RoboJock writes "So much for Justin Long — the young, hip 'n' trendy face of the Apple Mac (as seen in the 'Mac vs. PC' ads) is even further removed from the average Mac owner than everyone suspected... By three or four decades. According to research discussed at Silicon.com, 'nearly half of Mac owners are 55 and older — that's almost double the share for average home-PC users.' It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash to stump up for smooth shiny aesthetics." From the article: "For the digital youth, high-street box shifter Gateway is the brand of choice, taking the number-one slot among PC buyers aged between 18 and 25. Dan Ness, principal at MetaFacts, said in a statement: 'Apple can claim long-time loyalists but its future among the young technoliterati is an interesting dynamic.'"
55 and up? You think that ads targeted toward "Young, hip people" are more effective toward actual young hip people, or older people who are desperately craving to be young and hip?
Couple that with the fact that that demographic has a hell of a lot of disposable cash, and Apple looks fricking brilliant.
Well I think the same can be said of something like the VW Beetle. When the new Beetle debuted in the late 90s, it was being pushed as the trendy hip-mobile for young urbanites. But when you actually looked at who owned and drove these things, it was the 45-55 crowd. Hell my own mom (in her 60s) wanted one because it reminded her of her 20s when she wanted the original VW Beetle. I think this is laregly planned on the part of these companies. Just like the Mustang is all the rage now with the 45-55 male set. It reminds them of when they were 18 and they used to lust after the original Mustangs.
Well I think the same can be said of something like the VW Beetle.
Have you ever noticed the age of the driver's for cars that are targeted towards younger buyers? Cars like the Scion "Clown Car" and the Honda "Element"? One of the big fears of Toyota is that many younger buyers consider their vehicles to be an old-persons car. Hell, my 70 year-old parents recently bought a Camry and I wouldn't be caught dead driving one.
I wonder how many younger buyers wouldn't be 'caught dead' using a Mac....
Never thought I would hear someone equate any Toyota with 'an old-persons car.' Buick and Pontiac maybe, but any Toyota? To me a Camry is just reliable no frills transportation. It's not young or old, it just is:)
Never thought I would hear someone equate any Toyota with 'an old-persons car.'
Quick search and I found this article [theautochannel.com] from two years ago. Go down to the third paragraph. I have been reading auto magazines off and on for the past six years and Toyota has been trying to address what they believe is an 'image problem' for at least that long.
"Just like the Mustang is all the rage now with the 45-55 male set. It reminds them of when they were 18 and they used to lust after the original Mustangs."
Does that mean I'll be lusting after 18 yr old girls when I hit 45?
While its true that the 55+ demographic has a lot of disposable income, there's a reason the 18-25 demographic is the most coveted. Young people buy more junk and we're probably less immune to fads. Older people have generally lost interest in these things, or maybe they have the wisdom required to not get caught up in the marketing bullshit. I'd wager a guess that 55+ demographic is the one that has the most people using old iMacs or some Dell box from 1997, because "its good enough for them" or "it still w
While maybe most of those young hipster types aren't able to afford Apple computers, they are definitely buying scores of IPods. This feeds a brand loyalty and interest in Apple as a whole and then can lead towards them eventually purchasing Apple hardware.
The reality is when you do an apples to apples comparison (pun unintended), Apple's are not expensive. Go out and buy a dual woodcrest workstation from random PC vendor and see what kind of price they are charging you. What makes Apple seem expensive is that the average person will compare that against a desktop PC with half the power and think it's a valid comparison.
Generally speaking Apple systems are more of a long term investment and so it costs more. Overall you're probably getting better quality for your dollar, but if you only have a few dollars, that doesn't matter much. While the other PC vendors are fighting for every little cent on sub $400 PC's, Apple is selling $2500 PC's and making enormous margins.
As someone who uses a Mac and a PC daily, I think some of the commercials are funny but a couple of them are a bit misleading. I think that implying that Macs are for certain stuff and PCs are for other stuff is pretty annoying. I'd rather they use blatant sex to sell stuff then try to mislead people.
Small problem with your logic; its time constrained. You are right... until they start to feel comfortable with the features they currently have, then they begin to wonder if they can get that MP3 thingy working, or maybe see what all this 'MySpace' brooha is all about... then you have problems, and that is why the Mac is getting the 'older generation' image... Its safer than using windows, and it just works...
My mother is in her 60s and my dad in his 70s and they can handle it a LOT better than their old XP machine. I actually like XP and I run both OSX and XP, but the ease-of-use factor with OSX and the $500 mini price tag (especially since they could keep their old monitor, printer, etc.) made it worth getting. Now they aren't only into it, but my dad has gotten himself a Macbook Pro too! They used to hate their computer when it was XP because they had no idea what they were doing. They still don't really have much of an idea, but this time they can actually get things done.
by Anonymous Coward
on Thursday November 30 2006, @02:52PM (#17054226)
Exactly! It's not so much the advertising, it how many parents and grandparents ask someone savvy in the family what computer they should get. You say what most of us say: "Get a Mac." Nobody wants to clean an exploit out of a relative's XP machine.
The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.
The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.
True. For just web browsing and email for a non-techie, Linux is pretty close. The problem is when they call you and say "how do I do this [digital photography] thing I've heard about"? Where [digital photography] could be GPS mapping or digital movie making or DVD burning or something else. My elderly relatives can figure out things like iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band, etc.), but if they were using Ubuntu I wouldn't even have any idea what to tell them. Plus, I wouldn't have an answer for "you setup my computer for me and now you tell me I can't use iTunes/iPod with it?? The clerk at the store said that iTunes works on all computers (Mac AND PC)."
True. For just web browsing and email for a non-techie, Linux is pretty close.
Wow! Talk about damning with faint praise. Linux is pretty close to a state where a non-techie can run 2 applications?!?
Everyone I know who tries to use Linux (usually Ubuntu) for their desktop invariably tells me brief stories about how proud they are that they've gotten some aspect of it working correctly. (Some aspect that would just work on OS X or Windows.) Linux still has a long way to go.
More on topic, it doesn't seem to me like Apple has much to worry about here, if the problem is not anything intrinsic to Macs, but rather the price. As the 18-25 year olds graduate from college, get jobs, and get promoted, the difference in price between a Mac and a cheap PC becomes less and less significant.
Young people use P2P, play video games and use readily available pirated software and are generally have education expenses and loans to pay with start-of-the-career budget. As a result expensive system that emphasizes aesthetics, hardly has any games, up until recently had problems with various P2P and is limited in readily available pirated software (due to lower market share) does not appeal to such demographics.
I'm living that now. So much fun. When I was in my final year of college, and I got that job offer and looked at the number they were offering, a big grin appeared on my face and I screamed "WHOOOO!!! I'M RICH BIOTCH!!!!" Then I graduated and all of a sudden I had a lot of expenses piling up before I had even started the job. I had to find a new apartment and pay the deposit, and the rent (before I was being paid). Then I bought a car and had to pay for my insurance. Then there was my credit card bill
I have car and health insurance, but I must admit insane insurance is new to me. I hope I don't ever need it.
Uh oh, I just had a thought. Maybe I DO have it but I'm just crazy enough to believe I don't. But wait, I'd be richer than I am now. Unless my wife is stealing from me!
Holy shit, I'm going to have to watch her a lot more closely from now on, and get the mail myself.
Not that many college students or recent graduates are in the 40% tax bracket. An according to http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/21/pf/college/expensi ve_colleges/index.htm [cnn.com] there is not college in the US that charges $100K/year tuition. The most is around $40K. I can understand you sentiment (college is expensive and the middle/lower class has to deal with regressive taxes), however, accuracy in your facts will help get people to listen to you.
From TFA, it appears that the halo effect (sales of Macs because of iPod fans) is supported by this survey. So, to get this straight, we are postulating huge numbers of geriatric iPod users too? Methinks that the survey, at least as presented in TFA, is even less useful than your average market research survey.
My mom got her first Apple computer 24 years ago. When her current Compaq PC finally dies I know she will replace it with a Mac; she only switched over to the dark side because it looks like Macs were going the way of the dinosaur.
Also remember: Macs are ancient. If you started using one the year they came out and you were 30 that year, you would be 53 now.
And to note that a person familar with system 6 and 7 won't have much of a learning curve for Basic tasks. Sure the more advanced features have changed a lot, but the finder and menu still work exactly the same. The way to launch apps is the same as well.
Old people just want their computers to work. No driver loading, virus scanning, malware removing... just plug the camera in and press a button to publish it on the web yadda yadda.
Shit, when I get home I just want my computer to work.
One reason is the Macintosh's dramatically declined role in education. At some point Apple got tired of eating computer loans and made them a lot harder to get, so students bought less of them. Around the same era, maybe a little earlier, Apple slipped in performance and Microsoft introduced educational pricing that made their operating system and office suite practically free, so the Apples aren't used much in classrooms either. Another good reason is that today there is very little important Mac-only software. Most of it is in the form of multimedia applications which have direct equivalents or even superior replacements on the PC.
In addition, of course, there is the pricing, which is only now achieving anything like parity with the PC. For the most part it has achieved it, which is a huge accomplishment for Apple, having been so much more expensive than the PC for so long. However, Apple computers are still more expensive and difficult to upgrade in most cases, and like Linux or the other non-Windows OS of your choice, driver support is still a sticky issue. There's lots more hardware supported on Windows than on OSX.
Finally, for people in the age range we're talking about, the lack of support for games is a killer. Of course, today you can use boot camp... But if you're just going to boot windows anyway, why not buy a PC clone?
If price were the only issue I'm sure you'd see Linux based cheapo boxes in this demographic as well but I doubt they have any greater marketshare than other markets.
Apple's major selling point many years back at the start of the Windows Vs. Mac wars was user friendliness.
Windows was still relatively primitive and its major appeal was just to have a graphical shell on top of the then commonly-used MS-DOS. Mac OS was already graphical from the ground up, without the daunting command-line. Plus, Macs already came with the OS installed, so you didn't have to worry about first learning text commands and then installing the OS from a series of floppy disks.
That appeal still lives on with Macs as being user-friendly. The age range of 55 years and above is not as abundant with technoliteri (I LOVE that word!) as the younger ~25 year old group. Us younger people are, as the article says, budgeted. I myself wouldn't touch Gateway (bad experiences with them), but the point stands.
But to be honest, and not to be troll, I found Mac OS X to be relatively stupified in comparison to other OS's that I've used. OS X is pretty and all, but I prefer 'functional' over 'shiny' and I like to really dig into the inner workings of the OS that I use. OS X doesn't entirely appeal to my demographic for that reason, which is why it appeals to people who just want to use a computer and have it work without having to mess with it any more than they need to.
I found Mac OS X to be relatively stupified in comparison to other OS's that I've used. OS X is pretty and all, but I prefer 'functional' over 'shiny' and I like to really dig into the inner workings of the OS that I use.
I find it's both. It's shiny and pretty, and when you know how to use it it's insanely functional. There are all kinds of key commands that make productivity on OS X far surpass that on XP (for me). There's system wide automatic spellchecking, good window management, and I've yet to menti
But to be honest, and not to be troll, I found Mac OS X to be relatively stupified in comparison to other OS's that I've used. OS X is pretty and all, but I prefer 'functional' over 'shiny' and I like to really dig into the inner workings of the OS that I use.
I've not the foggiest what you're on about. It's a freakin UNIX box with an open source kernel, that ships with a DVD full of developer tools! How much more functional do you want?
My mom doesn't own a computer, and is starting to notice. Things that used to be handled by newsletter or phone calls are now handled by email, and she's being left out. So a computer is in her not-too-distant future.
There is no fscking way I'm inflicting Windows on her. System administration aside, she knows nothing about the social engineering hazards out there -- email scams, phishing scams, the vast cornucopia of malware...
Linux is an option, but it would take me weeks to build and tweak a configuration to the point that I'm happy with it and feel it would serve her needs, and I don't have that kind of time (although Ubuntu out of the box is darned close). Further, she has little interest in exploring computing for its own sake.
So that leaves Mac/OS-X. And, frankly, of the three, I think she'd be happiest with that.
So I don't think it's economic factors at work. I think it's because seniors have highly-developed bullshit filters, refined over decades of experience, and have figured out that Macs Just Work.
Linux is an option, but it would take me weeks to build and tweak a configuration to the point that I'm happy with it and feel it would serve her needs, and I don't have that kind of time (although Ubuntu out of the box is darned close). Further, she has little interest in exploring computing for its own sake.
I don't understand what would take weeks of tweaking here. I assume your mother is like my mother who needs email, web browsing, and word processing. If she's really "hip" and "cool", she may need a
For my 65+ year old inlaws, it only took me about an hour to setup the various proprietary codecs and plugins (thanks Adobe, Apple and Microsoft!) as well as decss so they could surf the web and play DVD's. OS X is great in its own way, but Ubuntu on a $499 Lenovo laptop makes for a sweet "simple" system for computer-phobes.
When I was 18-25, I ate a lot of ramen and PBJ, drove the piece of shit truck I could afford, slept on a mattress on the floor of a group house, and had to go in with 3 other guys to get cable. I was poor and frankly didn't give a shit about most of that stuff. I knew there was better stuff out there, but it was more important to me to spend my money on fun stuff. These days I drive a reliable station wagon, eat healthy and I'm saving up for a house.
Newsflash: youngsters don't have a lot of money, and don't really care about long-term quality. They are more impulsive and spend money all over the place because their interests have not settled down yet. They're more likely to want a hot new computer/iPod/phone/jacket etc long before their current one wears out. That means buying often, which means buying cheap.
Not many youngsters own new cars either, but I'd hardly say that spells doom for the car companies. People grow up, and coincedentally when they can afford nicer stuff, they tend to become more interested in quality.
That's a British site, isn't it? Terms like "high street" and "granny" are not used much in American English. Was the study done in England or the U.S.? It wouldn't surprise me if Apple's penetration among the young is much less in the U.K. and Europe. It's always been something of an American phenomenon.
For youngsters, Apple seems to be a high-end "mall-brand", but often times no more expensive than other brands when you start to compare features and software bundles.
Except that most "PC's" are available without lots of extras that youngsters don't want.
I'm sure than when you consider the onboard GPS, the heated cup holders, high-end surround sound, leather interior, etc, that a BMW stacks up rather well compared to a Kia of comparable features (if Kia made such things:)). Bottom line though is that a lot of us simply don't want all that stuff.
At first we thought that our age group & younger just doesn't get together in person, that perhaps it's all virtual these days.
Bingo. it's the same with most "clubs" these days (except for sports clubs). They are a thing of the past. Everybody has their club meeting on Myspace or Slashdot instead. Also, many younger people want information from their "clubs" - and online gives the greatest diversity of experience. Many older people go to clubs because they are lonely and use it as a social outlet - not necessarily to get information or help.
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory part deux (Score:3, Funny)
Even more Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Psssh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Couple that with the fact that that demographic has a hell of a lot of disposable cash, and Apple looks fricking brilliant.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Psssh. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you ever noticed the age of the driver's for cars that are targeted towards younger buyers? Cars like the Scion "Clown Car" and the Honda "Element"? One of the big fears of Toyota is that many younger buyers consider their vehicles to be an old-persons car. Hell, my 70 year-old parents recently bought a Camry and I wouldn't be caught dead driving one.
I wonder how many younger buyers wouldn't be 'caught dead' using a Mac....
Re:Psssh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Quick search and I found this article [theautochannel.com] from two years ago. Go down to the third paragraph. I have been reading auto magazines off and on for the past six years and Toyota has been trying to address what they believe is an 'image problem' for at least that long.
Re:Psssh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Does that mean I'll be lusting after 18 yr old girls when I hit 45?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No. But, if you buy a Mustang, your penis will grow six inches longer.
More cash in a tighter fist (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd wager a guess that 55+ demographic is the one that has the most people using old iMacs or some Dell box from 1997, because "its good enough for them" or "it still w
Indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
The reality is when you do an apples to apples comparison (pun unintended), Apple's are not expensive. Go out and buy a dual woodcrest workstation from random PC vendor and see what kind of price they are charging you. What makes Apple seem expensive is that the average person will compare that against a desktop PC with half the power and think it's a valid comparison.
Generally speaking Apple systems are more of a long term investment and so it costs more. Overall you're probably getting better quality for your dollar, but if you only have a few dollars, that doesn't matter much. While the other PC vendors are fighting for every little cent on sub $400 PC's, Apple is selling $2500 PC's and making enormous margins.
I'd rather be in Apple's position than Gateway's.
Parent
Re:Psssh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Psssh. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And just think of who fits that demographic (Score:4, Insightful)
Psst....hey, we are all going to be old one day. We might as well continue to enjoy ourselves, even you feel you have to buy a damn mac.
How did the parent get a +4 insightful? Wake up moderators!
Parent
I got my parents a mac mini. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I got my parents a mac mini. (Score:5, Insightful)
The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.
Parent
Re:I got my parents a mac mini. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:I got my parents a mac mini. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow! Talk about damning with faint praise. Linux is pretty close to a state where a non-techie can run 2 applications?!?
Everyone I know who tries to use Linux (usually Ubuntu) for their desktop invariably tells me brief stories about how proud they are that they've gotten some aspect of it working correctly. (Some aspect that would just work on OS X or Windows.) Linux still has a long way to go.
Parent
I have a dumb question (Score:5, Interesting)
More on topic, it doesn't seem to me like Apple has much to worry about here, if the problem is not anything intrinsic to Macs, but rather the price. As the 18-25 year olds graduate from college, get jobs, and get promoted, the difference in price between a Mac and a cheap PC becomes less and less significant.
Look at Metafacts clients... (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.metafacts.com/pages/corporate/metafact
CSI: Mac (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, with Justin Long leaving. I'm waiting for the commercials where they have Wilford Brimley saying "hi, I'm a Mac."
- Greg
Capitan obvious to the rescue! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Capitan obvious to the rescue! (Score:4, Funny)
Uh oh, I just had a thought. Maybe I DO have it but I'm just crazy enough to believe I don't. But wait, I'd be richer than I am now. Unless my wife is stealing from me!
Holy shit, I'm going to have to watch her a lot more closely from now on, and get the mail myself.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Granny halo effect? (Score:4, Interesting)
Apples are for Grannies... (Score:3, Funny)
In other obvious news... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Dunno why this is surprising... (Score:5, Interesting)
My mom got her first Apple computer 24 years ago. When her current Compaq PC finally dies I know she will replace it with a Mac; she only switched over to the dark side because it looks like Macs were going the way of the dinosaur.
Also remember: Macs are ancient. If you started using one the year they came out and you were 30 that year, you would be 53 now.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Try that with windows.
Well Of Course They Do (Score:5, Insightful)
Shit, when I get home I just want my computer to work.
Probably lots of reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
One reason is the Macintosh's dramatically declined role in education. At some point Apple got tired of eating computer loans and made them a lot harder to get, so students bought less of them. Around the same era, maybe a little earlier, Apple slipped in performance and Microsoft introduced educational pricing that made their operating system and office suite practically free, so the Apples aren't used much in classrooms either. Another good reason is that today there is very little important Mac-only software. Most of it is in the form of multimedia applications which have direct equivalents or even superior replacements on the PC.
In addition, of course, there is the pricing, which is only now achieving anything like parity with the PC. For the most part it has achieved it, which is a huge accomplishment for Apple, having been so much more expensive than the PC for so long. However, Apple computers are still more expensive and difficult to upgrade in most cases, and like Linux or the other non-Windows OS of your choice, driver support is still a sticky issue. There's lots more hardware supported on Windows than on OSX.
Finally, for people in the age range we're talking about, the lack of support for games is a killer. Of course, today you can use boot camp... But if you're just going to boot windows anyway, why not buy a PC clone?
Games, Games, Games (Score:3, Insightful)
If price were the only issue I'm sure you'd see Linux based cheapo boxes in this demographic as well but I doubt they have any greater marketshare than other markets.
Well, it's all about User-Friendliness (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows was still relatively primitive and its major appeal was just to have a graphical shell on top of the then commonly-used MS-DOS. Mac OS was already graphical from the ground up, without the daunting command-line. Plus, Macs already came with the OS installed, so you didn't have to worry about first learning text commands and then installing the OS from a series of floppy disks.
That appeal still lives on with Macs as being user-friendly. The age range of 55 years and above is not as abundant with technoliteri (I LOVE that word!) as the younger ~25 year old group. Us younger people are, as the article says, budgeted. I myself wouldn't touch Gateway (bad experiences with them), but the point stands.
But to be honest, and not to be troll, I found Mac OS X to be relatively stupified in comparison to other OS's that I've used. OS X is pretty and all, but I prefer 'functional' over 'shiny' and I like to really dig into the inner workings of the OS that I use. OS X doesn't entirely appeal to my demographic for that reason, which is why it appeals to people who just want to use a computer and have it work without having to mess with it any more than they need to.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I find it's both. It's shiny and pretty, and when you know how to use it it's insanely functional. There are all kinds of key commands that make productivity on OS X far surpass that on XP (for me). There's system wide automatic spellchecking, good window management, and I've yet to menti
Re:Well, it's all about User-Friendliness (Score:5, Insightful)
I've not the foggiest what you're on about. It's a freakin UNIX box with an open source kernel, that ships with a DVD full of developer tools! How much more functional do you want?
Parent
What Would You Give Your Mom? (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no fscking way I'm inflicting Windows on her. System administration aside, she knows nothing about the social engineering hazards out there -- email scams, phishing scams, the vast cornucopia of malware...
Linux is an option, but it would take me weeks to build and tweak a configuration to the point that I'm happy with it and feel it would serve her needs, and I don't have that kind of time (although Ubuntu out of the box is darned close). Further, she has little interest in exploring computing for its own sake.
So that leaves Mac/OS-X. And, frankly, of the three, I think she'd be happiest with that.
So I don't think it's economic factors at work. I think it's because seniors have highly-developed bullshit filters, refined over decades of experience, and have figured out that Macs Just Work.
Schwab
Re:What Would You Give Your Mom? (Score:5, Insightful)
With the exception of malware, Apple is going to do nothing to help these issues over windows.
I think it's because seniors have highly-developed bullshit filters
Perhaps that is why I keep reading about seniors giving their life savings away to scammers over the phone?
"My bastard kids don't ever vistit. This is bullshit. You can have my money."
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't understand what would take weeks of tweaking here. I assume your mother is like my mother who needs email, web browsing, and word processing. If she's really "hip" and "cool", she may need a
Weeks? (Score:3, Informative)
Dude, I can only afford ramen (Score:4, Insightful)
Newsflash: youngsters don't have a lot of money, and don't really care about long-term quality. They are more impulsive and spend money all over the place because their interests have not settled down yet. They're more likely to want a hot new computer/iPod/phone/jacket etc long before their current one wears out. That means buying often, which means buying cheap.
Not many youngsters own new cars either, but I'd hardly say that spells doom for the car companies. People grow up, and coincedentally when they can afford nicer stuff, they tend to become more interested in quality.
British site? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't worry, this is already out of date (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gateway? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure than when you consider the onboard GPS, the heated cup holders, high-end surround sound, leather interior, etc, that a BMW stacks up rather well compared to a Kia of comparable features (if Kia made such things
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Mac users upgrade within the Mac family, Windows users within the Windows family.
I suspect you'll find that if the Mac demographic skews older and more affluent now, it is because Mac users skewed older and more affluent then.
That the Intel Macs can dual boot windows is also a significant factor.
Not in the least. Vitalization is for the young. No one in the boomer gene
Re:Have you been to a MUG lately? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bingo. it's the same with most "clubs" these days (except for sports clubs). They are a thing of the past. Everybody has their club meeting on Myspace or Slashdot instead. Also, many younger people want information from their "clubs" - and online gives the greatest diversity of experience. Many older people go to clubs because they are lonely and use it as a social outlet - not necessarily to get information or help.
Parent