More baby boomers are logging on to social networking sites like myspace.
Accenture released a report last week that highlighted how Baby Boomers (45+) are adopting technology at a rate faster than the members of Generation Y (18-24). This does not mean that more baby boomers are using technology than young adults. However, it highlights two important trends– while baby boomers are consuming technology at a more rapid rate, the rate of use of consumer technology by young adults is leveling off. One can argue that the consumption of technology by Generation Y was so high to begin with, it is hard to imagine it continuing to accelerate, whereas the rates of technology consumption by Baby Boomers were low and have few places to go but up. The introduction of new more expensive products, such as smart phones, kindles, and netbooks, have been geared more to an older audience than to generally tight-budgeted college students and recent grads.
The data indicates that baby boomers are also buying and participating in this technology, more receptive to it than they were earlier. From a reverse mortgage standpoint, this means that the web will become an increasingly important marketing tool. Reaching seniors will no longer need to be confined to what is now traditional old-fashioned media. Baby boomers are joining facebook and myspace and tweeting on twitter.
And for those who do not seek to reach the old, but rather, the young, the shift in technological consumption is affecting the way they use technology too. As parents and (gasp) grandparents join facebook, younger users are changing their usage. The same is true on other social networking sites. Marketers of all products aiming to both sides of the age spectrum will need to rethink how to best reach their intended audience. And in the case of real estate and reverse mortgage sites geared towards seniors, this means increasingly exploring the internet.