If you began your holiday weekend early, you may have missed some very useful information released by the Pew Research Center on digital technologies in 2021. Here’s our quick take on their most interesting findings.

Grandpa is catching up but has a long way to go.

• Now more than six in ten seniors have smartphones, a huge leap in the last three years.
• Seniors are only half as likely as their adult grandkids to use social media (45% and 84%) respectively.
• Seniors are about two-thirds as likely to own a laptop as their adult grandkids (44% and 61%) respectively.
• Only one in twelve seniors report being constantly online compared to nearly half of their adult grandchildren.

YouTube (81% usage) and Facebook (69% usage) continue to dominate the online landscape.

• Facebook is at the same level as with the 2019 measurement.
• YouTube usage has grown by 9% of the adult population.

Most Platforms show little growth in last two years.

• Reddit and YouTube are exceptions.

Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok users are favorites for voters under 30.

Our favorite line in the report was the observation that less than one quarter of adults use Twitter—a reminder not to overreact to the endless hyperbole that political professionals are forced to consume in our daily routine.

We salute the Pew Research Center and their gathering of this useful data over the last two decades.

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