Large screens and India’s Young Viewers
India is witnessing the rise of a distinctly young, digital-native generation – children who grow up surrounded by screens, apps and connected to the Internet from their earliest years. Technology is not something added to but rather part of how they learn, have fun, and explore the environment. Unlike earlier generations that experienced technology little by little, these children have grown up instinctively with technology, which influences the patterns of thinking, behaving, and interacting with the world.
This, in fact, is quite a marked difference from two or three decades back when options were limited and technology arrived piece by piece. The children of today, the real digital natives of India, navigate seamlessly through screens and formats, taking in information via visuals, sound, and interactivity. The Smart TV naturally slips into this scenario, offering a shared and engaging space for exploration.
Collective viewing
In many Indian homes, the Smart TV has emerged as perhaps the only place that offers a digital common ground for families to meet. While private TVs segregate people into their private viewing realms, with everyone lost in their own universe, the common TV in the living room provides a space – a space that offers children a natural foray into various contents with the soft presence of parents, brothers, or uncles. In this manner, the Smart TV acts as a link between “home” and “worlds outside.”
For younger audiences, this common framework is highly beneficial. With each new story, culture, or idea introduced, it is done so in a context that fosters questioning and through conversation. A documentary may spark an interest, a festival program may generate conversation about heritage, or an animation about scientific concepts may drive a project or investigation. The television is no longer simply a platform for viewing but now serves as a catalyst.
Sharing viewing also provides balance for children in their use of digital technology. Smart TVs being in public spaces in homes means that children will be exposed to what their families want them to view. This can include educational programs during the morning hours, entertainment in the evening, and adventures during the weekend. This provides children with a way to develop balanced behavior with technology while still being able to wander. More importantly, children will be able to have access to technology in a way that makes them feel safe.
Understanding what works for both adults and children
Smart TVs in Indian households have become the pivot around which the whole family revolves for digital entertainment, with the expectations from the shared screen reflecting both roots in culture and relevancy in digital viewing trends. Parents seek content that instills trust, meaning, and ease of use, while children favor colorful graphics, interesting stories, and participation elements. However, both segments converge at one important consideration – content that is relevant to Indian culture. Parents worry about their children’s exposure, but their overriding concern is about what their children view. They favor content that entertains as well as conveys familiar values – stories that incorporate local language roots, heroes that reflect Indian families’ diversity, and themes that resonate with Indian virtues of kindness, curiosity, and community. For their children, their wish is for colorful animations that reflect local lore, mythological stories, stories around festivals, or content that relates learning to Indian culture. For themselves, it assures them that their Smart TV is playing a positive role in early development and exposure. With digital entertainment growing, the Indian consumer’s interest lies in Smart TVs presenting hybrid elements of learning and Indian culture, digital stories with Indian roots, and bridging solving with Indian traditions. Smart TVs placed at the center of Indian homes present an obligation to present content that is shareable – from grandmother anecdotes to stories for children that incorporate new learnings through kid-friendly programs that make comfortable sounds. Smart TVs thus act as intergenerational platforms between Indian families, an important part of the digital revolution landscape in Indian homes.
Who Guides Healthy Digital Exposure?
With Smart TVs front and center in the family home, it’s no surprise that questions have begun to arise regarding the role such technology can play in helping younger generations navigate the digital landscape. The answer, of course, has been available on current platforms for a number of years – through kids’ profiles, intuitive engagement systems, and viewing environments designed with safety and exploration in mind. Advertising on kids’ networks has also undergone a major shake-up, with closer attention paid to appropriate placement and consumer expectation.
However, technology alone cannot impart a child’s views about what he or she is watching. Children learn about how to grasp their world through the individuals around them, and they depend on those individuals for assistance in understanding the new information that comes their way until they are able to develop their own perspectives. In Indian families, this process occurs effortlessly through joint viewing, follow-up conversations about a program that was aired, or even the presence of the television in the common viewing area.
A healthy digital experience, therefore, is not something that rests on the shoulders of a particular group or system. It results from a careful amalgam of intelligent design elements combined with intelligent usage practices and a necessary family involvement. Each and every individual is a part of this – as parents and caregivers in the first instance and as a broader cultural context in which children are raised. While the perfect world for a child is obviously a world where curiosity is sated without danger or deceit, reality is
far more complex. It is essential that homes make available environments that celebrate curiosity and curiosity as a means for exploration – rather than a source for confusion or fear.
