TechPulse 360

The assumption has been that younger American use technology more readily than their older, more technophobic peers. This seems to be changing.

Baby boomers (45 years and older) are rushing to catch up to generations X and Y at an accelerating pace. In doing so, they are bring the digital age to the broad swath of the American population like never before.

According to a survey from Accenture, baby boomers sharply accelerated their adoption of digital technologies over the past year while members of Gen Y (18 to 24) went into something of a holding pattern.

The study found boomers embraced new technologies 20 times faster than their younger country mates, with special cravings for social sites, podcasts and blogs.

For example, boomers showed a 59 percent increase in their willingness to connect on social networks, compared with only a 2 percent increase for Gen Y. They demonstrated a 67 percent jump in reading blogs and listening to podcasts compared with essentially no increase for Gen Y.

This same trend held true over the past year for posting online video, playing video games and listening to iPods.

In other words, the technology gap between the young and old is closing.

The finding from the November and December survey of 3,000 online consumers caught Accenture executives by surprise “The acceleration by baby boomers struck us,” says Kumu Puri, Accenture’s senior executive of its consumer technology practice. “It was the rate of growth I found surprising.”

So what is the explanation for the shift? Perhaps older consumers want to stay relevant to the workplace with the assumption they will have to work until later in life, says Puri. They also might want to stay up to date with the nation’s changing social fabric.

On the other hand, the features in some of these technologies might not be changing fast enough to keep the interest of the young, adds Puri. As if to prove this point, Gen Y’s interest in the rapidly changing arena of mobile data technologies was greater than that of the boomers.

As well, saturation likely played a role. Gen Y’s adoption of social networks has slowed, but then 82 percent of them already belong. Their interest in game consoles is down, but then 70 percent already own a console.

Perhaps the survey’s most important message is to technology companies. “We think it’s going to require them to think differently about their businesses,” says Puri.