Not a child's play!
Platforms and Children
I had a guest post by my daughter Aru around her birthday when she turned sixteen in August 2020 and also launched her teen-focused social media platform aptly called tynkrr. In her post, Aru was focussing on Teen specific platforms and saw them as means to give voice/platforms to young people trying to visualise a future for themselves. Do recommend this teen focussed platform tynkrr to the teenagers in your family and ask them to sign up using the link- https://tynkrr.com/register/
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DTW
During the Week, whitehatjr took whitehatsr to court and got an ad-interim order!
And in case, you are not following this “Karan Bajaj & Anr. vs. Pradeep Poonia” court case in Delhi High Court , you could read the 819 page document to realise the stakes in the EdTech market. Karan Bajaj, founder of WhiteHatJr has filed a 200 crore INR defamation against Pradeep Poonia for “publicly criticising the marketing tactics” of the firm and “publicly spreading misinformation about the founder and the firm”. After all, kids related commerce/business is big and growing.
Relationship between platform and children can be seen through the dimensions of Communication, Content and Commerce.
First dimension; Communication using tech-platforms for children may be Children-Children, Children-School, Children-Parent and Children-Parent-School. These platforms can serve an important medium for sharing updates and information with all the stakeholders thus creating an evolutionary ecosystem. They can also help streamline communication between administrators, support staff, teachers, and parents. Many of these platforms help in managing students' growth through goal-setting, feedback, and celebration. Multiple Learning Management Systems have been a boon during pandemic and even before that. They can help teachers offer data-driven differentiated instruction to students at scale in developing countries like India. Many apps like duolingo help young people and even adults to learn and communicate in a new language. Multi-lingualism can help in enhancing cross- cultural integration especially amongst young migrants.
Second Dimension; Content on tech platforms mostly on social media has grown exponentially. These platforms could be of three types- By Children, Only for Kids and Parent Approved Content.
Many platforms like PlayKids Talk offer child-friendly features like games and contests but also give them a chance to use these platforms as teaching tool and safe sharing. These social networks end up giving kids a safer environment where children can freely share their experiences and engage with people they know.
Kids only platforms include texting ; Photo and Video-sharing ;Live-streaming Video ;Self-destructing/Secret ;Chatting, Meeting, and Dating. In fact, some of the interesting innovations have come from teen specific platforms and gradually adopted by main stream social media platforms. For example, self destructing messaging which started as a teen specific feature in snapchat has now become mainstream.
All three main OTT players YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime have separate sections for kids with parental approval. YouTube for Kids is a service oriented towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filtering of videos deemed inappropriate viewing for children aged under 7. Similarly, Disney+ has been a huge hit amongst families with kids for the extraordinary content from its movie library.
Third Dimension; Commerce is the holy grail of tech platforms. Multiple platforms have created innovative means to engage with the younger audience mainly through social media influencer. Young people engage in commerce through their guardian and also on their own account. According to a report in Economic Times, fashion retailers Flipkart, Amazon, , Myntra, Snapdeal etc have seen sales from the kids apparel segment nearly treble, making them one of the top sellers since the last phase of relaxation in lockdown rules. Companies like Nike have created Subscription Service for busy/affluent parents with fast-growing Kida through Nike Adventure Club. This service on a monthly fees allows parents/kids to choose from a curated selection of all the latest styles from streetwear to skate shoes and more.
Months of #HomeSheltering measures taken to #FlattenTheCurve have created new paradigms for #StruckatHome Gen Z. It has dramatically altered their socialisation behaviour and upended life as usual and unfortunately made them even more dependent on platforms. I have written about the ill-effects of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in earlier issue. Bottomline remains the fact that if teens are using platforms respectfully, appropriately, and with a little parental guidance, they would just be fine. The onus lies on other stakeholders to hold onto their side of the bargain. DO NO EVIL.
OTW
Over the Weekend, my wife Archana ran her first Half Marathon (21.0975 KM ) after over two years and dedicated it to the cause of blood donation. Actually, our running group PeeranCheruvu Runners is celebrating its Annual Anniversary Run 2020 as Khoon Pasina Edition. We plan to encourage blood donation through matching runners with blood donors. Each runner is dedicating an overall distance of 50 km or more for a life saviour blood donor contributing one unit of blood. This is in coordination with Aarohi Blood Bank which works to provide high quality and safe blood and related blood products to children suffering from Thalassemia and Leukemia primarily in the Greater Hyderabad Municipality area.
After all, it is easier to evaluate a generation’s soul by observing how they treat their children. Let me leave you with this passage from “The Prophet” about children-
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.You may strive to be like them,
But seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.-Khalil Gibran
I Love You.
Shailendra
Quoting my teenage daughter on her first impressions on the platform, 'finally something for teenagers and for things beyond academics'. My homeschooling daughter is looking forward to connect with others peers sharing common interests in non-academic pursuits. So kudos to tynkrr!
First-a-fall congratulations to ma'am on her achievement and really feel happy to know that she ran for this good reason. This covid phase changed the way of study and switched the chalkboard system to online mode. Kids are now fully equipped with online gadgets and this creates a new business opportunity for lots of platforms. Platforms like Class Sathi and SP Robotics works who are providing AI-based quizzes and knowledge based on robotics, drones, and VR to kids, and the social media platform Birds and Bats was created for children age between 7 to 17. Now Tykrr is also a good choice in front of kids to think and groom themselves under the right and positive content.