Do They Age Like Wine or Cheese? How Different Generations Embrace Health Tech

“To shake all cares and business from our age,

Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

Unburdened crawl toward death.” – “King Lear,” William Shakespeare

Generation Gaps

America’s generations include the baby boomers (born 1946-1964), Generation X (born 1965-1980), millennials (born 1981-1996), Generation Z (born 1997-2010) and now Generation Alpha (born 2010-2024) [1]. This article will explain their key characteristics and compare three aspects: the barriers to technology, impact of social media and efficacy of mental health apps.

Far Away, So Close

Generations – and the people within each generation – are similar yet different. Millennials (72 million) are the largest generation in the U.S. (because of immigration) [2], closely followed by boomers (70 million), Generation Z (69 million) and Generation X (65 million) [3]. This implies that many customers could be from another country, have been raised in different cultures or speak different languages.

Those in Generation X who have children are often called “helicopter parents.” They developed close relationships with their children (millennials) and became more involved. As a result, Generation X and millennials share many values.

There are some notable differences between Generation X and boomers. The former tends to be socially liberal,  value leaders who are more caring [4] and tend to be more likely to vote Democrat because they perceive the Republican Party as hostile to their cultural values [5].

When it comes to healthcare and technology, it is important to keep in mind generational differences – much like storing wine and cheese.

Technology and Its Discontents: Barriers to Technology

As boomers are entering retirement, they may want to confer to other generations as King Lear tried. However, they are facing obstacles and barriers [6].

Regarding technology use, boomers predominantly prefer phones (78%), whereas millennials prefer to use websites (90%) (Generation X is similar), phones (79%) and email (79%) because Generation X and millennials are digital natives. Motivation to use technology is not an issue, but boomers have a knowledge gap, suggesting that more education is needed, especially on unfamiliar technology.

Now You Are Talking, Virtually, All the Time

Preventive healthcare is important. Boomers and Generation X are influenced differently, such as through social media and other networks, when it comes to eating habits, stress reduction, sleeping habits, weight loss, social life, regular exercise, alcohol consumption, work habits, wellness and more [7].

Boomers and Generation X also have different preferences for their healthcare information.

• Generation X (compared with boomers) tend to trust their peers more than authorities (medical professionals) and obtain information from:
  • Blogs (91% vs. 82%).
  • Health forums (84% vs. 71%).
  • Hospital social media sites (78% vs. 68%).
  • Facebook (97% vs. 93%).
  • Twitter (92% vs. 77%).
  • Pinterest (87% vs. 74%).
  • WhatsApp (74% vs. 56%).
  • Tumblr (81% vs. 62%).
  • Flickr (75% vs. 59%).
• Both Generation X and boomers highly rank reputable sites (Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and MD Anderson). This reflects the brand effect on trustworthiness.
• Internet searches about healthcare play a very important role (98% vs. 92%); however, we do not know how each generation evaluates their search results. Therefore, the fact-checking features of Google searches are helpful to spread correct health information.

Your Apps Will See You Now

As the need for mental health is gaining recognition, the demand for mental health interventions is receiving more attention. Although online intervention (e.g., conducting a counseling session through an app) is equally effective for boomers and millennials, the former tend to be more positive about interventions and less skeptical [8], whereas millennials particularly value anonymity and privacy. At the same time, the latter have higher expectations for the tools to meet their needs. There is a significant association between usage and subjective ratings of the software among the former, which is consistent with the knowledge gap discussed earlier.

Conclusion

Generation gaps exist. All are comfortable with technology but differ in the details. Health technology should be customized based on the characteristics of each generation. Appropriate technologies should be adopted to aid aging, akin to storing cheese in a refrigerator and wine in a dark cellar – for example, offering phone support to boomers while actively engaging with the millennials’ influencers on social media. There are indeed “countries for old men and women,” and the young may not be in each other’s arms but are most likely to be in each other’s DMs.

Author note. This article is based on his Purdue DTech course work on demographic leadership from Prof. Mitchel Springer. It represents his personal opinion only and does not reflect those of his employer or his other affiliations.

References

1. Springer, M., 2020, “Why Don’t You Like Me?: Unconscious Bias and the Changing Mosaic of Our Nation,” Indianapolis: Niche Pressworks.
2. Frey, W. H., 2024, “Immigration is Driving the Nation’s Modest Post-Pandemic Population Growth, New Census Data Shows,” Brookings, January 4, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/immigration-is-driving-the-nations-modest-post-pandemic-population-growth-new-census-data-shows/.
3. Korthonen, V., 2024, “U.S. population by generation 2023,” Statista, July 5, https://www.statista.com/statistics/797321/us-population-by-generation/.
4. Meriac, J., Woehr, D. & Banister, C., 2010, “Generational Differences in Work Ethic: An Examination of Measurement Equivalence Across Three Cohorts,” Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 25, pp. 315-324.
5. Levitz, E., 2023, “Millennials Will Not Age Into Voting Like Boomers,” New York Magazine, June 2, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/millennials-will-not-age-into-voting-like-boomers.html.  
6. LeRouge, C., Slyke, C. V., Seale, D. & Wright, K., 2014, “Baby Boomers’ Adoption of Consumer Health Technologies: Survey on Readiness and Barriers,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol. 16, Art. no e3049.
7. Cangelosi, J., Damron, T. S. & Kim, D., 2022, “Preventive Health Care Information and Social Media: A Comparison of Baby Boomer and Generation X Health Care Consumers,” International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 16, pp. 282-296.
8. Schneider, B. C., Schröder, J., Berger, T., Hohagen, F. Meyer, B., Späth, C., et al., 2018, “Bridging the “Digital Divide”: A Comparison of Use and Effectiveness of an Online Intervention for Depression between Baby Boomers and Millennials,” Journal of Affective Disorders, Vol. 236, pp. 243-251.