Social Networking Demographics: Boomers Jump In, Gen Y Plateaus

There's a common misperception out there that all of the blogging, Twittering and Facebooking is being done by twenty and thirty-somethings. That, in fact, turns out not to be true. Baby Boomers (those born 1946-1964) are the fastest growing users of social networking sites and are also increasingly reading blogs too. Meanwhile, Gen Y interest in these services has plateaued. This all according to the latest Consumer Electronics Usage Survey from Accenture.

According to the study, baby boomers...

• Increased reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent year over year; nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent)


• Posted a 59 percent increase in using social networking sites—more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent)


• Increased watching/posting videos on the Internet by 35 percent—while Gen Y usage decreased slightly (-2 percent)


• Accelerated playing video games on the go via mobile devices by 52 percent— 20 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent)


• Increased listening to music on an iPod or other portable music player by 49 percent—more than four times faster than Gen Y (12 percent)

Meanwhile, Gen Y...

• Participation slipped in virtual worlds from 23 percent to 19 percent


• Consumed no more video online than they did last year


• Blogged and contributed to wikis less (it's down from 35 to 33 percent)

The baby boomer results don't surprise me. What does jump out at me is how the most technologically savvy generation we have seen to date is slowing their adoption. Could they be suffering from social fatigue or do they have enough technology in their lives already? Perhaps they are returning toward more face-to-face venues, which anecdotally, I have heard. It will be interesting to see how this progresses next year.

Additional data from the latest Accenture report is summarized here from TWICE.

Comments

[carolee44]

No surprise at all. We are all trying to work the computer as the computer age grows and changes. THere is so much information online..Anytime I want to know something I can look it up with keyword phrases. It is amazing and the learning experience and meeting other people is fabulous

[Gary Nickerson]

Good post, but a question: Is the relatively higher growth rate for baby boomers due to the already high level of participation by gen Y'ers. After all, if one group goes from 10-11 it is showing only a 10% increase but a growth from 2-3 is a 50% increase. Without base numbers percentage increases are actually hard to compare, the point you suggest in your last paragraph.

[Ed Kohler]

Looks like Gen-Y's stats would be a good benchmark for saturation.

[Rex Dixon]

I guess 1965-1977 (Generation X) is the forgotten generation? Ha! Explains why I can't find people I went to HS with online. :)

[Greg Pettit]

I can't say I'm surprised at all. Everyone I know from that age demographic is already "saturated" as Ed says. Let's face it, there's only so much social media *anyone* can handle before they plateau; even the tech-hungry Gen Y.

[Janet Clarey]

I'm with you Rex. Gen X = Jan Brady. "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"

[IncreaseSalesCoach]

Fantastic statistics Steve. This really makes me think.

No matter what age someone is or where you network, networking is really all about opening connections. Once you open that connection you have the opportunity to engage. Consistent engagement leads to solid connections. Those connections have the potential to blossom into relationships.

When it comes to selling it's never a numbers game. It's always a relationship game.

Seems like there's a huge potential for relationships here that I've been a little reluctant to investigate.

[magic]

I'm a boomer in the UK suppose it's not surprising when we start twittering, the kids are off elsewhere. Who wants your old man or grandad around

[M.Batres]

I was just thinking about this today. I just started doing facebook and twitter and I am a boomer. There is such a gap in what I see as disjointed conversations on the computer. A lack of depth and interaction. And yet, it is quite exciting to create something and share it with a half dozen or more people (or perhaps 100's on Facebook). There is some self-esteem boost and sort of the thrill of acceptance unconditionally. Unless of course the friends consider it all rubbish and proceed to tell you so. Another form of communication requiring quite a bit of reading ability. The students I teach - low socio-economic, mixed race, would have a difficult time with both of these mediums, as well as blogs. It would be interesting to study these two separate cultures and determine if the gap that was great has now become even greater because of these types of communication. Random thoughts.

[Adam Pieniazek]

The global recession is likely a big, big part of the jump in baby boomer activity on social networks. I've seen a huge jump in activity in my linkedin network by baby boomers who were laid off and realized they must use social media to put their personal brand out there and find new jobs.

Meanwhile, us Gen Yers have been using social media and don't need anymore of it. Plus we're now discovering the power of combining social media with in person networking. I actually just came back from a Google Meetup in Boston and a ton of people in the room were twittering while meeting new people. Instead of exchanging business cards we can just exchange twitter profiles.

[Eddy Furlong]

Lament the loss of Generation Y that fell victim to the hypes and readily embraced voice, ear-plugged mp3 players, messaging, cable TV and online technologies to the detriment of healthy family relations and books. Ah yes, what did the parents do? Theirs was a constant struggle for balance & values and for some mindshare against the might of clever glams. Many won but not without the additional burden of constantly weaving through new conflicts.

[Rita Robison]

I've just signed up for Facebook and Twitter. I'm on Linkedin and Plaxo.

Thanks for the information. I'll link to it on one of my boomer blogs.

I write a boomer consumer blog called The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com and a blog called the Boomer Consumer for the Seattle Post Intelligencer at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/boomerconsumer/. I also blog weekly at Boomer411 as a guest blogger.

Rita

[muzainy]

Good stats but how about Gen X?Could it be that the process flow for new tech adoption from Gen Y > Gen X > Baby boomers?

Could baby boomers adopts new tech after the other 2 Gens feel comfortable with? After a period of time before boomers getting into it, where they are surrounded by this 2 Gens.

[Dee]

That's right! We boomers are booming along the internet. Nice article.

[anon1]

What does "clogging" mean in this context? Or was that a typo?

[I Am Zelda]

I'm wondering if it be (even particially) due to the fact that "boomers" were the hardest hit by the falling economy - in paricular, the area of job loss, resulting in more time on their hands and the need to find a new way to keep afloat, as opposed to the Gen X crowd who are still scrambling to establish themselves and make it to the top? I also think a contributing factor may be due to the fact that as we mature, we naturally place a greater value in relationships; both establishing existing ones and building new ones. Morality becomes more of a reality and it's like a coming down to earth, of sorts.

[Steve Rubel]

Doh! That is a typo. Thanks for catching that. Fixed it.

[Joe Perez]

"Social Fatigue" might be VERY interesting to grab some stats on that - especially in the college demo...

[CVBD]

Magic is right. Once we get the 40+ crowd flooding facebook, its time to leave somewhere else. Why would I want to socialize, and share friends whit my mom or dad. Next.

[Liz]

Is it possible to see the original report without pay hundreds of dollars?

@nwjerseyliz

[Steve Rubel]

Not that I am aware of.

[Judy Martin]

I agree with Zelda. A few weeks ago I spoke at a conference of boomer women in transition. The topic was personal branding, but inevitably most of the Q@A session revolved around social media. Boomers are well aware that the best way to rewire their careers is to build relationships. Social networking is the frontier that must be tackled to begin the process of mining for a new career or better job, as retirement is less of an option for most.

[Charles Hartley]

Liz

I would be glad to send you the rest of the contents of the report. No charge. Please send me your email address in a separate email. I was directly involved in researching, analyzing, and writing the report. Glad to see it has generated some good dialogue.

Charlie HartleyMedia Relations ManagerAccenturecharles.hartley@accenture.com

[Charles Hartley]

Kumu Puri, Accenture



It may seem that Generation Y already uses so much consumer technology that it’s basically all saturated. But this is not true for several consumer technology applications Accenture researched. For example, Gen Y’s participation in virtual worlds such as Second Life dropped from 23 percent to 19 percent; consuming video online netted zero growth; and writing blogs or contributing to wiki’s declined slightly (from 35 to 33 percent), as did participating in communities of interest (from 48 to 47 percent), and watching videos on a mobile device (from 29 to 26 percent). Perhaps not surprisingly, the same leveling off was seen among Gen Y’s use of many more mature consumer technology services, including Internet access, cable television (both regular, from 66 to 62 percent, and high-def, from 29 to 27 percent), and wireline voice. Two notable exceptions were a significant increase in Gen Y’s use of pay-per-view and video-on-demand (increased from 16 to 21 percent) and use of mobile data services (from 14 to 26 percent). These exceptions suggest that within this demographic these are important points of service provider differentiation. For service providers, these results sound a cautionary note about the need to rapidly innovate on new services that leverage the network. New types of mobile data services, as well as extending choices for anytime, anywhere video, are critical focus areas.

Meanwhile, faster growth in use of applications among boomers is important because, on average, they have more disposable income to spend on consumer technology products and services than Generation Y. If these more financially endowed boomers continue to increase usage, it bodes well for the industry. These findings suggest that the boomers are climbing aboard this bandwagon on many fronts and for several different reasons. Those include that they are likely adding life-enriching experiences that they see the younger generation adopting, and striving to remain intellectually and technolo­gically literate, versatile and job-skill competitive.

Accenture chose to compare the boomers with Generation Y because of the more striking comparisons. Comparisons with Generation X were not as striking.

[Bruce Christensen]

Boomers have a desire to connect just like everyone else. They just have had many more years to build up family and friend connections. Their address books can be very large and they can move a herd of friends by a single suggestion.One grandma tells another grandma where to see grand baby pictures; and you create a stampede!