seniors and social media

the iPad

i’ve never been a gadget girl. but lately i’ve been soliciting conversations with strangers when i overhear them talking about being part of the 300,000. the 300,000, that is, who will pick up their iPads this weekend.

“are you getting one saturday?” i’ve asked several folks. when i find someone committed to buying this iPad, i immediately break out into a full fledge conversation. i explain that while i’m getting an iPad, i don’t plan to use it as a gadget. instead it will be my outside communication device. i then go on and on about how the one and a half pound weight of my new toy (i mean, important business tool) is easy on a woman’s back.

at home, i spend numerous hours in geek-like behavior, researching everything there is to know about the iPad. it’s amazing to see me, this woman, who has never even set up her previous phone or computer functions, now reviewing all of iPad’s capabilites.

nonetheless, my macbook pro will be missed. what will i miss about keeping my laptop at home? first, i’ll miss the opportunity to video skype calls to loved ones far away. now my day calls will be made via old school audio. i’ll also miss the ability to use a spare battery as the battery in the new iPad is not removable.

my biggest concern about the new iPad is wondering how difficult it would be to write on a device that lacks physical keys. can i learn to maneuver touch keys with comfort?

nagging doubts about the IPad won’t deter this new fan. what i’m most excited about my upcoming iPad purchace is having the ability to see a screen without lugging around a computer. i’m at the stage in life where reading glasses have become a necessity. i wish i could remember that fact every time i leave home without them. while i love my iPhone, i don’t like squinting while sending a text or navigating online. with the iPad, i’ll never have to worry about text being too small. nor will i be caught in my handbag fumbling around for reading glasses. what this means for baby boomers and seniors is that we can do away with our reading glasses in public other than a quick glance at a restaurant menu. what a cosmetic treat!

saturday morning can’t come quickly enough for me.

today i’ve been racking my brain trying to make sense of the large number of seniors who are reportedly twittering.

as i mentioned earlier this week, a study by eMarketer shows that of the 36% of seniors who are actively engaged on social media platforms, a full 17% of this group is twittering away. How can this be? After all, only 10% of the baby boomers twitter on the regular.

i may have found an answer to the high number of seniors using twitter when i stumbled across 80 year old dorothy miller from my childhood home of troy, ny, on the internet. dorothy, using a product called celery, is able to send out tweets and emails without using a computer.

celery, llc, provides their customers with a fax-to-email service which converts handwritten letters into emails and tweets. this troy, ny based company has been around for several years but their twitter service is relatively new.

dorothy is quite the character. check her out!

80 year old dorothy miller twitters

80 year old dorothy miller twittering away

let me begin by saying i’ve never considered myself to be a real baby boomer. i’m a vibrant, active, 45 year old who can pass for a woman in her mid 30’s on a good day. but according to baby boomer stats, you are a bona fide boomer if you were born between 1945 and 1964.

those of us who belong to this illustrious group haven’t been as active in social media as we should. many of us didn’t grow up with computers in the home or school. my high school class (proud graduate of troy high, class of 1982) was the last graduating class without computer training. as a result, i was always averse to anything computer related. years later when social media first came into the picture, i felt terrified. since social media is a major component of what i do as a public relations consultant, i had to become more engaged in the technical world. that, or i’d be looking for another career. i love what i do. this meant making myself open to the often confusing ways of cyberworld.

friends who are my age congratulate me on making strides to understand the world of social media. i tell them all the time that we are no longer doing something special when we decide to become participants in online conversations and collaborations. in fact, many boomers are quite active in social media.

jennifer vangrove, an associate editor at mashable blog, summarized the findings of the recently published boomers and social media report produced by eMarketer. here are some highlights from the report:

47% of all boomers have created and maintain a profile on at least one social network. 10% of us actively twitter.

even the seniors are getting into the mix.
36% of the “matures,” (people between the ages of 63 and 75) now maintain a profile on facebook. and for reasons that haven’t yet been figured out, a full 17% of these matures who use social media are twittering.

so what does this all mean? it means that if you’re my age or older and not engaging in social media, you are no longer the great majority. i would bet that in the five months since this report was published, the number of boomers who read, create and share online content are now in the majority.

i begin each day with the goal of learning at least one thing that can help me navigate the social media waters. many times i get frustrated because there’s so much information out there and it’s easy to get confused. but here’s the thing. social media isn’t going anywhere. and pretty soon, if we don’t commit to learning the basics, we could find ourselves out of the loop.

don’t get left behind.