Forget Gen Y. Will a Gen Bub with an iPad take my job?

Dear Aunty B, 

Despite her intelligence and dexterity as a classical pianist my spouse has had no interest in the online world and had never been independently online until a few days ago, when despite protests I presented the iPad, advocating that it made so much fun so simple to have and that she needed to be ahead of the game with our grandchild, not yet two.

“This is the perfect time to enter cyber world as it is so simple and rewarding”… I was RIIIIIGHT. “There are so many sophisticated things that can be done and it is easier than turning on a TV and choosing a channel and besides you are only just ahead of the two year old even though he hasn’t used a pen or learned letters yet”.

I was right again because within 24 hours, when she declined to repeat his favourite YouTube clips, he walked up, pressed the Home and YouTube buttons and selected from Favourites and took a seat. Now I am terrified. Forget the Ys and the Xs. Does this mean that before they start school I now have to fear for my job being challenged by Gen Bubs? Do they even have to serve time at school before becoming online tycoons? Do they need to read if Apple just shows them where the Strategy, Marketing and Stock Control buttons are?

Terrified

Dear Terrified,

I hear you! I was spending some rare quality time with one of my children the other day and I suggested he makes Nanna’s famous chocolate mousse for dinner. Guess what? He doesn’t head to the shelf that holds our favourite dog-eared, butter smeared recipe books. Nope. He hops on the iPad, finds a chocolate mousse recipe, props the iPad up on the counter like a book and off he goes.

Gen Bubs and Gen Zs will not be able to spell, they will barely be able to write – and they will never read Shakespeare. But they will know how to point. And point they will. The service industry will have to be completely reinvented to serve their new masters that will expect everything at the touch of a fingertip.

Will we have a growth in online tycoons? It is inevitable. As technology – including broadband – continues to get cheaper and better and we get used to remote ways of working, and as large companies continue to divest staff and outsource to smarter, more nimble companies, the Apple Generation will far prefer to be in control of their own destiny. And yours! I am changing strategy. Instead of yelling at them to practice their spelling, I am getting them to teach me IT.

Have a good weekend!
Your Aunty B

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