Hands of a guy on laptop keyboard

More an Ansgarr than a techno-boomer

Published on 11 October 2012
Updated on 05 April 2024

I’m a 1960s child, which technically makes me part of the a ‘Baby Boomer’ generation. I know stuff about things and manage to get through life in my own peculiar, modestly successful fashion. One of my failings though is that I am not technically savvy. Plugs scare me. Touchscreens instill sheer terror  in me. And as for the blue screen of death … enough said. 

According to Brian Proffitt, in his post on the ReadWriteWeb [hat tip to Pete Cranston for pointing it out], not all boomers are like me. In fact, a sizeable portion of us can be termed Techno-Boomers — a subset of the senior crowd who are far more likely to own an electronic reader or an iPhone than the rest of their generation, who tend to gravitate toward desktops and laptops. There is hope for the world. 

According to Proffitt, Boomers as a whole are online. A lot. Boomers represent a third of all online and social media users. Another third of the generation, 29 million according to Nielsen, are heavy Internet users with 8 million of them spending over 20 hours a week online. I can at least say that I belong to the 53% that are on Facebook!

Earlier this week, I was sent another link that is far more ‘me’. In this short clip, Ansgarr is visited by the Help Desk:

YouTube player

Watch it through to the end and it will give you some insight into the patience needed to ‘helpdesk’ me.

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