Today is April 23, the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye (TBMM), the day the first step toward a democratic country was taken.
The fact that the great leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk dedicated this day to children clearly shows the importance our Founder gave to children. If he valued children so much, what are we doing for our children and their future? Giving them a good education and raising them as good people is of course important. But what are we doing to help them think one click ahead of their time and to master the times they live in?
April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, is very important for us to think once again about children, who are the guarantee of both our national sovereignty and our future.
What do you think is the reason why technological developments and innovations come from countries other than ours, and keep coming from them?
First of all, it is education. But while education is provided, new ideas emerge when our children use and interpret their brains in more directions. Even though every person uses 100% of their brain, when we think of the people who made their mark on history and science, the importance of using our brains in more directions becomes more meaningful.
Besides education, one point I think is just as important as education is providing the environment and means needed for ideas to emerge. Unfortunately, this remains very weak in our country, and most ideas are doomed to die before they sprout, or the talents who are important for our country head abroad after university education and make their innovations on behalf of other countries. First of all, we need to create an environment where our children and young people can easily realize their ideas. The most important thing to do for this is to catch up with the age and bring our systems up to the standards the age requires.
Is it easy to do this?
It is not easy, but it is not harder than the situation of Ataturk, who set out for Samsun on May 19, 1919 and resolved to found a new country. All of us only need to put our hands under the stone, and our bodies too if necessary, and work with all our strength to get one click beyond the digitalizing world. Let us work to save our day, and let us work to offer the children who will be tomorrow’s leaders an environment and a perspective in which they can realize their ideas and shape the future.
Have you ever considered April 23 from the perspective of payment systems and digitalization?
Most of us met desktop computers during our middle school and high school years. And in this process we witnessed the development of technology and the change in ways of doing business.
I think it would not be wrong to say that our children, the architects of the future, were born with computers and phones. For this reason, we need to develop ourselves and our systems in line with our children’s view of technology and their expectations of it, and to instill this perspective in our children. Otherwise, we cannot expect a very optimistic picture for our country and our children.
Digitalization is in every part of our lives. We now see transactions we cannot do over the internet as a chore. We want to do everything in a few clicks. This being the case, we should not find it strange that our children want even more than this.
Generation Z, made up of those born in 2000 and after, is growing and becoming more active in daily life with each passing day. Because this generation, which especially prefers to socialize through the internet, has grown up immersed in technology, unlike other generations, its expectations of technology and its view of technology are very different. As companies digitalize, they should analyze the expectations and perspectives of Generation Z well and take this generation’s wishes seriously.
We keep hearing about new structures being integrated with blockchain infrastructure every day. MasterCard and Visa, which form the foundation of payment systems, knowing the importance of the subject, have also announced that they have started work on solutions that will integrate the payment systems structure with blockchain infrastructure.
Work on payments made by digitally verifying the palm, retina, fingerprint and voice is increasing every day. We can say that such payments will enter our lives more in the near future.
Developments in artificial intelligence and augmented reality, and the fact that robots will be able to do many of the jobs we do today, make it necessary for us to develop ourselves technologically and to adapt to new systems faster by working harder.
This being the case, considering the Card-POS interaction and the surrounding ecosystems referred to as payment systems, in line with the cashless society vision we should enable our citizens to carry out their transactions without problems using only their mobile phone, or going further, using only identity verification methods such as fingerprint, palm and retina, and enable them to pay with technologies that will make life easier.
Since we are immersed in payment systems and we care about digitalization, let us build our systems by thinking not only of our time but also of our children, who are our future.
