Age Demographics

[Photofarmer]

At a mere 57 I feel quite young looking at these posts. Still working for my sins, which are many & varied and trying to get out & take photos whenever I can. I'm not sure if its the age demographics that keep this site civilised or the shared love of photography minus the brand wars. DPR for all of its pluses, of which the wealth of information & forums like PMUK's were a few, was / is a bit of a cess-pool in the comments section, a rabbit hole that I 'occasionaly' found myself falling down.
This site is a breath of fresh air & much appreciated.

Absolutely re last sentence and whole post. Look i think before i post on here "am i adding to content of rf shooters" "has this question been asked and answered before" but i can post on here without fear or favour despite my bad grammar and often not the best photography and eh dont forget my dumb questions. Great site tim
edit i feel like a puppy at 59

double edit the facebook equivalent of rf shooters on web is way more active and full of young guns.

 

[Tim Mayo]

I turned 44 last month and feel like an oldie these days with plenty of aches and pains from various injuries. A very active soon to be 3 year old son and a 10 month old also make me realise I'm no spring chicken anymore!

 

[MikeZ]

It seems that there are more 40+ posting on this thread than I would have expected. Maybe the younger crowd would rather not divulge their age or feel that there is little point to it. Or perhaps the cost of the equipment tends to lean in the direction of more established people (older folk like myself), hence the greater proportion of 40+. Curious, isn't it?

 

[Kwazy]

Or perhaps the cost of the equipment tends to lean in the direction of more established people (older folk like myself), hence the greater proportion of 40+.

I think that's a big part of it. Don't know anyone younger than myself shelling out 3K+ on a camera.
Have you checked the price of college textbooks recently? They definitely have more urgent money sinks than an R-system. There are some younguns into photography though, but they use either cheaper stuff or older hand-me-downs. Apparently film is also coming back; maybe it's a fad, or maybe it'll be the next hipster thing to do.

 

[ACEkin]

I turned 44 last month and feel like an oldie these days with plenty of aches and pains from various injuries. A very active soon to be 3 year old son and a 10 month old also make me realise I'm no spring chicken anymore!

Enjoy your age at any age, especially at yours with the really young ones.

 

[Bucolic Old Sir Henry]

FWIW, I suspect there are multiple factors at work here, biasing the site to older membership. One of them is that the heyday of forums as internet meeting places/discussion hubs is well in the past. The peak was probably late 90s to mid-2000s - that's certainly when I was most active on sites like this one. Over the last ten years Facebook has taken over, and although that's often now thought of as having an older bias (because "the kids" have gone to TikTok), it certainly has enough of a huge audience and the ability to target interests to ensure active groups with wide age demographics. Unfortunately it mangles photos and makes proper discussions more or less impossible, so it's not something I waste much time on.

 

[NorthernGal]

FWIW, I suspect there are multiple factors at work here, biasing the site to older membership. One of them is that the heyday of forums as internet meeting places/discussion hubs is well in the past. The peak was probably late 90s to mid-2000s - that's certainly when I was most active on sites like this one. Over the last ten years Facebook has taken over, and although that's often now thought of as having an older bias (because "the kids" have gone to TikTok), it certainly has enough of a huge audience and the ability to target interests to ensure active groups with wide age demographics. Unfortunately it mangles photos and makes proper discussions more or less impossible, so it's not something I waste much time on.

I agree with your thoughts on why we "mature" folks are here, while the younger ones are on Facebook or on over to something else. I peruse Facebook, but I really don't like how it DIS-organizes things and tries to feed me things I don't want to see. Despite the current thought that forums are passe, they are still the best thing around for having good, in-depth discussions.
I do follow the R7 Facebook group, and it seems like it's mostly posted images.
And yes, I think one needs to work for a while and make some money in order to afford some of this photographic equipment! I certainly had to!

 

[Kwazy]

It is true that forums is the old-timey way of communicating on the internet. Facebook is too, really. Gen Z predominately use Discord (a lot like IRC if anyone remembers that), TicToc and SnapChat. Instagram is a Millennial platform it seems like. Facebook got taken over by grandmas, aunts, and MAGA, so kids shy away from it.

However, there's only so much one can learn from info bits of TicToc or the chaos of Facebook. Discord can be more involved, but from what I've seen it can be pretty chaotic as well, especially if it's a large and active community. I can't imagine asking a question and getting detailed responses from multiple individuals on Discord. If someone is trying to get to the bottom of something and learn, or join a community which they can tap into on a continuous basis, there's no replacement for forums, and I feel that if even a Gen-Zer got an R7 and had questions about it, they would ultimately end up on here. Of course there are exceptions for either perspective, and I might be off-base completely.

 

[Tim Mayo]

It's hard to say precisely what age groups are visiting here. There is an option to add your data of birth under Account Details but we don't insist on this. We use Google Analytics but taking a quick look there doesn't appear to be any age data available. But going by this thread alone it does appear that there are more members in the 40+ category than below it.

The generational thing certainly plays a big part, although affordability plays a part also, even more so with the current cost of living crisis. Until recently Canon has not really had many low cost R Series cameras and their low cost lens line-up is also lacking along with no third-party AF lens support. I think as this slowly changes and more used cameras and lenses can be picked up for reasonable prices then hopefully we will see some younger folk here as well.

Here are some age figures from the Facebook Groups that we also run. Unsurprisingly the lower cost Canon R10 has a higher percentage of members in the 18-24 and 25-34 groups.