I guess I should have seen this coming when I saw my three year-old nephew sit quietly and play games with the iPad. Or when he says, “Aunt Tab, I’ll show you how to do it,” when I am trying to figure out an app or looking at his games. And my own one year-old reaches for my iPhone to press the “buttons”, puts the phone to ear and has a very intense conversation with the dial tone on the other end.
The Parenting Group, the publisher of Parenting, Babytalk, Parenting.com and the Blogher network released a survey that shows that the Gen X and Gen Y moms are greatly influencing their children with technology. The sweet spot of technology usage for children is around 11 for mobile phones, 16 for smartphones, 4 for laptops, and 5 for digital cameras. Other interesting clips from the study were:
1. 75% of moms with internet access cant go a day with out it. Being a mom who uses internet access, I would say that I’m on the internet an average of 15 times a day on my days off of work.
2. 25% of moms let their kids use their mobile phone by age 2. I am surprised that this statistic isn’t even higher. I guess the other 75% of moms are more concerned about their children dropping the phone. Mine gets dropped all the time but thankfully no cracked screen yet!
3. The study also concluded that moms that do not allow their children to use a smartphone, most likely don’t have a smartphone themselves. Obviously this makes perfect sense – if the child isn’t influenced, they aren’t going to use the product.
The major concern comes when we begin advertising to these toddlers. How are we going to cut through the clutter and really made an impact? What other technological advances are going to stand in the way of the advertiser and the consumer? The media landscape has changed. And like it or not, its digital, its social, and its more complicated then its ever been.
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