Tech Trends!

AARP recently released this report, 2021 Tech Trends and The 50-PLUS: Top Ten Biggest Trends.

Here are the ten:

1. In 2020, a year when a global pandemic significantly limited social interaction, technology became more important than ever — for everyone.

2. Video-chat is here to stay.

3. The dependency on tech has created new social behaviors, although it’s too soon to tell what will stick around.

4. Older adults are doing more with their smartphones, by development over time or necessity, and using them more frequently.

5. 2020 is the year older adults adopted, updated, and modernized their tech, and many spent big bucks to do so.

6. Smart TV’s were the second-most popular tech purchase.

7. 2020 brought a dramatic shift in how adults 50-plus consume entertainment. Growth in streaming was huge, but cable tv is still important (for now).

8. Some barriers to technology adoption and use still exist for older adults.

9. Privacy is an important but misunderstood issue for many.

10. Disparities related to access have a significant impact on technology adoption and use among older adults.

Take a look at the findings for #10. This is pretty darn important:

• Sixty percent of adults 50-plus say the cost of high-speed internet is a problem for them personally.
• On average older adults spend $269 a month (16% of their budget) on tech expenses such as internet, cellphone, cable, and streaming
services (average estimated monthly costs: internet, $68; cellphone, $103; cable, $78; and streaming services, $20).
• A quarter (23%) of rural customers acknowledge that access to high-speed internet is a major problem for their community.
• And while older, urban customers have ample access to high-speed internet such as cable and fiber, they, like rural customers, indicate
that cost is a major problem (23% and 26%, respectively).
• Fifteen percent do not have any type of internet or are not sure if they have it.