Sunday Tales –Changing world — 22

One of the privileges most of us enjoy, first thing in any morning is reaching for the newspaper, as we sip a piping hot tea or coffee, with the early rays of sunlight as company. This used to be almost a family bonding session with the entire family enjoying the topics of their individual interest in the newspaper.

Well, today in many households across India, you will find a dwindling interest in this morning routine with only the elder gentleman or lady of the house still eagerly waiting for the favorite morning routine. But these days in many of the new gen households you would find unread or unopened newspapers & magazines going straight into the cupboard without even a glance. This morning reading habit is slowly dying with almost 90% of the present generation not even interested in looking at the morning paper but for most of them the day starts and ends with their mobile phones.

As we look at each of our own homes, it seems only the elder ones in the households are interested in the morning paper. This is the grim happening reality. It seems many a time reading paper is like an ancient activity; I can go this far and say reading as a hobby itself has become close to extinct.

But interestingly, these Gen Y kids are having excellent communication skills in comparison to their reading or social skills. If you analyze closely, probably these skills are picked up by watching various cartoons and games played in their computer or mobiles from a very young age. These are facts of today and there is no escape from this modern world, Rather we need to embrace the change if we have to keep pace with our own kids.

Honestly, my own experience with my kids suggests, while our generation used reading as an extensive medium for learning, this new generation kids learn through technological aids. Many a time, I had been pleasantly surprised by their depth of knowledge on many random and dry subjects. While we discuss further & appreciate these facts, you would understand that they not only use these gadgets for entertainment, but also use it to watch topics of their interest.

So if you glance back at our generation habits, learning was mostly through print media and experience, so we all tend to believe that actual learning takes place only when we read a book or a newspaper. Secondly, most of the time, we had used modern gadgets as a necessity for communication and for entertainment; so this partly clouds our judgement. But for the present generation, who were born with technology at their fingertips from the crib, it is like a way of living, with entire gamut of activities from learning, gaming and entertainment locked in a single device.

So to conclude, looking at this ever changing world, we actually have the best of both worlds, as we can enjoy a fine book as well as a YouTube podcast in an equal measure. Truly we are a blessed generation for sure. What we just need to learn or adapt is to understand “change is constant”, so let us evolve and engage with todays as well as tomorrow’s kids without any prejudice or pre-conceived notions.

“Technology is best when it brings people together”