A San Bernardino County Sun article, Seniors learn to get wired , speaks of an interesting technology gap between older senior adults and the baby boomer generation :
As Web users of the baby-boomer generation age, experts predict they won't give up their savvy ways. Governments and businesses are bracing for this so-called "silver tsunami" by making their Web pages more user-friendly.Earlier this week, industry leaders gathered for a conference in Massachusetts called Aging By Design to discuss the impact of the elderly population on Web page design and technology. Participants, including representatives from Fidelity Investments and the Social Security Administration, presented research on the needs of older Web users.
I have been reading though the PowerPoint presentations from the Aging by Design conference and there were a couple of statistics that surprised me: First, there is mention that the fastest growing segment of internet users is over 60; Second, by 2008 over 27% of the workforce wil be over the age of 50. There are implications in higher education for both of those statistics, but I am not sure what exactly they are. For certain, baby boomers will need support and encouragement to adapt (and adopt) technologies that they did not use in college and earlier career positions.