Born and raised with screens, digital activities occupy an important place in the daily lives of Generation Alpha – so much so that 54% of parents say their child spends up to four hours a day on social media.

This is a level similar to Gen Z’s younger members, according to a Morning Consult survey.

In detail, 65% of older Gen Alpha children – those aged 8-10 – spend up to four hours a day on social media, compared with 56% of young members of Gen Z comprising 13- to 17-year-olds.

Still, 41% of the latter group spend more than four hours on social networks every day, while a third of 8- to 10-year-olds never use them.

Social media is an integral part of the lives of even the youngest children in North America, with 24% of under-4s spending over an hour a day on social platforms and 22% going on such sites for under an hour a day.

In comparison, 34% of 5- to 7-year-olds spend an hour or more on these sites, and 17% spend less than an hour a day.

The findings show how video streaming has become the norm for Alpha kids: around half of parents of Gen Alpha kids say their youngest child watches streaming videos at least once a day, as opposed to reading books (40%) or playing video games (37%).

Popular video-streaming platforms include YouTube, Disney+ and Netflix.

However, these digital activities represent only a minority of Gen Alpha children’s interests: 36% of parents say their kids want to be indoors having screen time, versus 55% for outdoor activities.

Nevertheless, this gap narrows as children get older, “with the biggest change happening when children age out of the 5-7 group and into the 8-10 demographic”, the research reports.

“Although social media doesn’t make the top three activities for the entire Gen Alpha group, it rises in importance for Alphas ages 8-10, right behind streaming video and playing video games,” Morning Consult concluded.