As we know, millennials and seniors vary significantly in attitudes and behavior. Yet, we also need to study this question. What do millennials and seniors have in common? And the answer might surprise you — as well professional marketers.
Question of the Day: What Do Millennials and Seniors Have in Common
According to Remie Arena for eMarketer, millennials and seniors DO have something in common:
“Millennials often have been held up as objects of confusion or even scorn by older generations. But data from the Pew Research Center indicate some similarities in attitudes across age groups when it comes to technology companies. In a wide-ranging study, Pew found relatively few Americans trust technology companies to ‘consistently do what is right.’ While the majority feel that tech companies’ products and services mainly benefit those already with advantages in society.”
“Generally, younger people generally have a more optimistic, accommodating view of technology. But, in many ways their attitudes are not all that different from their elders. And when the viewpoints of the different generations converge, the stance is not uniformly for or against Big Tech. For instance, both older and younger people are about equally likely to doubt that technology companies will consistently do what’s right. Yet, they also are generally in agreement that the impact of technology companies has been largely positive.”
“When asked if they think big technology companies wield too much power and influence, a clear majority of people ages 65 and older agreed. Younger users were considerably less likely to agree with that assessment. Still, nearly half did think that Big Tech was unreasonably powerful.”
Take a look at the chart below for key results from the Pew study.
The title of the post caught my attention. I feel it is not too surprising to know technology brings largely positive influences for both Millennials and Seniors. Though we all know that both young and old generations are being affected by technology, from the bar chart, we can still see that the option “Personal impact is more good than bad” has a high agreement, while all the other options have more than a 10% gap. I think we all need to stay alert and think about how seriously technology impacts us nowadays.
It does not surprise me that millennials believe that technology does more good than bad more than seniors believe it as it is something millennials have grew up with their whole lives, whereas seniors have not been exposed to technology as much. However, it does surprise me to see millennials and seniors agree, for the most part, on the thoughts of big tech, a concept I thought they would be very far apart on.