Winter is here for us old folks. Wow. I feel sooooo old and out of touch now after reading a new generation gap survey that says my generation is increasingly out of touch. Think I’ll turn on the 4K TV and stream more of “Game of Thrones” season 6 after texting my sons about their Mom’s upcoming birthday. Then I’ll order dinner for tonight from Amazon Prime on my phone. Oh, and my Fitbit tracker confirms my heart is still beating as I resume a workout.

But, I digress. On to the survey …

Survey says

Baby boomers and Generation Xers don’t even come close to the collective embrace of technology by millennials, a new survey shows.

While we older folks aren’t exactly Luddites, millennials are more ready for a brave new world of apps, streaming, and the shared economy.

And the key differentiator is use of smartphones.

An amazing 95 percent of millennials now use smartphones, which enable use of much more than selfies.

Gen Xers are close at 89 percent, but baby boomers lag at 74 percent.

So based on that percentage breakdown alone, the other statistics may not be surprising. But they do show just how much more adept and open to tech than their parents and grandparents.

Inside the numbers

Here are some examples:

  • According to Parks Associates, more than 60 percent of the younger generation now use mobile apps for banking or money management alone. As for baby boomers (such as The Skinny) and Gen Xers, the rates are much lower at 50 percent and 33 percent.
  • 24 percent of millennials use ride-sharing or taxi calling apps. Boomers are way down at 7 percent while 13 percent of Gen Xers dial up a ride.
  • Millennials lead in retail payment apps at some 30 percent with Gen Xers and boomers far behind
  • The same holds true in food/grocery ordering with millennials at some 40 percent

Age discrimination

Bottom line: Young people are driving the latest innovations.

“The most important demographic factor in terms of mobile app usage continues to be age,” said Harry Wang, Senior Director of Research at Parks Associates. Millennials have higher usage rates for nearly every smartphone activity compared to Generation Xers and baby boomers, and their mobile app-first habits for completing day-to-day tasks are the catalysts for market innovations from Uber to Instacart to Venmo.”

Look at some of these stats:

  • 93 percent (!!!!) stream movies or TV shows
  • 45 percent of millennials use voice recognition software
  • 50 percent stream music

To rub more salt into the older folks’ wounds, Parks also found that “millennials have higher usage rates for gaming consoles, robotic floor cleaners, drones, personal assistant devices, and virtual reality headsets.”

Millennials consistently adopt new technologies before their generational counterparts,” Wang said in summing up the report.

“Currently, 41% of this group owns a streaming media player, compared to 39% of those in Generation X and only 26% of baby boomers. Further, 5% of millennials have purchased a virtual reality headset, while Generation Xers account for 2% of purchases and baby boomers account for only 1%.”

Well, thanks for reading. As for me, I’m going to re-stream “Red Wedding” as soon as I finished GofT season Six.

Winter is coming, after all.