Glued to the screen
BORN and raised with screens, digital activities occupy an important place in the daily lives of Gen Alpha children. So much so that 54% of parents say their Gen Alpha child spends up to four hours a day on social media, a level similar to Gen Z’s younger members, according to a Morning Consult survey.
According to the research, 65% of older Gen Alpha children, aged eight to 10 years, spend up to four hours a day on social media, compared to 56% of young members of Gen Z, 13-17 year-olds.
However, 41% of 13-17 yearolds spend more than four hours on social networks every day, while a third of eight to 10 yearolds never use them.
Social media is an integral part of the lives of even the youngest North American children, with 24% of under-fours spending over an hour a day on social platforms and 22% going on such sites for less than an hour a day on social platforms, (compared to five to seven year-olds, 34% of whom spend an hour or more on these sites and 17% of whom spend less than an hour a day).
The surveys were conducted from Oct 16 to 29, 2023 among a representative sample of 1,002 members of Gen Z aged 13 to 26, and from Jan 3 to 18, 2024 among 2,007 parents of children under 11.
The study findings show that video streaming has become the norm for Alpha kids. Around half of parents of Gen Alpha children say their youngest child watches content on a video streaming platform at least once a day, compared to 40% for reading books and 37% for playing video games.
The most popular video streaming platforms include Youtube, Disney+ and Netflix.
However, these digital activities represent only a minority of Gen Alpha children’s interests. Some 36% of parents say their Gen Alpha children want to spend time indoors having screen time, compared to 55% for outdoor activities.
But this gap narrows as children get older, “with the biggest change happening when children age out of the five to seven group and into the eight to 10 one,” the research reports.
“Though social media doesn’t make the top three activities for the entire Gen Alpha group, it rises in importance for Alphas ages eight to 10, right behind streaming video and playing video games,” says Morning Consult. – AFP Relaxnews