Meet the savvy family-influencer generation — Generation Alpha

When my cousin brother, Het, was 18-months-old, he went over to the TV and tried to swipe it to turn it on. My brother, and those born in 2007 and later, are all in a new generation called Gen Alpha.

Brands today are actively designing and marketing for kids under twelve, and these kids are responding. Showing us what power players they are, not only for the future but also today.

While we may not know exactly how this generation will turn out in a decade or two, here are Three trends to keep in mind right now when designing for this young demographic.

When you look at the world that Gen Alpha is growing up in, this generation will be the most educated, most gadget-savvy, and wealthiest generation ever. While Gen Alphas may live longer than previous generations due to advancements in medicine, they’ll likely have many more health problems due to increasingly sedentary lives.

First, Gen Alpha doesn’t just know how to use tech, they’re obsessed with it. Forget pleas for a pony, today’s kids beg and beg, and beg for gadgets. The average age to get a phone now is 10, and this single moment in time is revered by Gen Alphas that it’s a special memory, a coming of age akin to what a driver’s license was when we were young. While they may not have their own phone until they hit those double digits, there’s likely not a mother out there who’s phone hasn’t been drooled on by a toddler or been the cause of a meltdown when videos were being played on YouTube.

Second, Gen Alphas have a much greater voice in family purchases than past generations. Today’s modern family is more democratized than ever. Families are engaging, discussing, buying, and consuming products together. Kids are influencing their parent’s purchases and not just small purchases. Everything from family vacations to the restaurant they’re going to get food from on Zomato. They’re simply included more in the conversation. Speaking of voice, that leads us to trend number three Choosing voice-over fingers.

While teens associate voice with old people and wouldn’t be caught dead talking to their phone, Gen Alpha feels empowered by devices like Alexa and Google Home. Since many of them are too young to have a phone and even too young to read and type, this is their lifeline to a world of information they can’t wait to get their hands on. With less developed motor control, scrolling and clicking can be tough. Horizontal scrolling is often easier and targets have to be bigger.

In the end, Gen Alpha is a new and different consumer. They’re savvy family-influencers using tech to engage with the world in ways unique to their generation.