The Truth About Grandmas, Grandpas & Technology

You know I love grandmas and grandpas. I write about them a lot. The older generation has a lot of love and wisdom to share with us. We just have to take time out of our schedules to stop and listen. A while back I wrote about the oldest Facebook member alive, and of course, she was the cutest little old lady you’ve ever seen.

My own grandmother died about a month ago, but I remember each time I visited her she would always ask about my work and Bit Rebels. She was very interested in technology and didn’t shy away from those conversations. It got me thinking about her generation and their relationship with technology as a whole.

Times are changing and changing fast. Even my own mother has a complex computer set up at her house with a PC, a Mac, a laptop and a printer all connected on the same network. She even uses Photoshop. It wasn’t long ago when we all joked about how people in the older generation couldn’t use a web browser without a tutorial. That’s clearly not the case anymore. According to a Mashable article published yesterday, “Recent trends show older people are among the fastest growing demographics online.”

Geek Sugar also recently wrote about this topic and check out these stats:
* Social network use among baby boomers over 50 has doubled to 42% in the past year.
* Facebook has 16 million users over the age of 55
* 15% of people over age 55 have a smartphone
* 13% of people age 55-65 that have a smartphone have played games on it

If you are a developer, I think it’s important not to ignore this segment of the population. The web is no longer just a place for tech savvy people; it’s for everyone, including the very young and the very old. **You go all you grandmas and grandpas out there! I’m cheering you on! w00t!**