Generation Y are those in the 18- to 28-year-old range and as you might imagine they are the most tech savvy of any generation. That means that if you are a company targeting this demographics that you need to be aware of what and how these twenty-something’s are using technology. Forrester recently released its 2008 North America Technographics Benchmark survey and here are some of the findings for the Generation X and Y group.
Generation Y Stats
- 90% of Gen Y own a computer (I would have expected it to be a little higher)
- 82% own a mobile phone
- 72% of Generation Y mobile phone users send or receive SMS messages
- They spend more time online than they do watching television, with 42% watching online video at least once per month.
What is interesting is comparing how Generation Y and Generation X (aged 29 to 42) view and use technology differently. Generation X users use technology are much as Gen Y but for X’ers they use technolgy when it when it supports a “lifestyle need” whereas tech is “embedded into everything Gen Yers do” making them the first “native online population”.
Generation X Stats
- During the past three months, 69 per cent of Generation Xers have shopped online and 65 per cent used online banking—more than any other group
- 21% of Gen X are now reading a blog once per month compared to 15% last year
- 61% of mobile subscribers text compared to 49% in 2007 (That is a significant increase. I wonder how much the iPhone has had to do woth that increase?
Consumers between 18 and 42 are driving the technology revolution and agenda today. How is your company adapting its marketing message to appeal to these two digital generations?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I own and operate an Internet and New Media company. It is still shocking to me how Baby Boomers who are running companies or have corporate careers are so resistant to adopt the new marketing initiatives that are available to them. The most surprising ones to me are the companies who are actually targeting gen X and Y and still move at tortoise speed. This is a great article. I am reposting it on inSocialMedia.com
I am trying to build a ning social network that brings boomers and Gen X together now I get it, the boomers just don’t get it lol
Chaz, Don’t underestimate the Boomers. I am one and there are some characteristics that drive our demographic. First, we hate to lose, and second, we will devote immense energy to avoiding the first. We will be a force for awhile.
No you won’t. It is a fact of life that as we age our bodies break down. We lose energy because our body’s ability to metabolize loses efficiency. We can’t think as clearly because synapses in our brains do not transmit electrical impulses as well as they used to. I’m only 36 and I already see it happening in myself and others my age.
Boomers will be a force for awhile simply because there are 75 million of them, and the age difference between the oldest and the youngest is nearly 20 years. The first boomers to retire at full retirement age didn’t do so until 2010, and the last of them won’t begin retiring until about 2030.
What is interesting is that baby boomers sort of get along with gen y probably beacause gen y is about the community. Gen x is about society and it has collapsed. Society can be fun. Instead of hiring people they like, Baby Boomers should hire talent. Baby boomers have been known to discriminate in the 90′s especially in the 80′s. They don’t like to hire talent, not, even from their own generation. Let’s not push the baby boomer aside, like seriously the baby boomer should just get in their position when some one better walks in the door. I mean they were sold the company and have to forget about their selfish greedy indiference, and do for that company that they care so deeply about. Who’s who among american h.s. students working a low level job. Look at this-Americans make a good car, it’s just that foreign cars are more stylish. You have to get the talent where the talent belongs.
hpenner2@optonline.net
I agree that our company have been hiring primarily Gen Y’s and they are more similar to Boomers (II) since they are hard workers and are more tech savy and bring that to work. Jill W. Gen Z is too early to state what they bring to the table yet. Boomer II group (B. 1957-1965) are the leaders right now in most companies, and have seen all the computers from the start not to mention early gaming platforms. I think cell phones would be a Gen X creation (social network) & Gen Y took it another “techy” level.
I wouldn’t be so fast to sell out boomers on technology. We created the technology that Gen X and Gen Y so affectionately embrace. I was right there when Apple showed off their prototype in Radio-electronics magazines. I was right there playing with the Internet and creating the protocols that it supports. So there is a bit of Steve Jobs in all of us. And we apologize profusely for Bill Gates. There is much left to be done too.
What about me, Generation Z?
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