler years, and this is the first generation to have that.
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  Speaker 2: So the touch screen, the interaction of that social connection
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  Speaker 2: through device, and really the compulsive nature of the gamification
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  Speaker 2: of their world is at a whole new level for
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  Speaker 2: this young generation.
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  Speaker 4: It's so funny hearing you say that when we talk
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  Speaker 4: to our kids about life when we were growing up,
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  Speaker 4: they can't conceive, literally cannot conceive of the idea that
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  Speaker 4: Google wasn't a thing, and that we didn't all have
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  Speaker 4: laptops or a computer in our pocket.
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  Speaker 3: It's just so foreign to them.
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  Speaker 4: When we come back after the break, we want to
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  Speaker 4: ask you Mark a little bit about what it's like
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  Speaker 4: to be a parent for generation out for the kinds
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  Speaker 4: of things that kids need because of the world that
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  Speaker 4: they've been born into, and we also want to find
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  Speaker 4: out a bit about what's going to happen for them
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  Speaker 4: from a work perspective. Everyone always talks about the incredible
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  Speaker 4: pace at which the workplace is changing. That's coming up
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  Speaker 4: in just a second.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: It's a Happy Famili's.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Podcast for a happier family. Try a Happy Families membership,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: because a happy family doesn't just happen. Details at happy
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: families dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 5: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast with a time
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  Speaker 5: poor parent who just wants answers now. And today we're
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  Speaker 5: talking with Mark McCrindle, author of Generation Alpha. Mike, I'm
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  Speaker 5: thinking about our children today and the pressures on them
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  Speaker 5: to perform and to learn in ways that we've never
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  Speaker 5: seen in the history of humanity, and I'm wondering what
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  Speaker 5: implication this has on them as they move through their
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  Speaker 5: studies and into the workforce. What does your study actually
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  Speaker 5: show us about education and the things that we need
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  Speaker 5: to know as parents to help out you chldren move
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  Speaker 5: through their education process and into the workforce.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this generation is going to have more jobs than
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  Speaker 2: ever before. Our estimation is eighteen separate employers in their
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  Speaker 2: lifetime and across an estimated six different careers, so they
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  Speaker 2: will be lifelong learners. They'll have to upskill and retrain
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  Speaker 2: as they go along. They will have to remain ever
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  Speaker 2: nimble to adjust and adapt as they go and they'll
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  Speaker 2: work in jobs that don't yet exist, just as some
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  Speaker 2: of them are working in jobs now some of the
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  Speaker 2: school leaders that didn't exist when they began their school,
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  Speaker 2: you know, cybersecurity or app development, or robotics or virtual reality, blockchain,
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  Speaker 2: you know, whole new areas and industries have emerged in
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  Speaker 2: the last decade and that will continue to be the case.
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  Speaker 2: So having some digital literacy is useful. But even more
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  Speaker 2: than that, having the people's skills is going to be essential.
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  Speaker 2: Being able to be creative and resilient and adaptive and
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  Speaker 2: adjust as their career goes along will be essential because
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  Speaker 2: the fact is that if they're really good at coding
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  Speaker 2: and technology but not so good on the life skills,
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  Speaker 2: the character and the people's skills, well they're going to
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  Speaker 2: have a challenge because anything that can be automated will
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  Speaker 2: be anything we can get computers to do in the future,
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  Speaker 2: we will, but computers and technology is not great at
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  Speaker 2: that human interface and understanding complexity and making decisions in
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  Speaker 2: an era of ambiguity. And that's that decision making, that innovation,
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  Speaker 2: that entrepreneurialism is what we need to equip our children
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  Speaker 2: with to thrive in an unknown future.
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  Speaker 4: Mike, that's a really nice link into the question that
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  Speaker 4: I was going to ask, and that is if I'm
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  Speaker 4: a parent raising a generation al for a child, and
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  Speaker 4: I know what you've just told me. That is that
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  Speaker 4: most work will be able to be done by robots,
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  Speaker 4: and it's the quality of our interpersonal dynamics, our ability
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  Speaker 4: to have empatheater to work with people, to lead to
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  Speaker 4: be resilient. What are the kinds of things that parents
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  Speaker 4: need to be focused on to give their children the
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  Speaker 4: very best opportunities as they launch into adulthood in another ten, fifteen,
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  Speaker 4: twenty years from now.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of parents are really focused when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to education on looking for an outcome that will create
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  Speaker 2: a holistic development in their child. You know, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's important. They don't just want the numerous in literacy,
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  Speaker 2: they don't just want better and better exam results. They
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  Speaker 2: want their child to develop in perhaps music or artistic areas.
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  Speaker 2: They want them to develop spiritually. They want them to
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  Speaker 2: develop socially and with sporting or coordination skills, and I
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  Speaker 2: think that's important, that's essential, and they need to think
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  Speaker 2: about that in their own raising of the children. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, we want our children to really be well
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  Speaker 2: developed across a broad range of areas, not just to
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  Speaker 2: be digitally savvy and you know, academically focused, because you know,
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  Speaker 2: the future is going to belong to those who can
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  Speaker 2: be leaders, make decisions, understand complexity, adapt relate well across diversity,
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  Speaker 2: which is our modern community and workplace, and that is
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  Speaker 2: best developed by getting a range of experiences, going to
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  Speaker 2: camps and having broader experiences, whether that be in social
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  Speaker 2: context or youth development programs, being able to engage in
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  Speaker 2: the outdoors, you know, not just spend all of the
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  Speaker 2: time on screens and indoors. So if we can give
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  Speaker 2: our children these broader experiences, that will set them up
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  Speaker 2: well to holistically flourish.
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  Speaker 3: Mark.
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  Speaker 4: I know that there's more that we could talk about
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  Speaker 4: with Generation Alpha, but I really want to pick you
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  Speaker 4: up on some of the things that you've highlighted there
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  Speaker 4: because of just the supreme importance of what you've highlighted
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  Speaker 4: and the fact that our world seems to be moving
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  Speaker 4: away from much of what you've described. We seem to
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  Speaker 4: be pushing for early specialization, we seem to be focusing
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  Speaker 4: our children on.
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  Speaker 3: Early technical skills.
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  Speaker 4: They're not getting that holistic childhood because we're so focused
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  Speaker 4: on unintentionally applying pressure with the best of intentions so
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  Speaker 4: that they can be successful. But it doesn't seem to
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  Speaker 4: me that as parents in today's increasingly busy pressured world,
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  Speaker 4: that we're getting that right. When you were doing your research,
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  Speaker 4: did anything stand out to you along those lines that
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  Speaker 4: you could point to that might be helpful for parents
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  Speaker 4: to maybe pull back a bit where they need to
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  Speaker 4: and get the balance right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, And I think it is particularly around controlling
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  Speaker 2: or at least bracketing the use of screens in their world,
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  Speaker 2: because we found in this research that's seventy five percent
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  Speaker 2: of the discretionary time, the after school, after chor's time
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  Speaker 2: that children have is spent on screens. So if you
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  Speaker 2: give your child a choice, or if you give them
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  Speaker 2: free time, they're going to grab the screen. That's the
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  Speaker 2: go to. It's easy, it's addictive in terms of its interaction,
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  Speaker 2: and therefore, if we can constrain that somewhat it'll free
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  Speaker 2: up space to do those other things so that they
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  Speaker 2: can holistically develop, which is so key. Are we say
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  Speaker 2: in the book, we've got lots of tips in it,
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  Speaker 2: but partly at things like setting the example ourselves. A
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  Speaker 2: lot of the times, you know, we stort of saying, hey,
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  Speaker 2: off the screen while we're scrolling through something. If we
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  Speaker 2: can put them to bed the way our grandparents did
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  Speaker 2: you know a good old story and reflecting on the day,
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  Speaker 2: if we can have maybe a reset, maybe we're all
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  Speaker 2: just two screen addicted. Maybe we have screen free Sundays,
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  Speaker 2: or maybe we have a three day break in the
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  Speaker 2: holidays where there's just no screens. Maybe we use the screens,
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  Speaker 2: but we have a shared screen experience. Hey, we're going
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  Speaker 2: to watch a family movie night on Friday night instead
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  Speaker 2: of everyone just just dissipating off to their own screen experience.
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  Speaker 2: We put in the book a four letter acronym that
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  Speaker 2: came through the research that might help parents DCBA, and
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  Speaker 2: the D stands for delay the access to the device
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  Speaker 2: or just limit the device use. Rather than give the
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  Speaker 2: eight or nine or ten year old their own device,
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  Speaker 2: wait until they maybe hit the teenagers. If we can.
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  Speaker 2: Sure they might for their schooling need access to ours
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  Speaker 2: or for a little bit of that screen time, but
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  Speaker 2: at least if it's not their own, they don't have
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  Speaker 2: two for seven use of it, and that's going to
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  Speaker 2: delay some of the use. And then the C is
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  Speaker 2: communicate the values, communicate what we're about so that they
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  Speaker 2: can start to make the right decisions as to what
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  Speaker 2: games or interactions they have and how they behave online.
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  Speaker 2: That the B is the behavioral skills. Let's give them
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  Speaker 2: some skills, some social skills so that they can self
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  Speaker 2: limit and when they have the urge just to reach
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  Speaker 2: for the screen, they can say, actually, I've learned to
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  Speaker 2: go for a walk, or kick a soccer ball around
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  Speaker 2: or something else. So behavioral skills, because their life is
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  Speaker 2: going to be filled with impulses and with the opportunities
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  Speaker 2: just to grab onto what makes them feel good. But
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  Speaker 2: if they can develop some self restraint, that's great. And
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  Speaker 2: the A stands for accountability. Ultimately, parents have to provide
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  Speaker 2: a safe environment for the children. And if we can
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  Speaker 2: have accountability around how much time they're spending or where
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  Speaker 2: they're going, or even checking on some of the social
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  Speaker 2: media or some of the screen use that's going to
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  Speaker 2: be healthy for them and keep them accountable as they
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  Speaker 2: make their own improved choices in life.
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  Speaker 4: Wow, DCBA, that's a great idea. I've been teaching this
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  Speaker 4: stuff for a long time and I haven't come across that,
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  Speaker 4: but I really like that little acronym.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for that, Mike. We'll put that into the
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  Speaker 3: show notes.
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  Speaker 5: Marc, this has been such a great conversation. I'm wondering
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: what would you want the take home message of your
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: book to be When you think about everything that we've
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: talked about today, what do you want parents of Generation
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  Speaker 5: Alpha to really know that.
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  Speaker 2: This is such a critical generation being shaped at such
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  Speaker 2: a unique time, with such incredible opportunities, the digital, the
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: global the education. They are the most formally educated generation ever,
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  Speaker 2: the most materially endowed generation ever in our world. What
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: an opportunity. And we also as parents or educators, as
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: those in their world, have this unique window of opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to shape them, because if we don't, society will, and
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  Speaker 2: the screens and the devices will, and that's not necessarily
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: going to be in accordance with what we would want
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: as an outcome. So the takeaway message from the book
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: is source ship hearenting, don't think that the school will
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: educate and the screens will equip and I'm sure our
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: careers advisor will help them find the career pathway in life. Yes,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: we're all busy. We're jugging multiple roles. You know, You've
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: got pure six kids and me with mine. We've got
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: a lot going on in our world and with our kids.
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  Speaker 2: But we can't afford to let this window of shaping
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: and formative years fly by without us being intentional. So
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I would say it is about being clear on the direction,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: you know, focused on the children, building those relationships, setting
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: them up for a win, and ultimately that comes down
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: to good relationships and really good modeling of the outcomes
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: that we want.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Great advice, Thanks so much, Mark, thanksin that's Mark McCrindle.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: He's the author of Generation Alpha Understanding Our Children and
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: Helping Them Thrive. He wrote it with Ashley phil and
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Sam Buckerfield. Do we really hope you enjoyed that conversation?
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: Mark's insights are just fascinating and so well articulated.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: What a great conversation.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: The Happy Family PODC is produced by Justin Ruland for
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Bridge Media and Craig Bruce is our executive producer. Next
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: week we'll be having a conversation with Kimberly Ewittz. She's
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: written a brand new book about separation and divorce. We
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: get so many questions via podcasts at happy families dot
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: com dot Au from parents who are going through some
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: real struggles with their families and in so many cases
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: unfortunately needing a feeling a.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Need to separate their families.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: And Kimberly Ewitts is going to be talking about her
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: research and the things that she's learned about what gives
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: us the best possible outcomes in those extraordinary and very
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: challenging circumstances.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: So please join us for that.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: We hope that you've enjoyed everything that Mark has talked
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: about today, and if you'd like more and fo about
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: making your family happier, you can find it at happyfamilies
• 16:43
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