Learnings from Gen A
Observations of my kids
For the past few years, I have been observing the differences between my kids, who are all Gen A, and my own childhood. Some of the things I thought were more annoying turn out to be a product of modern technology. On further consideration, I learned how to live better with modern technology because of their habits, particularly in the areas of :
- Watching Shows
- Power Outlets
- How To Videos
Watching Shows
When I was a kid, rewind and fast-forward were new and challenging. It was easy to go past the desired part of a movie and have to go backwards again.
My son was watching Star Wars. The way he watches the 9 main movies is to go to the parts he wants of each movie and then be done. He just skips over anything not so interesting.
I started doing that too. If a scene was too slow or too violent, I skip ahead. If I am interested only in part of the plot, but I have read the plot online, I skip to the scenes that are of interest.
While this may seem wasteful, the alternative is that I don’t watch a movie at all. When I was young, the idea of leaving a movie or stopping a movie was not even considered. Now I see how to better use my time.
Power Outlets
One of the most annoying problems in my house is finding a charger or the right charger. They disappear as the kids take them wherever. We bought portable chargers for travel, and more recently, I bought 10Ah portable chargers with the cords.
The kids want to use these all the time, and I was bothered at first. “Portable chargers are for travel, not the home.”
Then I saw how attached my son was to the one he claimed to be his. He was carrying it around with him not even plugged into a device. The simple thought of not being tied to a power outlet meant freedom.
These portable chargers can last most of the day, so the kids use them to be free of the problem of finding a charging brick and sitting next to a power outlet. So smart, and I wouldn’t have even considered that to be the primary use case rather than travel.
Hopefully, I lose less power bricks as a result…
How To Videos
When I was young and didn’t know how to beat some part of a game, I had to find someone who did. The internet had just come about, but even then, being able to search was a learned skill; search was not a solved problem. Even when you found a guide, it was text only.
Now the kids can look up any guide to any game that includes walk throughs and explanations. Additionally, they can bring the video to their game and even pause.
This has been an attitude change for me to look for videos first because for most things, more than one person has made a video.
I look towards the younger generation to optimize my life, to see how they are using technology in ways that the technology was not originally designed for. This is a difficult attitude to have because instead of being frustrated, I have to ask why. These kids are teaching me something for sure.
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Further readings of mine:
My Second Book: Advanced Espresso
My First Book: Engineering Better Espresso
