Gadget ownership broken down by generation

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Today (February 7) is an important anniversary for USA boomers--the Beatles arrived in NYC on February 7, 1964.

Um. According to the table in the original post I am technically a Younger Boomer.

I was slightly over 1 year old and am pretty sure I had no opinion on the Beatles though.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

Um. According to the table in the original post I am technically a Younger Boomer.

I was slightly over 1 year old and am pretty sure I had no opinion on the Beatles though.

I have my definitions, others have theirs ...

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by jocampo

I can't classify myself on any of those. IT guy and love all kind of gadgets. I could be an X, but as per that table, I fall under Millenial gen? hahaha...

Gen X is 1965-1983. Why? Because the Baby Boom was from 1946-1964. See below.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Yeah, those definitions always change. In Douglas Coupland's "Generation X," (1991) which was the book that invented the term, he described Generation X as being those people born in the late '50s or early '60s and who basically lived in the shadow of the baby boomers, but had nothing to do with the baby boomers, even though, technically, they were probably considered baby boomers.

But - sort of consistent with his point, actually - the media took the Gen X label away from these folks and applied it to the first post-baby boomer generation.

And this survey managed to shrink generations down to 11 years. I call BS.

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Sorry, this is a late reply, but I don't see how a 1991 book could invent a term that already existed well before 1991.

Billy Idol's original band (before he went solo) was called Generation X...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X_%28band%29

And he picked the name from another book (from 1965)...which apparently applied the term to the Mod fad of the 60s. But I think Mr. Idol pretty much gave the term the modern meaning

"Generation X" was a popular term to apply to a group of people of approximately the same age which collectively felt alienated, disenfranchised, or tried to set themselves apart from a previous generation. It's important to consider that "generation" can refer either to chronological or social groupings. Gen X as chronologically defined today means the child of a Baby Boomer. Baby Boomers in turn are identified with the boom in births which occurred immediately following WWII. Since the Baby Boom is historically considered to have been roughly 18 years (the "age of majority"), or from 1946-1964, logically the following generation would be the (roughly) 18-year period after that or 1965-1983. If one considers the trends, beliefs, and behaviors that members of each of these generations exhibit, the years make a lot more sense e.g. an "older Boomer" (as the survey so tactlessly calls it) would have been born in time to serve in Vietnam and a Boomer born later would still be old enough to remember the Beatles being together. As each generation has progressed since then, the numbers get muddy since Boomers kept having children later in life while at the same time, their own children were having children; for instance I'm 39 but I have a brother who's 19. Guess which generation my parents belong to?

Sources:

Carlson, E. (2008, June 30). The Lucky Few: Between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boom. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4020-8540-6. Retrieved February 8, 2011 from http://books.google.com/?id=zUJgaHde...page&q&f=false.

Shin, A. (2008, February 29). "Non-Toxic Tots". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 8, 2011 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...903658_pf.html.

Strauss, W. & Howe, N. (1992, reprint) Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069. Perennial. ISBN 0-688-11912-3

[Mel]

It's all individual. At my parent's house it would all have depended upon who answered the phone when the survey was taken. My mother (69) has a cellphone, laptop, mp3 player, ebook reader, and a DS. My father (70) only has the laptop. And most days we are tempted to replace it with one of those cardboard replicas from the furniture store.

[pagansoul]

I'm a young Boomer and I have every one of the products listed. In fact some of them I have several.

[bjones6416]

I'm a Younger Boomer according to these guidelines, and I have everything on the list except a tablet. My 90 year old mother has an iPod and a Sony Reader, though.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by chamekke

I mention this because in many/most cases, e-commerce is key to owning an e-reader and stocking it with books. If you're not familiar and comfortable with making online transactions, you may think twice about embracing this technology. There's much more involved than simply being able to use a computer, or even being able to use the Web.

I think you are right about that. As I get deeper into my 60s, I am seeing that most people kind of "top out" in connection with technology. They get comfortable with something they know how to use, and don't care to invest time in learning how to use different technology to accomplish what amounts to the same end result.

My wife, just turning 60, will have a new Kindle effective Valentine's Day, even though she thinks she doesn't want one. But I've bought her a White K3, baited it with some Willa Cather, and I do believe that when we go to Florida in a couple of weeks, she will see the lightness. But the key to her acceptance of the Kindle will be that she already knows how to use Amazon, and with Whispernet, it's a piece of cake to get the books onto the device.

She and I are at the opposite ends of the adoption curve when it comes to technology. I adopt early, and a few years later, she comes around.

Another thing that becomes clear as one ages is that we all think we live in the same world, but we don't. The world of the old is a lot larger than the world of the young, and the time to live in that world gets shorter and shorter.

So you have decide what you will do and learn, and what you won't, and how much time you'll spend on things that are nice, but not necessary.