Gadget ownership broken down by generation

[Kris777]

* Interestingly, the generation with the highest percentage of ebook reader ownership is Younger Boomers (47-56), at 7 percent, followed by Older Boomers at 6 percent.



full article:
http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech...own-generation

[chamekke]

Interestingly, the generation with the highest percentage of ebook reader ownership is Younger Boomers (47-56), at 7 percent, followed by Older Boomers at 6 percent.

I think you mean, followed by Silent Generation (66-74) at 6 percent?

For some reason, there's a downwards dip in the Older Boomers (57-65) age bracket: only 3 percent of them own an e-book reader.

(I could guess that for Younger Boomers it's a combination of disposable income and greater comfort with technology, while for the Silent Generation it's a matter of being able to increase font size... but that's ONLY a guess :-)

[teadonkey]

Kind of off topic, but where did the term "Silent Gen" come from? I'm guessing the G.I. Gen takes it's name from the G.I. bill? I find generational studies fascinating, but I've not really heard those terms before.

Hmm that is an interesting set up. I figured the youngest generation would be the ones to tote around the most gadgets, but I didn't know what to expect for eReaders. In my family (including cousins), 4 of us own eReaders. We're all Millennials, too. So I guess my vision of it is a little skewed considering the people I regularly see with them.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by chamekke

[I]while for the Silent Generation it's a matter of being able to increase font size... but that's ONLY a guess :-)

Agree. I know several 70-75 years old people who purchased ebook readers because they cannot read paper books with small font size.

[GA Russell]

I'm very surprised that 3% of people over 75 have an mp3 player. I find it hard to believe.

I'm also surprised that only 3% of the 57-65 group have an eBook reader. This group is young enough to be hip to tech gadgets, yet old enough to be more interested in reading than watching TV.

[Girl Read Write]

I'm a Millenial? I always thought I was a part of that fabulous Generation X!!!

[GeoffC]

eee gads

N=3,001 and representative of the US population (307M) broken down into 6 age groups ....!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by teadonkey

Kind of off topic, but where did the term "Silent Gen" come from? I'm guessing the G.I. Gen takes it's name from the G.I. bill? I find generational studies fascinating, but I've not really heard those terms before.

G.I Gen is the people that grew up during the Depression and fought in WWII and at the time soldiers were referred to collectively as G.I. Joes. (Which the toy and later the TV series adopted.)
G.I. = Government Issued.

The Silent Generation refers to the folks that grew up in the war years, the chohort between the "Greatest Generation" and the Baby Boomers because they were neither great heroes (collectively-speaking) like their older siblings or troublemakers like their nephews or children.

The first time I ran into the terminology was in the 1992 book: GENERATIONS, by Heil Howe and William Strauss and its followups.
http://www.amazon.com/Generations-Hi.../dp/0688119123
These books present a sort of PsychoHistory Theory of American Society complete with "Seldon Crises" and all (though they don't use Asimov's terminology) and offer an interesting Insight purporting to predict the general strokes of the near term future. Both GENERATIONS and FOURTH TURNING have made some pretty accurate "predictions" about the decades that followed and the road the "Culture Wars" are taking the country in. Very good reads but alas only the latter two volumes are available in ebook form, not the original. FOURTH TURNING spends less time dissecting the past and more analyzing the Generations so if they theory sounds intriguing it's not a bad place to start.

Anyway, on the chart itself, the spike in usage among younger boomers might be due to the fact that most are still working and thus have more disposable income than their retired cohort-mates and aren't as Internet-inmersed as their kids.

To me what stands out in the (expected) uniform growth in penetration of gadgets across generation is desktop computers which is declining, game consoles which is leveling off, and ebook readers and tablets which are probably too new for any long-term patterns to have established themselves. Thus the spike.

In other words: take the chart with a grain of salt because it is too early in the mainstreaming of both categories to say much about how they appeal to people. For example, if anybody actually manages to create a viable academic ebook reader the current distribution can be overturned overnight.

The most that can be said is that younger folks have less time available for reading-based devices, what with their greater focus on gaming and other forms of entertainment than their elders. And even that is a reach.

Nice chart, though. They do know their demography.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I'm very surprised that 3% of people over 75 have an mp3 player. I find it hard to believe.

I don't find it hard to believe. That would represent the approximate number of people in that age category who still do physical exercise on a routine basis.

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I'm also surprised that only 3% of the 57-65 group have an eBook reader. This group is young enough to be hip to tech gadgets, yet old enough to be more interested in reading than watching TV.

This one does surprise me as well. I'm just at the higher end of that group and I know that I much prefer to read than to watch TV (in fact, I never watch TV).

[dwig]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

...
I'm also surprised that only 3% of the 57-65 group have an eBook reader...

The percentages are small so there is likely some statistical inaccuracy at play. Also, I think you're overlooking part of the pattern. If you compare the total for ebook reader plus tablet you don't see a statistically significant drop in "devices on which books are easily read" in the "older boomer" group.

[sbtx99]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

G.I Gen is the people that grew up during the Depression and fought in WWII and at the time soldiers were referred to collectively as G.I. Joes. (Which the toy and later the TV series adopted.)
G.I. = Government Issued.

The Silent Generation refers to the folks that grew up in the war years, the chohort between the "Greatest Generation" and the Baby Boomers because they were neither great heroes (collectively-speaking) like their older siblings or troublemakers like their nephews or children.

Actually, the G.I. Gen as identified by this study (75+) encompasses both the generation that grew up in the 1930s and fought in WWII (mid 80s and older) *and* the generation that grew up during the 1940s who were too young to have fought in WWII but might have fought in the Korean War (those aged 75 to early 80s). The Silent Gen per this study is the generation that came of age during the 1950s. Mostly too young to have been affected by the war years of WWII, but older than the boomers who came of age during the unrest of the late 1960s/early 1970s.

[hartjjtm]

Interesting. I am in the lower half of the younger boomers and I have everything listed except a tablet which I can't justify with a laptop and sony 950. That being said, it is next on the list but the advancements are coming so fast I am going to wait a bit. Here's my $.02 analysis-younger boomers are familiar with technology, old enough to have the basics (home, food, etc.) covered and still have disposable income but aren't yet worried about limited retirement income so we buy gadgets to lug around while we finally take some vacations since we are done paying for our kids' college I think that with the older generations it is a lack of comfort with the new electronics and the thought of dropping a couple hundred bucks when they have a radio and can go to the library. My mom has two relatively new desktops but won't touch a laptop or ereader. Probably a good thing-we are still teaching her to use the GPS we bought her in 2009

[sbtx99]

Originally Posted by hartjjtm

Interesting. I am in the lower half of the younger boomers and I have everything listed except a tablet which I can't justify with a laptop and sony 950. That being said, it is next on the list but the advancements are coming so fast I am going to wait a bit. Here's my $.02 analysis-younger boomers are familiar with technology, old enough to have the basics (home, food, etc.) covered and still have disposable income but aren't yet worried about limited retirement income so we buy gadgets to lug around while we finally take some vacations since we are done paying for our kids' college I think that with the older generations it is a lack of comfort with the new electronics and the thought of dropping a couple hundred bucks when they have a radio and can go to the library. My mom has two relatively new desktops but won't touch a laptop or ereader. Probably a good thing-we are still teaching her to use the GPS we bought her in 2009

I also fall in the lower half of the younger boomers and have everything except a tablet or game console. For my 2-cents, I think the younger boomers may be more comfortable with technology than older generations. We entered the workforce around the time desktop computers started showing up in the workplace. Plus we grew up with the idea of having personal, portable gadgets for entertainment purposes (transistor radios, walkmans).

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by rhadin

I don't find it hard to believe. That would represent the approximate number of people in that age category who still do physical exercise on a routine basis.

Good catch!

There are definitely technology comfort issues at play here, impacted by technology utility: The more practical and daily useful items (cellphones) score higher than recreational devices (readers) as age increases. Readers, of course, should increase in utility/usefulness to older users as:

a) more people need help, ie font and display enhancement, to read, and

b) fewer printed books and bookstores are available, and content swings to a primarily digital distribution.

[Ken Maltby]

Hmm... you might also consider that some of us "Older Boomers" are the ones who
shepherded in this technology, that you think we are so frightened of.

Luck;
Ken