Abhishek Pandey
NIKITA MISHRA, a 10-year old student of Class V no longer feels attracted to PSP or the X-box the way her laptop does.
Looking to upgrade her laptop, her final call is Dell studio. Though kids of her age are known to be impatient, she was patient with her Google searches. Vidushi didn’t settle until she found a laptop that satisfied her needs and her dad’s budget.
Parents, she knows, earn money the hard way and that she cannot waste it. “Life is not complete, you know; I have so much to do and I need a better laptop,” she blurts out.
At 10, she displays a surprising maturity and hardly hides her planning for the future and what it takes to get there. Having Barkha Dutt in mind she is preparing to become a journalist of repute. “The Internet is an essential tool for me; it gives me all that I want,” she states.
On television, the girl is a regular viewer of Discovery channel and
the Hannah Montana show. “At least I get something to learn from them,” she says adding, “they have given me so much to think and read about.” For example, globalization has made her realize the value of savings and investments.
Welcome to the world of newage kids loaded with hyper energy, two extra yards of smartness and an amazing knack for adaptation. They are just opposite in behaviour to the kids born in the mid or late eighties, who had a whole new world too big to explore.
“A child asking her father if he has thought about his future or another boy thinking of booking cars when he will be vice president of a company might be tickling but it’s a reality which the adman has just brought on screen,” said Prerna Mussaddi, principal of Swaraj India. “You could say that ads have given children’s sky high ambitions a voice,” she added on a strong note.
This generation wants it all—a trait missing in the previous generation, which at best did class-to-class planning. Vidhushi Pradhan isn’t even nine years old but she has an innate sense of dressing and fashion. Parents do take her to a mall but selection of items is her exclusive right. She picks her clothes and shoes. “I have always this idea about what’s going to look good on me; I enjoy this freedom,” said Rahul, another student.
Parenting expert Noel Robert finds that kids of this generation are very smart and talented and their ambitions, desires and skills have crossed the levels of the older generation. No one knows this better than leading mobile dealer Ramit Paul who has a request from Vivek Panigrahi, 11, to get him a Vertu mobile—his exporter father has agreed to pay.
“Lots of children of his age group buy expensive mobiles but this request from an eleven-year-old caught me off guard,” said Ramit. These days kids know more than what their parents or elder siblings know about the latest trends.
Ambitious students like Vidushi know at the tender age of 10 that Cambridge is one of the best universities for journalism and a kid like Farhan knows that Vertu mobile suits his need and would raise his status in his group. Alok Bajpai, a child psychiatrist said that most of the things that students of the previous generation used to know after class 10, the new generation knows it in class V.
For the older generation, the world was limited to books and playgrounds but now kids spend their time at the latest gaming consoles like PS3 and Xbox 360 and live life with their virtual friends.
The older generation had the time to listen to stories read out or related by their grandparents but the new gen reads the same on Internet, as per their taste.
LK Singh, a social scientist believes that the communication revolution has damaged the cord attaching children to their family and friends. He added that they live in their own world and allow no one to choose their dresses, footwear or for that matter, anything they use.
Today’s children get to know the world much before they should and this exposure to knowledge enables them to participate in decision-making at an early age. Thanks to technological advancements for providing more tools at their disposal and removing the traditional constraints of time and space.
The new gen explore everything that has made their world vast but cluttered at the same time. The excessive exposure to so many things has made them confused, impatient, intolerant and indisciplined. The most visible impact is early loss of innocence and untimely maturity
Technological advancements have made the world easy for them but someone has rightly said that a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.
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