People’s Software Company

modern Mum

Originally uploaded by Max Sullivan

Boulder is a great town for tech meetups. Pretty much every week you can go somewhere to see people demo alpha or unreleased software or web services.

It’s fun, but I gotta tell ya, these gatherings are tough on the mothers. There hasn’t been a single evening in which at least one person has not played the “well, we don’t expect our mother to be able to use it” card.

LISTEN UP: I AM A MOTHER AND I HAVE ROOT. STOP STEREOTYPING MY KIND AS TECHNOLOGICALLY INEFFECTUAL OR I WILL RM -RF ALL YOUR DATA.

I don’t tell you this just because these stereotypes are cringe-makingly sexist and ageist, because I have no interest in getting anyone to be more politcally correct. I tell you this because if you are trying to create an online service or software product and you think this way, you will lose a ton of money.

Consider this: the average age of a mother with preschool age children in the us is 27. Do you really think a 27 year old doesn’t know what the Internet is? Secondly, mothers are among the most desirable demographics for advertising because they control a very large percentage of household spending.

One more: Seniors now access the internet at the same rate as the general population AND they are also the fastest growing segment in terms of total numbers and increased weekly usage.

Now, if anyone wants to continue to use these two important and fast-growing demographics only as examples of users they believe are too stupid to use their product, I have no objection to taking all the money left on the table as they all compete against each other for a tiny slice of gadget-obsessed guys. However, our company does not really need the head start that our lack of outdated stereotypes about mothers and seniors represent — we’re plenty strong without any unfair advantages. So this one’s a gimme, from us to…well, you know who you are.

And remember: if mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.