Children born today expect instant gratification of content.
The expectation our children have really struck me when my husband and I recently stayed at a hotel with our daughter, Sasha. At three years old, Sasha had never seen a television commercial before. (We stream everything.) So when Spongebob mysteriously disappeared from the television screen and for several interminable minutes was replaced by (oh the horror) advertisements, Sasha asked, “What happened, Mommy? Where’s Spongebob?”
I really wanted to tell her that Spongebob was taking a potty break in between flipping burgers. (Could have made for such a good potty training booster!) But I decided to go the honesty route. So picture this, I explained to my 3-year-old how fortunate she was that by using the wide array of digital media we allow her: iPhone, iPad, Netflix and DVDs (my daughter is not hurting for entertainment) that she never had to sit through long advertisements. Admittedly, it was not the most productive discussion we’ve ever had.
What I realized is that my daughter is part of a generation where digital content is a given. She has been born into an environment where digital entertainment is all around her and readily accessible. What does that mean to a child of her generation? It means that our children expect instant gratification of content. Instant. Gratification. Whenever. Wherever. NOW!
A friend of mine and mom to two young girls, characterizes her four-year-old’s love of Netflix on the iPad in the following way:
“She [her daughter] is a product of our current culture where instant gratification is a given. She has no concept of having to wait until one of her shows is on TV. She can simply load it up from Netflix whenever she likes.” (Jillian DeFrehn, Los Angeles, CA)Every parent understandably has a different comfort level with how they want their children consuming digital content. But one thing is for certain, and that is the fact that digital content for children is on the rise. Apps for kids are available on just about every competitive mobile device from iPhone, iPod and iPad to Android to Nook to Kindle Fire. The most popular and largest library of content is available for Apple iOS and Android devices (more than 1 million tablet and smartphone apps across Apple’s iTunes Store and the Google Play market.
A recent market research report from The NPD Group entitled Kids and Apps: A New Era of Play found that kids spend about five days a week using mobile devices (i.e. smartphone, tablet, iPod Touch) and have access to an average of 12 apps on these devices. Other key takeaways from this study: 88 percent of the apps were acquired FREE – which means, clearly parents are searching out free quality content for children. And the #1 leading app category? Games. NPD found an average of 6.5 gaming apps on a device. Interestingly, they also concluded that boys downloaded games more frequently than girls (87 percent vs. 80 percent), while girls were more diversified in using other apps (music, art, photo). (The study was based on 2,502 surveys of children ages 2-14 and was conducted March 6-21, 2012.)
We now return to Spongebob. 🙂
What are your thoughts on instant gratification for kids today?
