13 Oct Don’t Assume Boomers Won’t Use New Technology

Did you know that 10 years ago only a quarter of baby boomers went online on a daily basis? It’s true and you might be surprised to know that as of 2010 that number has increased to 75%.

There has been a long held idea that the boomer generation was significantly behind Gen-Y and Gen-X when it comes to technology adoption. Recent studies actually show the opposite.

An AdvetisingAge.com article breaks down some of the statistics from recent studies conducted by Nielsen and Forrester Research. The findings suggest that not only are boomers adopting new technology quickly but that they aren’t that far behind the younger generations. For example, more boomers are using social networks to communicate. Among 50 to 64 year-olds, the use of social media grew by 88% in a year’s time. Also, one in five boomers use social media daily where it was reported a year ago to be one in ten.

While early adoption among the boomers is still significantly lower than younger generations, the boomers are quickly catching up. There is an interesting parallel between boomers and millennials. Experts believe that we can expect boomers to behave similarly to millennials because of the conditions in which they were raised. There are both roughly 80 million in size and grew up in prosperous times.

Both groups use e-mail, search engines, and get news online at very similar rates. The key for marketers is to figure how boomers will use new technology instead of assuming they won’t.