Hands up, how many of you belong to the generation that needs its kids to set its VCRs? That doesn't necessarily apply to you specifically, of course, since not only are you obviously tech-savvy enough to be tuned in to an online soap opera, but you're also enough of a tech nerd to find Apple-flavored drama somehow engaging. But technology advances a lot more quickly than our minds generally do, which leads to some interesting generation gaps as some parents look on befuddled while their kids wire up the home entertainment system like it's pure instinct and then proceed to pound zombies into a fine red mist on their PlayStation 2s.

Given that state of affairs, someone decided it'd be fun to ask kids of today what they'd most like to find "at the end of the rainbow" and then compare the results to what their parents would have said when they were kids. The responses of a thousand participants were tabulated, and the Western Mail (as noted by MacMinute) reports that "the techno generation would prefer a TV and a MiniDisc player to a doll's house or a radio," which is realistically only a shock to you if you happen to be both isolated and ancient enough to believe that you can still buy an armload of penny whistles and moon pies with a shiny nickel and still have enough change left over to catch a double feature over at the Bijou.

The specific results, however, are pretty noteworthy: whereas the most-wished-for item when the adults had been kids was a bicycle, the runaway winner among today's kids was none other than our shiny lil' buddy the iPod. That's right, 22% of kids questioned said their most coveted wish-list item was an iPod, almost half again as many as those who said they most wished for a DVD (15%) and twice as many as those who wanted a mobile phone (11%). (Note that this was apparently a UK survey, which explains why 9% of the kids said they most wished for a MiniDisc player; on this side of the pond a kid would be nearly as likely to say he wanted a swift kick in the jaw.)

Of course, things haven't changed that much in a generation; candy ranked third both among today's kids and those of thirty years ago, and "Pet" only slipped from 7% to 5% in the past three decades, so Fido needn't worry too much. The biggest losers over time were the aforementioned bikes, roller-skates, and pogo sticks, which, combined, made up 40% of the most-wished items among the kids of yesteryear, but now have all vanished from the top ten completely. (Notice how they're all conveyances? Why do kids today need to carry a few thousand songs around in their pockets if they're not going anywhere in the first place?)

With the iPod in the top spot by a wide margin, things look very, very good for Apple this holiday season. We seem to recall that last year the company took its highest estimate for the number of iPods they'd sell and doubled it-- and then still sold out long before demand had been satisfied. May we suggest that this year they quadruple? At least?