Age & Technology

The common denominator that I came across in all of my research on the Pew Internet and American Life Project was age. While this wasn’t news to me, it was interesting to see the data to back up what I see in the world every day: younger people are much more technologically savvy and use more varieties of technology to communicate and share information.

The surveys that I studied were about the use of “apps” on cell phones, the use of wireless technology to access the internet (either from a laptop or a cell phone), and the concern over internet privacy and subsequent attempts to manage an “online reputation.” While the data confirmed that adults are less likely to use smart phone “apps” (many confessed to not even knowing if their phones have apps) and wireless internet, it was also nice to see that the numbers are growing. I’m sure that there will always be an age gap in the use of technology as younger people are the ones creating and using new innovations first, but more adults are quickly catching on.

Here are a couple of links that I found. This video is about the rising number of adults using Facebook. It cites statistics from 2009 showing an increase of over 150% in Facebook users over the age of 35. I’m sure this has grown even more since then. This article comes from Australia, but it describes a phenomenon occurring in the U.S. as well—more and more people are abandoning landline telephones for the sole use of a cell phone (again, this is led by young people). I fit into this group—after making it through four years of college relying on a cell phone, it just didn’t make any sense for my husband and I to pay for a landline when we graduated and bought our house.