The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - you’re 12, but you can’t read

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Starting point is 00:01:41 Mozart wrote his first musical composition at 6. And of course, as we advance as a civilization, 12-year-old Jen Elfus still cannot read. Or even understanding simple words or phrases or even knowing their alphabet by the time they get to middle school. Popcorn Carlos once upon us... Read this word. What?

Starting point is 00:02:08 Betwin. What? Betwin. Okay, just making sure. That's what skincare. Get to know her just for a little and then say, you're trying to hook up. Learning. The baby steps of a toddler that began the journey to a marathoner,

Starting point is 00:02:29 the splashes of colors on a canvas that eventually turn into a beautiful painting, The bizarre scribbles on a page that weave into a beautiful story, the sharp staying in your hand when you put it over a hot stove and know not to do that again. It happens in a classroom, in a conversation anywhere when you stay curious and want to learn. So what happens when you stop before you even begun? Cocoa melon. Good job, bud. It's like what you want to be. It's like baby, summer Friday's lip on your talk about. You still say sleigh, you're a grandma, your grandma.

Starting point is 00:03:12 Spell restaurant. It's not a secret. Gen Alpha's can't read and it's somehow normal. Why are we becoming dumber when knowledge is more accessible than ever? And as Gen Alpha, the children dominating Sephora, the nightmares of school teachers, and the new gurus of internet culture truly doomed as the internet claims, Why do the parents not care and only find it funny?

Starting point is 00:03:47 She looks up from her phone, looks at her daughter, and starts hysterically laughing and says, isn't she so cute? And why you should care, even if you're not Gen Alpha or their millennial parent. As this is only the beginning of the downfall of future human intellect. Is this the reason Gen Zs don't want kids anymore? And are we all? Just like the Gen Alpha's experiencing the death of the of our curious inner child.

Starting point is 00:04:14 Gada, gada, gada, gada, oh. A for Alpha, A for atrocious. If trochers like, I have a bigger Giat than you, I'll be like, be so free. What is a Giot? What on earth is a Giot. What on earth is a Giot? It stands for girl your booty thick.

Starting point is 00:04:45 Jen Alpha, the promising generation of her future, is born in the early 2010s through 2025. They're mostly raised by millennial parents. and are the first ever generation to be born into the digital all-consuming media age. Where some of you might have seen or even touched a flip phone, Gen Alpha's probably cannot grasp what a button will do on a phone, with thick calluses built only for the smooth touchscreen. They live through some of their key determining childhood years through COVID and are well adapted to the blurred lines between digital and raw in-person experiences.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Slay and Bet are ancient. The A-listers moved on to different vocabulary. The drip wasn't as good. What is a god? What are your thoughts of millennials? I mean, it's pretty fire. I wish I had to go back and meet some of my ancestors. What?

Starting point is 00:05:38 Sure, every generation has its own quirks and gets made fun of. Millennials for their obsessions with avocado toes, Harry Potter, and Skinny Jeans, Gen Z for their narcissistic main character syndromes, and 0.5 selfies. Gen Alpha's for being the most rude and illiterate generation of all. I think it's only normal for each generation to desperately prove to the older generations that they are different and are the rising generation of all. While the other generations protest and call each of the next new generation lazy and problematic. That's laziest, but that's impressive.

Starting point is 00:06:16 Despite so, the general pattern of increasing learning difficulties, to the lack of manner in our newest generation is quite concerning. With the boom of dopamine feeding machines like TikTok and countless quote unquote rich kids on the internet who quote unquote made it while dropping out of college high school, middle school? No wonder no alphabet is going to Gen Alpha's brains, but not just the Gen Elphas, all of our brains

Starting point is 00:06:47 are to some extent over-crowded. And sadly, the collective intellect is going on a downward trend for the following three reasons. First, the lowering bar. I thought kids are out of control. Teachers all over the global reporting that Gen Alpha, which are the kids raised with this new age technology, are performing two times lower than their grade level. They can't read or write properly.

Starting point is 00:07:11 Like how the teachers of Gen Alpha's confessed, the rising number of students being several grades behind is no longer new. I teach 7th grade, they are still performing on the fourth grade level. Nobody talking about how they just keep passing them on. They just keep passing them on, passing them on, passing on, passing on, passing on, passing them on, pass them on, pass them on, pass them on. When the case is so rare, sure, you can fail a few of them and send them back to repeat the grade. But what if, on a general scale, the majority of the kids are not meeting expectations? Is it realistic to send half, if not most of the school, to repeat learning things they almost have no interest in learning?

Starting point is 00:07:47 The bar for excellence has never been lower in education, starting in elementary school. What is that? L-A-Y-N. What is this spell? Six. Read this word. What? Betwin.

Starting point is 00:08:01 What? Betwin. Okay, just making sure. Which spires down to the trajectory to middle school, high school, college. It is scary to think, but if this persists, eventually high school will be the new middle school, and college is where kids only learn high school materials. Or if the institutions uphold their standards, Less and less kids can even make it to university, let alone survive it.

Starting point is 00:08:28 I have a stand. From a first-hand perspective, I already see this happening. After I just graduated from UCLA, I heard that the same exact, extremely rigorous courses got reduced to just two online open book exams. And in the midst of the COVID chaos, everyone just ended up getting A's as long as they submitted a final paper. At a glance, it might seem like, a win for all. Easier for the students and easier for the school. But without practice or

Starting point is 00:09:02 intentional studying, I doubt that class of students learned or remembered much of anything. And it is not completely fair to the students, including the gen of Elfus who were dragged into the chaos of online education, where easy replaced quality. And the learning that comes from discourse and interactions is replaced by occasional zooms off camera that probably happened simultaneously with scrolling TikTok on the side on an iPad. Second, learning is for losers. Quote, my mom was a teacher for 20 years across two states teaching elementary, middle, and high school ages,

Starting point is 00:09:48 and Gen Alpha was the reason she quit. Of course, not every Gen Alpha kid disrespects school, but they definitely have a hard time focusing in class if the other students don't respect authority or have any interest in learning and who can blame them. Just like the Gen Ziers and millennials who don't want to work, there's a parallel between the diminishing respect for work in adults and disappearing appeal to learning for Gen Elfus.

Starting point is 00:10:17 The reason? Well, as social animals, we are subject to our tendencies to compare to our peers, but who are our peers when we have access to billions of people at the touch of our phone? Exactly, everyone. And I mean everyone. The internet lacks no flashy college in high school dropouts who got rich quick as teenagers as kids. And because Jen Ophus spent more time with their iPads than with kids their age or adult role models, of course, whatever flickers on the iPad becomes the ideal they want to imitate.

Starting point is 00:10:53 And of course, learning in a classroom is neither as dopamine feeding as the TikTok algorithm or CocoaMatic. Or does it seem as cool as not studying and becoming young, rich, famous, and just do whatever you want all day? Besides, why I learn to spell when there's autocorrect? Why I learned to write when there's AI? Why learn to calculate anything when you can just ask Siri? Why learn to type when voice technology can help you autotranscribe? Why learn to think when the TikTok algorithm can give you the opinion you should have? Surprising my toddler with an iPad minis, and this was her reaction.

Starting point is 00:11:34 Third, iPad role models. I need to ask millennials, why are your kids so awful? More importantly, why do you think it's so funny? From the perspective of developmental psychology, roughly 80% of parenting is modeling. Does it mean that all the rudeness to the teachers come from the parents? Actually, yes, partially. The kid knocks them all over, and, you know, and starts mixing up all the different business cards on the floor of the office.

Starting point is 00:12:01 I look over at her mother thinking she's gonna see this and be like, oh no, you can't do that. No, she looks up from her phone, looks at her daughter, and starts hysterically laughing and says, isn't she so cute? Self-writious attitudes, along with the disinterest in school, makes some of the gen Elfas quote-unquote unteachable. We will talk about the crucial role of millennial parents in a moment. But in addition to their influence, the Gen Elphas are a unique generation raised by not just their few,

Starting point is 00:12:28 parents, but also their beloved iPad. What are you listening to? Skibbitty Toilet Baby Gronged Phantom Text remix of Hey There Delilah. From the iPad, everything and anything is accessible. Without restriction. We are doomed. Why are you okay with your five-year-old is in the Pound Town? Yes, including educational sources where children could advance in their knowledge,

Starting point is 00:12:53 but also commercialized entertainment, where what it means to be a teen, a woman, a man is constantly modeled by, sometimes questionable sources, such as videos idolizing a commercialized and sometimes overly sexualized version of womenhood and offensive pranks disrespecting others. Even though some are only staged for entertainment, because the screen has very much become the virtual reality of the gen alphas who grew up inside the screen world and because if it gets millions of views online, surely that means it's proper behavior in real life, right? These have been

Starting point is 00:13:31 become the textbooks of life for the gen of us. The way that internet culture is so attention driven, capitalizing on every single stimulant of dopamine, trinks the young brains to behave just the same. Everything and anything that gets the attention, the views must be quote unquote good. Therefore, egregious rude behaviors of children toward their teachers, adult employees,

Starting point is 00:13:58 other customers at Sephora, other children, are only increasing. The source of the problem is not the iPad, but the lack of guidance towards using it as a tool. Just like how adequate sunlight is essential for a plan to grow, but overexposure will kill it. Thus, we have to talk about. The soft parents and why people don't want children anymore.

Starting point is 00:14:23 Sometimes it's really scary, here, here, take the iPad to help you to regulate yourself. Can you take deep breaths with me? Although millennials are far from being perfect parents, they weren't raised by the perfect parents either. They were growing up to the parenting of boomers and gen Xers who have experienced the influences and after effects of World War II, Cold War, and other economic and political turmoils. The parents of the millennial parents typically prioritize the importance of education, instilling a strong work ethic and determination in their children. Sometimes through force. And as one extreme often leads to another,

Starting point is 00:15:04 due to the austerity in some of their upbringing and childhood, many millennials resorted to an alternative style of parenting called gentle parenting. A means of parenting without shame, blame, or punishment centered on partnership as both parents and children have a say in this collaborative style. While extremely positive in theory and in perfect practice, Oftentimes in reality, especially when the chaos of financial burden of both working parents arise, gentle parenting resolve to poor boundaries or no parenting.

Starting point is 00:15:39 A lazy fair attitude for their children to do as they please as long as they don't cause trouble for the parents. And the most efficient way to do that is through an iPad. You're hungry? Here's an iPad. You're bored? Here's an iPad. You're sad. Here's an iPad. The iPad is the fastest solution to all problems, until it became the problem. Not only are the iPads breeding a generation of children who have the attention of a goldfish,

Starting point is 00:16:12 they also lack the basic human empathy that only develops in between human instead of in front of a glowing screen. They aren't curious about anything outside the screen, outside of the algorithms that fed their brains with the ideals that will benefit the countless individuals the countless industries that start to cash in on an ever younger consumer base. That 10-year-olds are now supposed to have a five-step skincare routine. There isn't any need for imagination because there is an endless loop of interesting things you see and games to play on the iPad. School is merely an interruption.

Starting point is 00:16:48 To the hours of marathon of having your 8-year-old fingers attached to a screen. You got me there. But that is not a crime. The issue is not the lack of desire for school. For school is only one form of education, but that not only the genufus, but also the curious inner child of every single generation is dying at the mercy of the alluring algorithm.

Starting point is 00:17:15 Filling our heads full of meaningless internet slings and trends while robbing us of curiosity, independent thinking, and even the awareness that we are stuck. No longer advancing intellectuals, in the mirage of getting a constant feed of information. That is thinking for us because we're only fed things that we already agree with, things that already appeal to us. It is by no surprise that the US birth rate has been falling since the Great Recession,

Starting point is 00:17:43 dropping almost 23% between 2007 and 2022. Evidently, in a more and more individualistic culture. As seeing in the millennial parents, who would rather let the iPads raise their children than to raise them themselves, Having a child is less and less appealing to Gen Z's and even some millennials. So when you're having children? Children. I'm not having children. Are we going to have children and we can't even afford ourselves?

Starting point is 00:18:08 Which I do think is the more responsible decision. If you're not ready to be a present guardian but only an iPad administrator, it might be better to re-evaluate bringing another life to the planet. But it is definitely harsh to put all the blame on millennials for the way Gen Alpha's turned out. Not everyone has a financial privilege to set aside work, to spend time raising their children instead of feeding them an iPad. And it is indeed true that it takes a village to raise a child. When there is a community, a group of children could play with each other while different parents or grandparents take turns to safeguard them. But that seems to only be more and more rare with an increasingly individualistic society,

Starting point is 00:18:52 where everyone is super engrossed in their own little bubble. Magnified by the echo chamber of the algorithms that only serve their interests. But luckily, for the young adults, Gen Zs and millennials included, who do eventually want to become parents, many have emphasized the importance of protecting the future generations from getting robbed a childhood from iPads and internet influence, vowing that we need to be better and to never raise iPad kids. Promise that we are not going to raise iPad children. So even though you might not be Gen Alpha or the parent of a Gen Alpha, the regression to her space for imagination and curiosity is only shrinking more and more in the ease

Starting point is 00:19:38 of letting the intelligence of the iPad think for us. Please don't let your inner child die. Even though school might soon be over or is already over for you. Don't stop learning, don't stop challenging. Even if you didn't have the perfect parent, be the parent you always wanted for yourself. Let me know your thoughts on the rising pattern of Gen Alpha's not being able to read in the comments. Like this video to help the algorithm reach more people who need to be aware of this issue. Subscribe for more video essays and I will see you next week.

The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - you’re 12, but you can’t read

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