October 22, 2015

With More 18-34 Year-Olds Living at Home, are Parents More Connected than Ever Before?

Written by: Alex Worth

Among all the Millennials and parents I know, I’ve noticed two extremes when it comes to technology. Either families are incredibly tech-connected or kids are trying to bring their parents out of the stone age.

In the first scenario the entire family has the newest tech gear and constantly communicates through trendy apps across multiple devices. In those families, the parents are often the ones sneaking private messages to their social networks at the dinner table instead of the children. we’ll call these families “the Jetsons.”

In the second scenario, it’s a struggle for kids to persuade their parents to even purchase a smartphone, and once they do its an even bigger challenge getting them to use it. In other words, these families are “the Flintstones”

My family falls into Category 2: Stone-Age Parents.

My parents resist technology as much as possible and when they finally get on board, I become their tech support guru.

No more, “Your call is important to us,” after a twenty-five minute hold time for mom and dad. Now they have me; and like 26% of Millennials ages 18-34 years old, I live at home (Pew Research Center).

With a source of knowledge on call for my technically challenged parents, my mom gets novel insights like instructions on how to open multiple tabs in one window. When I showed her the “Cmd + T” shortcut she reacted with shock, “Woah, woah, woah, slow down! How did you do that?” For parents of Millennials, the days of long-distance troubleshooting are a thing of the past.

Hence why I was surprised when my mom agreed to Beta test Flayk for our family. But the app makes sense to her and it helps her simplify family management. Now she can make sure I remember to take out the trash, feed the dog, and water the plants when she and my dad go out of town.

What used to be a note on the counter now comes to me in the form of a notification on my phone. Flayk levels the playing field between the overly connected Jetsons and even Flintstone families like mine.