From business to entertainment: What different generations do online
— -- Teens and young adults seem to live online, but a new report by the Pew Research Center finds that other generations are catching up: Generation X primarily uses the Internet for shopping and banking; Baby Boomers for travel reservations; and the 70-plus crowd for e-mail.
The analysis released Wednesday, called "Generations Online in 2009," is based on 11 separate telephone surveys conducted between 2004 and 2008, with varied questions about Web activities, ranging from blogging to participating in an online auction to job research. The margin of error for the studies ranges from plus or minus 3 percentage points (for findings on adults) to plus or minus 4 percentage points (for findings on teens.)
"Generation Y is the most likely to be engaged in all the various activities — communication, entertainment, e-commerce and entertainment-seeking," says Susannah Fox, the report's co-author and associate director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew defined Gen Y as including ages 18-32.
She says Generation X (ages 33-44) uses the Internet to "take care of business," with 67% banking online; 80% buy products online, compared with 71% in Gen Y. The 33-44 age group also use the Internet for watching videos and socializing, but less so than Gen Y.
"Generation Y is starting to get into the taking care of business. They're growing up into banking online and getting job information online while maintaining the Internet's social and entertainment pursuits they probably started in their teenage years," Fox says.
Activities for Baby Boomers depend on whether they are older or younger Boomers. Ages 45 to 54 are more likely to watch videos online (49%) than older boomers ages 55 to 63 (30%) but the reverse is true about seeking health information (81% of older boomers do, compared to 74% of younger boomers.)
Although the report found that more than half of the adult online population is between 18 and 44, the age group with the biggest increase in Internet use since 2005 is among ages 70-75, which almost doubled, from 26% in 2005 to 45%.
Fox says that's because they started at a "very low base," while younger people are reaching a "saturation point" — just 7% of Gen Y not online. Among the young, Fox says, most have been online but didn't have access at the time of the survey.
E-mail is the most popular online activity among older users, with 74% of Internet users age 64 and older now sending and receiving e-mail. But among teens, e-mail use dropped from 89% in 2004 to 73%.
Those ages 12-32 are most likely to use the Internet for entertainment, via online videos, online games and virtual worlds or to download music, read blogs, use social networking sites and send instant messages. Among those ages 12-17, the most popular online activity is playing games.
How different generations use the Internet:
Source for Online Teens data: Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys conducted Oct.-Nov. 2006 and Nov. 2007-Feb. 2008. Margin of error for online teens is ± 4% forOct.-Nov. 2006 and ±3% for Nov. 2007-Feb. 2008.The average margin of error for each age group can be considerablyhigher than ± 3%. Most recent teen data for these activities comes from the Pew Internet & American Life Project Teens and Parents Survey conducted Oct.-Nov. 2004. Margin of error is ± 4%.* No teen data for these activities.
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