YouTube, Emojis, and Memes in Music Education
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by Melody Morrison
By now, you have probably had plenty of hands-on experience with YouTube, emojis, and even memes, but did you
know these can function not only as entertainment but
also as tools to boost your teaching? Students who will respond especially well to this approach are those who
fall into Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Generation Z encompasses those born between 1995 and 2009 while
Generation Alpha includes anyone born in the 2010-2024 period (Apaydin & Kaya, 2020; McKrindle & Fell, 2021).
Generation Z has grown up using the latest technol-
ogies, and its members are considered “digital natives.” They have unlimited access to worlds of information and
are constantly engaging with media platforms through
Alpha generation began in 2010, the year the iPad was
ent from millennials in that they largely prefer any sort
of technologies as tools but rather as deeply integrated
daily creating or observing content. “Gen Z’rs” are differof visual form of communication and expect immediate
results as their world has almost always consisted of speedily responsive technology and easily accessible services (Schwab, 2016).
The Alpha generation takes digital familiarity a step
further and cannot remember a time without smart-
phones and constant technology in everyday life. The
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Music Director
created. Kids born in the Alpha generation do not think
parts of everyday life. They have been wired all their lives and are being born into a world increasingly connected
by technology. A social research agency in Australia said that this generation is part of an “unintentional global experiment” in which screens are placed in front of children from the beginning of their lives as an educational
tool and even as a sort of digital pacifier (McKrindle &
