Generation Alpha has shown itself to value connection, with data analysis revealing “friend” as the children’s word of the year for 2024.
Director of Publishing at Oxford University Press (OUP) Lee Walker said despite the generation born after 2010 being more digitally and globally connected than any other generation before them, they seemed to value deeper connections with the people around them.
Ms Walker said data collected through an online program which aimed to improve students’ writing skills was analysed to identify “friend” as Oxford’s Australian Children’s Word of the Year (CWOTY).
She said over 25,600 children’s stories and almost 2.3 million words, written by mostly mid- to late-primary school students across the country were studied.
“(We) found that students are writing more about the value of their relationships with family and friends, the complexities around friendships, and the ways in which they connect with others.”
Ms Walker said words such as friend, hope, love, play and game all appeared in higher frequencies in 2024 compared to 2023, with other similarly associated words, such as companion and friendship, and slang words like “bestie” and “bff”, experiencing significant percentage increases in usage as well.
“It was clear that connection was at the heart of students’ stories – a theme that stretches to our chosen slang word of the year, ‘sigma’, which was also on our UK 2024 shortlist.
“With this young generation being so digitally connected, it came as no surprise that their stories also touched on society and learning, with students writing about their knowledge and topics they’ve learnt about.”
She said while students’ imagination and interest in creating adventure stories were evident, pollution and the environment continued to be issues that they were concerned about, particularly the impact on animals and the ocean.
