Millennials have often led older Americans in their adoption and use of technology, and this largely holds true today. But there has been significant growth in tech adoption since 2012 among older generations – especially Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

More than 9-in-10 Millennials (93% of those who turn ages 23 to 38 this year) own smartphones, compared with 90% of Gen Xers (those ages 39 to 54 this year), 68% of Baby Boomers (ages 55 to 73) and 40% of the Silent Generation (74 to 91), according to a new assay of a Pew Research Center survey of U.South. adults conducted in early 2019.

Millennials lead on some technology adoption measures, but Boomers and Gen Xers are also heavy adoptersSimilarly, the vast majority of Millennials (86%) say they apply social media, compared with smaller shares among older generations. While the share of Millennials who say they utilise social media has remained largely unchanged since 2012, the shares of Gen Xers, Boomers and Silents who use social media all have increased by at to the lowest degree 10 percentage points during this period.

Unlike with smartphones and social media, tablet ownership is now comparable across nigh generations. Today, 55% of Gen Xers, 53% of Millennials and 52% of Boomers say they own tablets. A smaller share of Silents (33%) report owning tablets.

Those in the Silent Generation also lag when it comes to having broadband service at dwelling house. Whereas most Millennials (78%), Gen Xers (78%) and Boomers (74%) say they subscribe to habitation broadband, fewer than one-half of Silents (45%) say this.

Since 2012, use of Facebook has grown fastest among older generationsIn terms of specific platforms, around three-fourths or more of both Millennials and Gen Xers at present report using Facebook (84% vs. 74%, respectively). Boomers and Silents have both increased their Facebook use by double digits since 2015. In fact, the share of Silents using Facebook has near doubled in the past four years, from 22% to 37%.

Well-nigh all Millennials (most 100%) now say they use the internet, and nineteen% of them are smartphone-only internet users – that is, they own a smartphone but exercise not have broadband internet service at domicile. Large shares of Gen Xers (91%) and Boomers (85%) use the internet, compared with simply 62% of Silents. When information technology comes to smartphone-simply cyberspace users, 17% of Gen Xers become online primarily via a smartphone, every bit do 11% of Boomers and 15% of Silents.

Baby Boomers keep to trail both Gen Xers and Millennials on almost measures of technology adoption, simply adoption rates for this grouping have been growing rapidly in recent years. For example, Boomers are now far more than likely to own a smartphone than they were in 2011 (68% now vs. 25% then).

Although Boomers have been adopting a range of technologies in contempo years, members of the Silent Generation are less probable to accept done so. Four-in-ten Silents (40%) study owning a smartphone, and fewer (33%) indicate that they have a tablet estimator or use social media (28%). Previous Pew Research Center surveys have found that the oldest adults face some unique barriers to adopting new technologies – from a lack of confidence in using new technologies to physical challenges manipulating various devices.

Older internet users less likely to view the internet as a positive for society

While generations differ in their use of various technologies, a 2018 Heart survey found that younger internet users likewise were more likely than older Americans who use the internet to say the internet has had a positive touch on onguild: 73% of online Millennials said the internet has been by and large a good thing for gild, compared with 63% of users in the Silent Generation.

Americans were besides less positive virtually the societal impact of the net terminal twelvemonth than iv years earlier. Gen Xers' views of the internet'south impact on society declined the nigh in that time. In 2014, eighty% of Gen X internet users believed the net had been mostly a positive thing for order, a number that dropped to 69% in 2018. Millennial and Silent internet users were also somewhat less optimistic last twelvemonth than in 2014.

Notation: This is an update of a post originally published May ii, 2018, and written by Jingjing Jiang, a old enquiry analyst focusing on internet and applied science. Come across full topline results and methodology hither.

Emily A. Vogels is a research associate focusing on internet and technology at Pew Enquiry Center.