Based on my own history of voice and video calls with all generations of users, “Can you hear me?” is the most frequently uttered question I’ve encountered. I was therefore very engaged in better.sg’s second Community Project Spotlight, where we checked out GenTok, a project that aims to bridge the generation gap.
Ironically, there were some technical issues at the beginning of the session which was was a useful reminder that every generation encounters problems with technology. The audience, ranging from the young to the young-at-heart, all had to leave and rejoin before finally being able to have their audio heard. Once the speakers, who were across generations, had the shared experience of overcoming technical difficulties, we could begin to explore our differences in perspectives and ways to bridge the gap.
The Communication Problem
Azy Aziz, GenTok’s Project Lead, posed a poignant question to kick off the session: “When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone of a different generation?” Team member, Ravi Sadani, followed by sharing his observation that as his daughters grew up, so did the disconnect between them and him. Together with Ng Shu Hui, the team decided to explore this problem area and see if they could make a difference.
The GenTok team did not start out with their goal as it currently stands. Instead, they focused on the younger generation’s disinterest in dialects, which the team assessed as a key contributing factor in the observed generation gap. However, as they embarked on their project, their research revealed that the root cause could be traced to the lack of interactions, rather than the lack of common languages.
They also learnt that generation segregation has become a norm worldwide and has resulted in institutional age segregation, with certain age-based groups being isolated. For example, the young are isolated in childcare or schools, and the old in nursing homes and retirement villages. These age-based groups are not integrated with the rest of society, which limits their interaction opportunities. Even in the scenarios where they do live together, groups do not know how to connect.
When different generational groups do not have opportunities to interact with each other in their day to day, they may lose the ability to have empathy for each other, impacting the emotional sensitivity that is important in any relationship. This may lead to extreme outcomes such as ageism, which is a form of discrimination.
The team shared their observations from across the world where resentment was palpable between generations. For example, there have been increased incidences of “millennials” accusing “baby boomers” of hogging resources. This has not been a one way street, with terms such as “strawberry generation” also being thrown in the other direction.
Understanding the Challenges
For the team, a good solution required the active participation of both parties in either generations. The solution also needed to create empathy, while being simple to execute quickly and allowing for collection of feedback. GenTok created a prototype – a conversation cards application where each card contains a conversation starter.
The team is currently interested to observe how different generations engage with the product. One key exploration area is to discover the point at which a casual conversation would evolve into a deep conversation. Another is the categorisation of cards, considering that topics may be interlinked. In multi-lingual Singapore, the cards will likely need to be translated into different languages as well.
Ideas on Clubhouse
What was supposed to be a Q&A segment quickly turned into a surprisingly fruitful brainstorming session. Through the sharing of ideas, disguised as “questions”, we learnt how the target audience could be expanded to include neighbours, not just family members. This was highlighted as all the more important in trying times like these, where the app could build up confidence for neighbours to approach each other.
Audience members also shared that the older generation enjoyed the opportunity to share life stories. The app could focus on such life events such as the first job, first marriage, or first child, for each generation to share and compare experiences. In fact, the GenTok team considered prompts such as “What outfit would you choose if you were living in that era?”
We also learnt that conversation starters might not necessarily need to be linguistic. They could include pictures from the yesteryears, or even other visual/ audial prompts such as a a song or a video. Users could take turns to guess, or even have fun watching each other’s reactions to the different memories from each generation,. For example, a Teresa Teng video vs a BTS pop jam (note: the writer exercised utmost restraint in not censoring those 3-letters).
The Q&A-turned-brainstorming ended with words of wisdom from a returning audience member, 72-year-old Thomas, who suggested a conversation starter – if you could speak to your 25-year-old self, what would you tell him or her?
Call to Action
Any longer and the Clubhouse room might have turned into a 48-hour hackathon. GenTok is still in the prototyping phase with testing and observations to follow. The team welcomes volunteers to be part of this journey even as players of the game. If you’re dying of boredom because your vaccination status has yet to turn green, you can still talk (with a mask of course) and help GenTok, so reach out to Azy and her team. You can find out more on their Notion page here.
Writer’s Post-Script Reflections
My answer to the poignant question “When was the last time I had a meaningful conversation with someone of a different generation” is “Too long ago to remember”.
Growing up, I harboured thoughts of asking my grandparents about the Japanese Occupation. After all, we had to learn about it in school, from Total Defence Day in primary school when the canteen was closed for a rationing exercise (PETS textbooks anyone?), to history lessons in secondary school. Regretfully I never did and my last surviving grandparent is now diagnosed with dementia.
In just a matter of years, there would be no more living World War II survivors of World War II and their stories may die with them. This is just an example of the countless intangible gems that those of us in the younger generation stand to lose with the passing of each older generation.
My grandparents came from a generation that was blessed with more grandchildren than their fingers could count. There were many opportunities for interaction based on the number of grandchildren alone. However, as families shrink in size over the generations, such opportunities also dwindle.
Insofar as families are the bedrock of our society, it is well worth minding and bridging the gap, so that we avoid the consequences that other societies are experiencing. I have a dream, that one day the MRT announcements can be expanded to “Please mind the platform and generation gap”.
