Need to know
01 : 09 : 21

US – With many young people accustomed to metaverse platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft, new game Fintropolis is recreating real-world financial scenarios in pixels to help boost money literacy and planning among future generations.

Created by online bank Ally, the game can be explored via Minecraft, with characters that guide players through activities, from understanding cash flow and budgeting to learning about stocks and shares investing, how taxes work and how to buy a home.

Targeting middle school children and their teachers, Fintropolis serves to prepare Generation Alpha for financially healthy lives. Diane Morais, president of consumer and commercial banking at Ally, explains: ‘Fintropolis has the potential to give millions of students the knowledge and confidence needed to make better money decisions, which can affect their lives in profound ways.’

While the wider metaverse has become a youth hub in which the future of socialising, entertainment and creativity is already in play, Ally is showing how metaverse platforms can serve a deeper purpose by educating and upskilling audiences, and preparing them for independence.

Amsterdam – Utrecht Central Museum has unveiled The Blind Spot, a 4D exhibition that makes art more accessible for the visually impaired. The exhibit adds extra dimensions – such as sound and smell – to recreate famous paintings, allowing both visually impaired and sighted visitors to experience art in a more sensorial way.

While touch is typically restricted in exhibitions, the Dutch museum encourages people to feel their way around the paintings. In addition to being guided by an audio tour, sighted visitors are encouraged to wear a blindfold, allowing them to forgo their sight completely and activate their non-visual and lesser-used senses.

While scent has previously been explored by curators as a way to immerse people in arts and culture, the exhibition demonstrates how touch and sound can be used to make art more accessible, as well as stimulating people's senses.

According to Deloitte’s latest Digital Consumer Trends research in the UK, Baby Boomers are proving to be a lucrative audience for streaming and video-on-demand (SVOD) services, with 57% of research respondents aged 65–75 now having a login to a video streaming subscription, up from 36% in 2020.

Furthermore, Deloitte notes that while 15% of overall research respondents have cancelled a video streaming service in the past year, the 65–75 age group are half as likely on average to have cancelled their subscription, making them a valuable audience for SVOD and wider subscription platforms.

According to Helen Rees, a director in Deloitte’s technology, media and telecommunications practice: ‘[Those] aged over 65… should be a clear focus for streaming platforms in the year ahead as they look to set themselves apart in a crowded market. Platforms that invest in quality content and stories that strike a chord with older audiences will reap the rewards.’

Indeed, all sectors are being challenged to better cater for and market to Boomer audiences – something Alternative Ageing blogger Suzi Grant discusses further in this interview.