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Older Internet consumers are very low users of smartphones and online media, states a new report from McKinsey. To analyze this more, we decided to compare the youngest and oldest groups surveyed: "Digital-media Junkies" (average age 28) and "Traditionalists" (average age 48).

McKinsey states that "Digital-media junkies" are three times more likely to be early adopters of new technologies. This segment makes up 19% of McKinsey's survey, up 7% from 2008. The "Traditionalists" meanwhile make up 24% of the survey respondents, the same as in 2008. Traditionalists overwhelmingly do not own smartphones. They also have not yet adopted online media devices, such as tablets and e-readers.

In the UK, consumers are spending more time with digital and traditional media. According to the second KPMG Media and Entertainment Barometer, the average monthly consumption of traditional media climbed from 11 hours and 40 minutes per month in September 2009 to 12 hours and 13 minutes in March 2010. For digital media, the increase was more dramatic. Consumption of digital media rose from 6 hours 14 minutes to 7 hours 28 minutes per month. At the same time, however, consumers now spend less on digital and traditional media. Even though more newspapers are putting their content behind pay walls, the number of consumers who paid nothing for accessing online news actually increased over the last few months.

Peachtree Media Advisors has just released their latest report on digital media mergers and acquisitions. We posted their 2008 report back in January, and this is a mid-year 2009 update to that. According to Peachtree, there were 342 digital media transactions in the first half of 2009, which was 12.3% below the number of transactions in the same period for 2008. More notably, the total value of transactions was much less than a year ago. In the first six months of 2009, there were $4.2 billion in digital media transactions - a whopping 61% decrease from the same period in 2008. And that $4.2B figure includes $2.5B from the Live Nation - Ticketmaster merger this year.

With Election Day upon us, one segment of the U.S. population is under heavy scrutiny: the youth voters. Will this typically apathetic group of voters actually turn out at the polls? Will Gen Y show us that they're not just all talk? For obvious reasons, politically, the actions of this group of voters will have big impacts on today's election. But their actions (or inactions) will also have further impacts on the web and tech, as well.