Exchanging Information In An Ever-Changing Digital World
The digital landscape is constantly evolving. Exchanges of information and data for business and pleasure occur at a breakneck pace, accelerated by new, sleek vehicles designed to make the process ever simpler. As the sands shift, it’s a good idea to take a look around from time to time to get a wide-angle view of who is using these vehicles, and how.
While the nation’s younger demographic has shifted to communicating via text messages and social media, the over-65 crowd has made email their own. In the article “Who's Online and What Are They Doing There?”, Sarah Perez details this continuing trend.
“It's true: email is for old people - at least it is now. Today, 74% of Internet users age 64 and older send and receive email, making it the most popular activity in this group. Meanwhile, email usage among teens is dropping. In 2004, 89% of teens said they used email. Now that number is 73%,” Perez said.
For the growing trend of online banking, Generation X (33-44) is the leader according to Perez, however, generation Y shows valuable potential.
“67% of this age group does their banking online. Gen Y will most likely do more banking online as they grow older. You can see the activity trending up in their group from 38% in 2005 to 57% in 2008. As Gen Y ages, this number will continue to increase, as does the percentage using the net for booking travel. In 2005, 50% of Gen Y booked travel online and today 65% do.”
Generation X also leads the pack in online shopping. Jack Loechner examines the data in his article “Seismic Shift in Internet Age Mass”.
According to Loechner:
• 80% of Generation X Internet users buy products online
• 71% of Internet users ages 18- 32 buy products online
• 38% of online teens buy products online
• 56% of Internet users ages 64-72 do
• 47% of Internet users age 73 and older buy online
Younger generations dominate certain aspects of the Internet world; specifically those that involve entertainment, including gaming, social media and downloading music.
A Pew Research article by Sydney Jones titled “Generations Online” backs this up.
“These younger generations are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to seek entertainment through online videos, online games and virtual worlds, and they are also more likely to download music to listen to later. Internet users ages 12-32 are more likely than older users to read other people's blogs and to write their own; they are also considerably more likely than older generations to use social networking sites and to create profiles on those sites,” Jones said.
According to the article “Stats On Internet Users By Age,” 78% of 12-17 year olds play online games, making teens much more likely to play games than any other generation.
These statistics will continue to evolve and change, and it’s vital to your company’s marketing efforts that you stay current on the latest trends. For more information on communicating to your target market, visit the digital marketing professionals at the JLS Agency at www.TheJLSAgency.com
