Getting Boomers on board

Is the generation that brought us hippies & yuppies somehow missing the Web boat?

Read here, here, and please scroll down to my comment on that last one.

Why aren’t more people my age on the internet outside of work and email? What will it take to get them to read blogs, listen to and watch podcasts, use a service like Twitter?

I think I’m going to start asking this question more. I’d love it if more of my friends were online. My Twitter friends list is awesome, I’ve met some amazing people, but I have to admit it would be a blast if my local friends were on there, too. I only knew two of the people I Twitter with before I joined, one of them has used Twitter exactly twice, and the other is a long-lost friend I’ve just reconnected with (which is a really cool side-effect, I must admit!)

I think content is part of it, but I think it’s even more complicated than that. What will entice more people ages 40-65 to look beyond email and google to see what else the interweb tubes have to offer?

PS-I’m aware that there are lots of boomers blogging, etc. But most are not. Compare the saturation level of TV to that of the internet for that generation, compared to others, and I bet you’ll see what I mean.

PPS- I hate the term boomers.

annie

Believe me I understand about the time factor. Not doubt I've spend a lot of time playing with Twitter, but for me it's been worth it because of the connections I've made and conversations (like this one) that I found via twitter. But the time factor does keep me from signing up for Second Life, for example. I know I'd lose hours in there!

Bluegrass Mama

My husband says he spends so much of his workday on the computer that he doesn't want to use it "for fun" when he gets home. The computer is my favorite form of recreation, but I won't sign up for Twitter because of the time factor that Lisa mentioned. I need to get SOMETHING done around here!

Lisa Cahoy

Well, I hate to say it, but as you know, I'm one of "those" who have no idea what you are talking about most of the time! There are a couple of reasons....the biggest being the lack of time. Between work and the girls' schedules, I haven't been home one evening this week! I am home tonight, but I will be watching Grey's Anatomy. Maybe some day when I have actual "me" time, I try to figure out what you're talking about!

Chris Brogan...

I watched two old ladies talking about how XYZ person hadn't been alive during World War 2, so how would THEY know anything? And I thought, holy cats. These ladies, in their 80s, have NO need for Twitter. Can they be SMS-ing? Should they be? What would a blog do? But then, Millie Garfield is 81 and Feed Me Bubbe is 80. A blogger and a Internet TV host. So, maybe it's as you say. We just have to bring people into the conversation.

Jim "Genuine" Turner

I'm in the last class of the Boomers (1964), and my mother actually was in the very first class (1946), and the difference between us is our level of knowledge about technology. We need a Boomer education of technology. My entrepreneurial juices are now flowing thanks!

Getting Boomers on board

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