The Corona Generation

I will be straight up, as much as I hate to admit it - I am probably a typical parent when it comes to my perception of the time my kids spend on mobile devices. I get on my kids’ case routinely for spending too much time on their iPhones for “facetiming” with their friends, playing games like Fortnight, Grand Theft Auto, and, the worst “time-waster” of them all - watching random, silly, and weird videos on TikTok. I can’t remember the number of times Veda; my 12-year-old daughter deleted the app, based on one of these “conversations” only to see that it magically show up on her apps a couple of days (sometimes a lot less than that) later. Veda is a frankly a gifted student, she finishes her work in much less time than others, and she has a great memory and fantastic analytical skills. My only concern with her has been for not applying these skills beyond the requirements of her classroom, Varoon, my 15-year-old son, who is a sophomore in high school, and he is one of the most organized and disciplined students I have ever come across. He focuses on his curricular and extra-curricular projects and stays up all night if needed to get his work done. Once he commits to something, he is relentless with his pursuit to complete it. Even with all his traits - he does spend considerable time on his device for entertainment. I am quite thankful to the fourth member of our family - Goldie, our 4-year-old puppy. Goldie is a Golden Doodle, and she keeps us all in check with her wild dreams to catch squirrels, and desperate plots to chase lizards in our backyard, and creates a general climate of chaos and frenzy around. This chaos does allow us to drop the devices and attend to her whims and fancies occasionally.

Except for spending a little time with Goldie, I used to feel like kids are spending to much time on their devices and apps. I am a tech-entrepreneur and a single parent, and my core business focuses on enabling student services and the overall academic success powered by technology. However, - I always wondered if these networked devices and social apps were truly making them more unsocial, as I felt like they were disconnecting these kids from the real world. I remember running around barefoot in playgrounds with my friends, and just rolling in the public gardens with no fear or care only to realize a couple of hours later how itchy the grass was, or just hanging out with friends - walking about, running around, and biking outdoors. I convinced myself that these kids were missing out on the real-life and genuinely worried about their social skills. Some of my concerns were health-related on whether they were getting enough sunshine and fresh air. Some were more related to psychological growth and inter-personal communications and overall holistic growth as well. If the youth is not interacting with fellow students effectively during their school years, this generation might struggle when they enter the real world. In this world, is a need to build relationships by shaking hands, wining, and dining and all the norms we established over many generations.

All this changed in the last couple of months, thanks to the current social experiment. We are now in this new reality of social distancing. Our elected leaders are asking us to stay away from others. Unfortunately, some of our previous social interactions will probably never return. Our family and our core beliefs on social interactions changed as a result of this pandemic.

Coronavirus and the COVID19 pandemic forced our family into reclusion like the rest of the world. However - for some odd reason, I felt like the four of us adopted to it quickly. As expected - Goldie was the happiest of all, she had a lot more attention from the three of us, and probably a lot more love and treats as well. Varoon and Veda adapted very quickly as well. The devices and apps that I despised all these days made this transition very easy. Instead of stressing out about not being able to hang out with her friends during schooltime, Veda created a facetime group with her closest friends, and they meet 4-5 hours a day on facetime. During this time, they talk, complete schoolwork, and, most importantly - stay connected with each other. Varoon loved to go to movies with his friends during the weekend, and he replaced this with Netflix watch parties. They have fun watching movies together - laughing out loud or yelling at each other (or at the screens), just like they would watching the film together. Veda transitioned from playdates to TikTok duets, to record videos and pranks, just for fun. Varoon morphed from game night sleepovers into Xbox snap parties, almost overnight. 

In fact, after watching my kids’ graceful transition, I decided to join TikTok myself to see what this was all about. I had to stumble my way around to understand how to create my videos while Veda laughed at me, and Varoon made fun of me for being a “boomer.” They even proclaimed that I would never get it, but I wanted to get it as this is the world they live in now. 

I decided to take this as an opportunity to learn from my kids, and Veda had been a great guide to help with a few neat production tricks on TikTok. As I went through this learning experience - I realized that the best way for me to connect with kids is to travel with them to their future instead of trying to pull them to my now forgotten past.

After seeing how gracefully the whole world decided to shut down the global economy to protect ourselves and, most importantly, others from disaster - I am convinced that we can overcome any obstacle once we set our resolve to this cause. I am not sure when or how we will return to our pre-covid19 normal. Even if this pre-COVID19 phase returns - the new reality will very likely be a more measured and cautious one. I can’t imagine concerts, nightclubs, graduation ceremonies, birthday parties, religious get-togethers, and other social gatherings returning to the formats we were used to any time soon. I frankly think that these social events will take a new form, even after the introduction of the vaccine or the availability of treatments. This resolve and the resulting adaptation comes from our commitment to overcome a challenge - by fighting it or changing our way of life if needed. This transition can be felt at microscopic levels in our homes or macro environments with nations, continents, and the planet itself.

Next stop - Xbox. Wish me luck as I try to understand and hopefully become a part of the Corona Generation.