Gen Z redux

We Gen X parents are enamored with reading but Generation Z (if my kids are at all representative) is cross-platform. They value books, TV, movies, apps and computers equally – or, to put it another way, they are indifferent to platform. My children will pay to play* Plants vs. Zombies on the iPod, the iPad, the PS3 and through a web browser, delighting in the differences on each device; and they'll watch PvZ cheats on YouTube. Sasha watches the Kratt Brothers on live TV, through video on demand and through iTunes, and she asks the librarian to direct her to their books.**

This happens when you raise children to read books on a Kindle and research reports on Wikipedia.

You all are despairing! I hear the sighs. But listen! Platform-agnostic consumers are also platform-agnostic creators. My kids enact Plants vs. Zombies, too. (The other day we three stood together to form a threepeater and pretended to attack my husband. "You," my husband said, "are a total dork.") They write stories about zombies. My daughter has been writing stories about dragons for school, as you know, and drawing pictures of dragons, too – and lately she's been making movies about dragons. My parents gave her a camera for Christmas and I showed her how to stabilize it while she narrates, and lo. She has made a movie of the marriage between her snow leopard and her snow dragon. (They make a cute couple. The dragon has laid an egg. I am very curious to know what will hatch.)

"Can I post it to YouTube?" said she.

She and her brother also invented a dragon app; it's a very interesting cross between the zoo games that she likes and the tower defense games that he likes. Blake spec'ed it on paper. How do I make this app? he asked me. I don't know, I had to confess. Sorry, kids, I do not know. You could, however .... Well, let's see. You could import pictures of dragons to the World of Goo Level Editor and make a kind of Goo/zoo game...

We tried that. It was too frustrating to figure out. They have long attention spans but not, yet, long enough to create a game.

*

I'm not trying to say that books are unimportant. Obviously books are very important. Also I personally love books and I have to say I feel some sadness, some sense of loss, over their lack of primacy in my children's lives. I would argue, though, that as parents we should encourage creation across media, rather than villainizing, or limiting, consumption of one form.

If anyone is interested I think I might chronicle my attempts to do so here, on the blog.


* I make them earn money to buy games. They get $0.25 per chore.

** Dear Kratt Brothers, please write a book. Also, please respond to the email my 7-year-old sent you.