Owl to OLA - the alphabet journey

The setting is Friday evening time, I was playing a word game with my 9 year old daughter. She had to come up with a three letter word starting with O.

In my mind, the word owl was playing and was sure that she would say that, but she came up with OLA and insisted that it’s a right word. I pointed her to Merriam-Webster Dictionary - Official Site and showed her that there’s no English word like that…she had a bored look on her face as if I was talking like an old dinosaur.

What I wanted to bring out was Generation Z or whatever we’re calling the born-with-iPad-in-hand kids is completely hooked on the mobile app world and can give their parents a couple of lessons on the new apps which have been launched.

While our generation loved the physical playground, the touchscreen is the new playground for the Gen Z. While our generation understands and uses the touchscreen every hour sometimes every minute, we are still very different in our minds.

While we fill our smart phones and tablets with productivity apps, the Gen Z would like to use Intagram or YouTube or Snapchat. Yes I am confident that I will keep pace with my daughters and use the same / similar functionality apps but can I change my mindset or the way we think is a million dollar question.

I would be keenly watching the app landscape unfolding and being lapped up by the Gen Z…it’s going to be a lot of fun.