Time Out meets Generation Alpha

Has anyone checked in on the kids lately? Are they doing okay out there, in all of their rizzed-up sigma doomscroll brain rot? 

Move over, Gen Z. Generation Alpha is here, and with two billion members worldwide, they’re already making their mark. As the demographic born between 2010 and the end of 2024 (making the eldest 15 years of age; the youngest still babies), they’re associated with everything from Snapchat and ChatGPT addiction to Roblox, Sephora and vaping; their lives shaped by Covid-19 and technology. The economic footprint of this age group will reach a mind-boggling £4.32 trillion in the next four years (that’s almost the spending power of millennials and Gen Z combined), meaning they’re big business. But for most people, they’re still a bit of a mystery. So what do they have to say for themselves – and for the future of London? 

To find out, we invited 12 Londoners from the ages of three to 15 to the Time Out office and quizzed them on everything from the state of the internet to school, shopping, music and the city. Some insights surprised us. Their cultural tastes largely echo those of their millennial parents, for example: citing musicians like Ellie Goulding, Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Taylor Swift as favourites. Most Alphas expressed a keen entrepreneurial spirit, as well as a wholly positive attitude towards social media and the opportunities it can bring. And as for going out? We are pleased to report that ‘park parties’ – AKA underage drinking in public parks – are still going strong. 

On what they wish they were taught in school

Alpha is the information generation. With ChatGPT and YouTube demos at their finger tips, Alphas have access to more data than any generation before – as well as the highest levels of formal education in history, with a predicted one in two expected to obtain a university degree. The eldest group of Alphas have just finished sitting their GCSEs and will reach adulthood by 2030. Yet the job market has, it seems, never been so tough to navigate, and education systems are under intense pressure to keep up with constant technological developments. Then, in London specifically, schools are closing down due to falling birth rates and families leaving the capital, with primary schools predicted to lose a further 52,000 pupils by 2028. 

What do you teach kids if they have everything they need to know at the click of a button? According to one study, 84 percent of six to 18-year-olds want to receive more financial education in school, and said learning about money was equally or more important than core subjects, including maths, English and science. ‘Adults don’t get the pressure that the kids are under at school, because when it was their time, GCSEs were so much easier,’ says one 15-year-old girl. Here is what the kids think they should be learning. 

Sophie, 10: ‘I want to learn about more genres of music.’ 

Nicole, 6: ‘Unicorns.’

Sam, 14: ‘Money management. They don’t teach you it at school, so you just have to go on your own and experiment. And AI is quite scary. It has the power to overrule humans and it could take over the world. We learn about it, but not enough.’

Abigail, 7: ‘How to survive in the wild.’

Cara, 8: ‘I really love to knit and crochet, but they don’t teach it at school.’

Tara, 15: ‘Psychology. Some people judge way too quickly and it’s not necessary. You should understand someone and actually get to know them before we start judging them.’

On their lingo

‘What the sigma?!’ The Alpha vernacular is even more idiosyncratic than Gen Z’s (‘it’s giving’, ‘slay’, ‘no cap’). But don’t expect (all of) the kids to start blurting out ‘skibidi toilet’ every two seconds. Gen A lingo is much more nuanced than that. 

One of the best-in-class examples is ‘unc’, short for ‘uncle’, which 13-year-old Gabe says is part of a broader age-based language system that also includes terms like ‘neph’ (short for ‘nephew’), ‘big boi’ and ‘big bro’. Despite sounding like it relates to actual age, the label system isn’t really about how old you are. Instead, it’s based on behaviour and the general vibe you give off. ‘Unc’ sits at the top of this informal hierarchy and implies someone who is older and more mature – but, as Gabe points out, ‘you could call someone ‘‘unc’’ and they could only be, like, 35.’ Confused yet? Here are a few more Gen A phrases to help sharpen your vocabulary.

Tara, 15: ‘‘‘It’s not that deep’’. It means: not that serious. Also, ‘‘buss convo’’. To buss convo. It means to initiate conversation. Like, ‘‘let’s go buss convo with that person’’.’

Sam, 14: ‘‘‘Glazing””. If you glaze someone, you overpraise them. If you glaze Michael Jackson, it means you overpraise him.’

Abigail, 7: ‘‘‘Aces”. It’s if something good happens. If you got a question right, you would probably say ‘‘aces’’.’

On screen time

Maybe you grew up with early social media like the ‘Nashville’ Instagram filter, pre-timeline Facebook and OG Tumblr – you might even be lucky enough to remember life without it. But Gen Alphas have had screens in their face since exiting the womb. 

More than half of Alphas aged eight to 10 will spend up to four hours a day online: last year, it was reported that their use of TikTok outpaced the consumption of traditional television. What’s more, Gen Alphas between the ages of five and 10 have the highest percentage of video game players across all demographics. ‘The PlayStation is really fun, and when I’m on, I can’t really get off it,’ says Max, 10, listing Fortnite and Roblox as his favourite games. ‘That’s how fun it is. I spend like two hours a day on it.’ 

The Alphas we spoke to were boldly self-aware about their social media consumption, often expressing some guilt or regret about the scale of their usage. But they also had a much more positive outlook on the state of the internet than the narrative we’re often led to believe, acknowledging the creative and economic freedom that comes along with building a following.

‘The internet has really sparked us to be as creative as possible,’ says Gabe, 13. ‘Social media has become such a big thing because all of these creators have said: ‘‘let’s be different’’. It’s created an influx of creative people. In Roblox, you can create your own games to add to the website, so it’s a way of using programming skills.’ Here, we asked Gen As about their favourite app.

Sophie, 10: ‘Spotify, of course.’

Tara, 15: ‘Snapchat. I use it all the time. Constantly. I have so many notifications: streaks and messages as well. On the weekend, I sometimes go to park parties. We have Snapchat group chats and loads of people just get added to them, for invites.’

Sam, 14: ‘TikTok, and I’m not proud of it. It’s just wasting time.’

Gabe, 13: ‘If you want to watch a movie but don’t want to pay for one, you can watch movies for free on YouTube in 4k. TikTok is good for fashion tips. There’s so many content creators that make these little short videos, but they impact so much on how you dress, how you walk, how you talk, whatever. It’s so powerful of social media to do that.’

On what they don’t understand about grown-ups

‘Our attention spans are on a whole different scale to adults,’ says Gabe, 13, reflecting on what sets his generation apart from his parents’. ‘The pandemic influenced my generation to be terminally online. Our screen times are higher, we don’t really go outside as much, so millennials and Gen X wonder why kids aren’t going out. But I don’t think it’s as bad as they think.’

Many of the behaviours that puzzle adults about Gen A are simply responses to a world that has changed dramatically in the last decade. So, we turned the tables and asked: what do adults do that doesn’t make sense to you? In most cases, the answers are completely logical. 

Sophie, 10: ‘Why they drink coffee.’

Gabe, 13: ‘Why they always take videos of things. It could be over something very simple, and they would take a minute video, or an Instagram Live of what they’re doing. Sometimes my mum does it – she was taking a picture of me taking a picture of the building, on my way to Time Out.’ 

Sam, 14: ‘When I’m on PlayStation, my mum says ‘‘pause the game’’. But it’s online, so I can’t pause it.’

Tom, 8: ‘Phones.’

Nicole, 6: ‘Why they put in new light bulbs when the light bulb still works.’

Max, 10: ‘They don’t really know how to work things out. They’re used to having watches instead of telling the time on their phone. Watches are old fashioned. Maybe I’ll wear one when I’m older. Hanging the washing outside, if they have a dryer, is also old fashioned.’

Cara, 8: ‘I don’t see why they’d work on a Saturday or Sunday – it’s a weekend.’

On what they’d change overnight, if they were Mayor of London

When we asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up, we were surprised to hear so many normal jobs. Mia, three, wants to be ‘a doctor, to help patients,’ while Sam, 14, wants to be an ‘engineer, like Michael Scofield’. Nicole, six, wants to be a ‘singer, like Taylor Swift’, while Abigail, seven, wants to be a police officer. Erm, where are all the streamers and AI agent managers?

Becoming a politician isn’t high on the dream-job lists of these Alphas, but we reckon Mayor of London Sadiq Khan might still be interested in what the kids have to say. When asked what they’d change about the city overnight if they were in his boots, the answers ranged from improving public spaces to changing laws around knife purchases. 

Sophie, 10: ‘More art on the street’.

Tara, 15: ‘Try and get homeless people off the street. It’s really sad the conditions that they have to live in. When it was lockdown, they managed to get loads of people off the street and showed it was possible. They just can’t be bothered to do it again.’

Freddie, 5: ‘Ginormous playgrounds.’

Zac, 5: ‘No throwing stuff on the floor. And also dog poo. And tissues and sticky stuff.’

Max, 10: ‘Maybe set up like a homeless shelter for people to sleep in or a place where people can sleep in if they’re lost, or if they’re a tourist and don’t have a good hotel. It would be a cheap price – maybe 20 pounds.’

Abigail, 7: ‘Less pollution.’

Sam, 14: ‘Stabbings are a major problem. Make knives harder to purchase when you’re in a shop.’

On their worries

In today’s world, there’s seemingly no shortage of things to worry about: something young Londoners are acutely aware of. Children born in 2020 are expected to face between two to seven times more extreme weather events in their lifetimes compared to those born in 1960, experiencing the impact of climate change first-hand. ‘The world is warming up by the minute,’ says Sam, 14. 

Gen Alpha Londoners are increasingly anxious about the world they’re growing up in, with war, the rising cost of living, escalating crime, pollution and the long-term effects of climate change topping their list of concerns. And then there are more immediate worries, too. Closer to home, they’re grappling with personal pressures: the stress of school, the fear of failing exams and uncertainty about their future careers. Here’s what’s weighing on their minds. 

Tara, 15: ‘Vaping. It is so easy to buy one. They don’t really ID people. People my age are vaping a bit too much.’

Abigail, 7: ‘Just throwing cans and rubbish straight on the streets and not using the bins. Then it goes into the ocean and dolphins could get a plastic bottle stuck on their nose.’

Tara, 15: ‘I think AI is pretty good. We’ve always grown up having it, so it’s kind of normal. ChatGPT does help me quite a lot, but it is quite scary to think that in a couple of years, AI could replace lots of people’s jobs. I think we should keep developing it, but not too much. We’re working really, really quickly – it’s really easy to make it stronger, make it smarter. It’s good, but just leave it.’

Nicole, 6: ‘Mice. Not many people are scared of them.’

On making London a better place for young people

Back in 2013, nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah tragically lost her life following a severe asthma attack. A landmark inquest later confirmed that air pollution had played a significant role in her death. Since then, her mother, Rosamund, has become a powerful voice for change, campaigning tirelessly to ensure London’s air becomes safer for generations to come.

Ella’s story is a reminder that a better, healthier London is needed. Seventeen percent of Gen Alpha perceive the city negatively: listing crime, pollution and the high cost of living as key concerns. When we speak to young Londoners, a common thread emerges: they want a greener, more liveable city. Their vision includes cleaner air, safer streets, better transport and a revival of community spaces like youth clubs (nearly a third of which were lost between 2010 and 2019 due to cuts in local funding).

Yet there is still hope and a strong sense of pride. According to the Museum of London’s 2024 My London Story project, 38 percent of Gen Alphas believe that London is a great place to live, celebrating its iconic landmarks, cultural diversity and fun activities. What does the capital need to truly become a city for its youth? 

Sophie, 10: ‘We need more nature and places for kids to hang out.’

Sam, 14: ‘Youth clubs to make people my age socialise more. Sometimes they’re just stuck inside playing on screens. ’

Tara, 15: ‘London needs more laws against violence. I hear so many stories about people getting beaten up and being mugged. It’s quite bad.’

Gabe, 13: ‘I know it’s not great to be on the internet all time, so London should create a communal youth club with sporty events and chilling areas in an outside space. Then they’re always safe in whatever they want to do. Younger generations don’t always want to spend life online. They want to be outside and play.’

All names have been changed for privacy reasons.