New generations take every bit of today’s technology for granted. They have never known life without mobile phones, smart phones, tablet laptop computers, digital music, on-demand video, streaming, and so on. When products in each of those technological product categories came on the market, it was Baby Boomers who were the first to buy all of these new devices. This made them early adopters, those who were the first to get on the technology bus. Now early rejecters, they’re the first to get off.
Seventy million children were born in the United States in the years immediately after World War II
They were well into managerial and professional careers when desktop computers and cellphones arrived in the 1980s. They had the time, the money, the education, and the interest. They became the Early Adopters of computer and cellphone technologies.
We asked people now in their sixties and seventies (mature adults) what lessons they learned later in life
The same three topics came up again and again.
- I learned to take better care of my physical health.
- I learned to save more money.
- I learned to make better decisions.
The first is simple. When early rejecters were in their twenties and thirties, they were early adopters. They rarely thought about the inevitabilities of aging. Now in their sixties and seventies, these people are eating healthier and are more active.
As they explained to us, saving more money also meant spending less. This meant not only buying fewer things, but also wasting less money on fads and things with only short-term value. More than once we heard early adopters talk about all those fashions that went out of style as soon as they bought them – the bell bottoms, dashikis, leisure suits, Nehru jackets, platform shoes, jelly shoes, hot pants, parachute pants, shoulder pads, leg warmers, Annie Hall, and on and on.
They told us one thing that came with maturity was learning to be less concerned with how others see them. Here are three results of that attitudinal shift:
• Early Rejectors are abandoning fashion’s dictates and moving to clothes that are comfortable and easy to care for.
• Early Rejectors care less about the newest and latest devices. They are happily living with longer product cycles and don’t want the latest bigger-better-does more television. They don’t want to buy a new phone every year. Many are giving up smartphones for simple talk and text devices with no InterWeb connection and no large usage fees.
• Early Rejectors care less about social media. They don’t want to live in fishbowls, take pictures of all their meals, or learn which are the hottest text abbreviations. They don’t have any interest in the endless stream-of-consciousness commentary on things unimportant to them by people unimportant to them.
And they not only don’t care that they’re not keeping up, Early Rejecters are happy to get off the treadmill and leave it to the people who need to check in every six minutes. The hell with Keeping Up With the Joneses.
Where Are They Going?
In increasing numbers they are rejecting the incessant pressures to constantly spend more for things they don’t want. They are moving from magpie to minimalism, from flashy to understated, from the superficial to the meaningful. It will be interesting to see what sorts of inventors, manufacturers, and marketers will develop and sell products that appeal to these Leading Edge Rejectors.
For a legendary West Coast funk band’s take on the ephemeral nature of things, watch Tower of Power’s What Is Hip? on Soundstage from 1977.
