Back in the days, I was one of those students who wanted the most up to date scientific calculators and the latest design of the Trapper Keeper notebook.  These days, it's the wifi access the students want, to stay connected anytime, anywhere on their smartphones or tablets.

According to the Cisco Connected World Technology Report more than 40% of Gen Y (18-30 year olds) "would feel anxious, like part of them were missing" if they couldn't check their smartphones.  I was chatting with my colleague Rochelle Brocks-Smith from the Healthcare team the other day and she was joking that soon, her kids will develop carpal tunnel syndrome with all the texting they do! 

Taking the kids out to the mall, the toy store is not their first priority any more.  It's the wifi password inside the mall that they care about.  They want to let their friends know where they are, send pictures to friends of what they're trying and updating their online status of what they're seeing.  I'm not surprised to hear from the Cisco Connected World Technology Report that "60% of Gen Y members find themselves compulsively checking their smartphones for emails, texts or social media updates".

Quiet time at home is most noticeable when the kids are on their smartphones.  They're immersed with online games, Instagram and texting to friends.  I see my nieces and nephews on trivia and drawing games which are quite educational to them.  But, I missed the laughs and the voices so I whipped out a Scrabble game with them the other day.  We still used the smartphone to challenge those funky, made up words but, at the end of the day, it was most enjoyable seeing kids and grown up kids verbally questioning each other why he/she took the triple word tile spot instead of them.  That was really fun and can't wait to do that again with them next time.