Gen Alpha children are being subjected to constant social media advertisements in the form of influencers which pray on their social vulnerability and limit their creative development.
What are Influencers?
Influencers are paid to show off a desirable lifestyle and promise viewers that they too can achieve that lifestyle if they buy certain products.
Influencers as a concept have existed for years, not only in their modern state but as influential celebrities, recurring characters in consumer advertisements and in aristocrats.
Influencers thrive off of promoting mass consumerism, but the problem today is that, with the digital world being a place many people spend a large portion of their time, people are constantly hearing from influencers.
Influencers and advertisements as a whole have become more rampant over the years.
Streaming services and online sites are now constantly displaying ads. Making you either pay to remove them, or pay later when you go to the grocery store and become inclined to try the new health soda you saw.
You cannot escape the demand to buy, and with influencers, companies have found a way to sneak ads into entertainment itself, more directly and effectively than a commercial break or product placement.
Why Gen Alpha is Being Effected the Most
Many people see influencers as their friends, especially younger audiences who are still going through developmental changes and are in the phase of needing to conform to the culture around them.
This has led to many young people feeling desperate to look like, act like and live in the lifestyles of the influencers they see.
With the overwhelming “gentle parenting” of Generation Alpha children by their parents, boundaries are rarely set for online content, and they become malleable to their children’s demands.
Gen Alpha’s lack of consequences, coupled with the fact that they grew up with a large part of their life in the digital world, means they are learning lessons from their screens instead of their parents. 80% of Gen Alpha parents said they gave their kids screens for entertainment, and almost half spend between three to six hours a day online.
This means the young children of today had to get their life lessons from influencers online, as their parents were often unwilling to teach them, or just found it easier to prop them up in front of an iPad.
Not only is Gen Alpha not getting to experience playing outside with toys that foster cognitive growth and creativity, but they are also watching entertainment that, instead of serving as educational content for children, is advertisements for the general public.
Many parents in today’s age allow children to spend more time online than ever before, and allow them to start using social media much earlier.
The way social media is formatted is highly addictive, with short-form content, cookies tailored to your preferences and the constant generation of fomo.
So, while children’s minds are developing and they are in a vulnerable stage of cultural and social exploration, they are being preyed upon by advertising companies and social media influencers.
They get told that if they buy the new skincare product line at Sephora, buy the same in-style clothes, wear their hair in the same style and copy the influencer’s “daily makeup routine,” then they will be seen as cool, well-liked and adored by the other kids and the world around them.
Why This Threatens Creativity for Kids
When Gen Alpha children and pre-teens feel that they need to follow a particular formula to be liked, they never get to experience and try out new ideas.
Even in makeup trends, something we usually associate with older teens, influencers are doing simple and calculated looks to promise beauty, making children afraid to take chances and be creative, for fear of being “ugly.”
Teens used makeup before there were magazines, YouTube videos and blogs telling them trends, but they were also encouraged to branch out, use color, glitter and simpler, cheaper products.
Generation Alpha has grown up too fast, while also skipping the most important aspects of childhood. The aspects of play, creativity and risk-taking. The aspects that teach kids life lessons and allow children to become successful adults.