It's in their blood!

Over the last half year or so, I noticed new big touch screens at McDonalds.  These are deemed 'productivity' tools to enable diners to customize their menu and also to take orders which will be sent to the kitchen.  

Diners can choose to pay via different modes - for cash, they will then have to queue up, pay before the order is dispatched.  For other payment mode, the orders are routed to the kitchen immediately, and diners only have to wait for their order numbers to flash before picking up their orders.

On this day, I was waiting for my son as he was having class.  Sitting in McDonald's I noticed the stream of young children and teenagers who walk in, head straight to the touch screens and intuitively place their orders!  Wow!  It's so in their blood!  They grow up in a touch screen society, where pinching and tapping as well as payment via all means but cash are languages they understand.

Sometimes, I marvel at how technology has progressed so quickly over 2 generations - with me, sitting as the sandwiched generation, experiencing life when a phone at home is a rarity, to now where we have more phones than people in the household.  What a transformation.  In the process, we will have to be deliberate in helping our children to cultivate values such as staying in touch (human touch) and not be impatient as things move and happen so quickly for them - at a swipe or a touch of the screen....