'Generation Gap' dying silently, and that's a good news !

Haven't all of us while growing up felt disgruntled and frustrated because of this ?

At home, it used to be parents while at school, we'd enough no of teachers who just seem to think so day before yesterday.

TV, movies and gully cricket, socializing and talking on phone were frowned upon. During exam times house used to turn into prison sort of.

So, what changed it ?

Couple of things...

• Globalization,
• Inflow of FDI and foreign brands.... and
• Brand consciousness among an entire generation fueled by the multitude of options at all price points.

Who would've imagined that someday we will have branded chains selling 'Bada pav', Idli-Dosas and Chhole-Bhatore !! That commodities like Sugar, salt and atta will come from big brands.

As a positive impact, Brand consicousness fueled quality pressure on producers, big and small. You don't have to find stone pebbles and impurities in grains anymore, no longer one has to wait years for buying a two or four wheeler. A new dimension came into picture when big distribution/retail chains started branding everything else under 'private levels', which was more or less cheap imitation of branded products.

These changes swept all age groups. So, quality and value for money is demanded by every generation equally now.

Sports and Sportswear like shorts and swimming costumes are no longer for the kids/younger lot alone.

One of the bigger changes can be seen on the consumption/distribution channel of alcoholic beverages. One no longer has to be in queue to buy them in front of dingy fortified desi liquor shops and neither it's a taboo for age and gender.

But what has just hammered the last nail to the coffin of generation gap is 'Mobile Internet'.

Generation gap was not because of the absence of globalization alone. It was because the information was consumed differently and different age groups consumed different information. So, mid-50s and above had no idea about the the language younger gen uses, what's the in-thing for them, what influences them and how to communicate with them.

Mobile internet became the 'lingua franca', the great normalizing platform.

There is no more painful learning curve of windows/PC in order to use internet.

Now a sexagenarian has access to the mainstream communication used by their children and even grand-children. They befriend their children and even their friends via social networks. They get the same e-retail promotions via email and social feed that the younger ones get. they can now find out what ROFL, LOL and FML means, they can differentiate between an smiley :) and a wink ;) .

The saving oriented generation now shops for the best bargain using mobile devices which itself comes at as low as INR 5000.

They may stay far from their children but they get to 'like' and 'comment' on the video and photos of their grand children.

And yes, they can take part in the younger generation's conversation on Quora.

So, the mobile internet has empowered the older generation to keep up the pace with the younger one and has silently killed the absence of common mental ground called 'Genration gap'.

If you don't believe me, just see the exorbitant price war to win the remaining few '3G spectrum' in India. Companies know the superhighway to every generation is through 'mobile internet'.

That doesn't mean there are no challenges ahead:

According to a new research by Telenor group, only a niche portion of senior citizens use internet connection on mobile phones. 

The research explains only 7% Indian users aged over 50 years use Internet connection on their mobile phones. On the survey, China appeared on the top, where 25% of users aged above 50 use internet connected phones, while Bangladesh appears at the bottom with only 2% of users.