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What is the average age of the typical Mac user?

getz76 said:
But the question was "What is the average age of the typical Mac user?" :)
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Given that a disproportionate amount of members of this site have Macs, using the site stats gets us closer to a valid answer. Far closer than counting responses in a thread, or a forum poll, and exceptionally closer then your answer of "76", correct?

Is there a particular reason you're on my case about this?
 
The floor in my college dorm (freshmen only dorm) was about 80% Macs. I plan on buying my Mom an iMac or MacBook for her birthday later this year and soon my entire family will own iPhones (5 of us). My brother has a MB CE and my sister has a white MB.
 
Im gonna say 15 to 25 main. But some of the older people will basically be outliers and skew the main. And average age depends on demographics. Low-mid class doesnt usually have macs due to $. And teens having macs depends a lot on parents income as well. But im going to say that teens probably take the majority in MR.
 
yellow said:
Given that a disproportionate amount of members of this site have Macs, using the site stats gets us closer to a valid answer.
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You don't know that. This gives you the number of people who have macs who signed up for an account on MR for whatever reason, but you don't know the proportion of users that this represents, nor the reasons why.

If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that the age of people who register on an internet forum for whatever reason would skew younger than the number of people who use a mac.

Far closer than counting responses in a thread, or a forum poll, and exceptionally closer then your answer of "76", correct?
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That's true. But MR's numbers only tell you about MR's users, not the Mac using population at large. It might very well be a very representative sample, but I can think of a dozen reasons as to why it's probably not.

BTW, this isn't meant to "get on your case." Just a friendly argument. :)
 
Signal-11 said:
But MR's numbers only tell you about MR's users, not the Mac using population at large.
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OK, let's argue.

Why do people keep telling me this like I don't already know that? What else would one expect MR site age statistics tell us other than the average ages of site members? Seeing as this is a Mac site, specifically dealing in Mac (and Apple) rumors, postulating that a good number of site members have Macs is not a stretch of the imagination. Extrapolating from there, based on the site's age statistics, it's very possible that the average age of a Mac user is in the mid to late 20s.

Since everyone else has only put forth guesses and conjecture, why is my speculation any less valid?
 
yellow said:
And you would be horribly wrong.
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most teens are going to put their age around 20 when they sign up. Just look a facebook, myspace, and on and on. I would take MR stats with a grain of salt. Internet stats are about as reliable as a meth addicted construction worker.
 
mikes70mustang said:
most teens are going to put their age around 20 when they sign up. Just look a facebook, myspace, and on and on. I would take MR stats with a grain of salt. Internet stats are about as reliable as a meth addicted construction worker.
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What makes you say that? My friends online either have some obscurely high number as their age, or the correct one. Maybe that's just my friends. Now obviously that's going to skew the average age a bit, but not in an amount large enough to really make a difference. At least not on a forum like this, where you would think people would care less about lying about their age.
 
Cassie said:
What makes you say that? My friends online either have some obscurely high number as their age, or the correct one. Maybe that's just my friends. Now obviously that's going to skew the average age a bit, but not in an amount large enough to really make a difference. At least not on a forum like this, where you would think people would care less about lying about their age.
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I agree. This isn't MySpace. There is no need to lie about your age, unless you are insecure/embarrassed about it. :) I'm 20, and proud of it.
 
yellow said:
OK, let's argue.

Why do people keep telling me this like I don't already know that? What else would one expect MR site age statistics tell us other than the average ages of site members? Seeing as this is a Mac site, specifically dealing in Mac (and Apple) rumors, postulating that a good number of site members have Macs is not a stretch of the imagination. Extrapolating from there, based on the site's age statistics, it's very possible that the average age of a Mac user is in the mid to late 20s.

Since everyone else has only put forth guesses and conjecture, why is my speculation any less valid?
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The bolded portion is irrelevant. Let's assume that every person who ever registered on MR personally owns a mac, uses it daily and exclusively. This doesn't change the fact that you don't know if this is a representative sample of all mac users.

It's not altogether a bad premise to make an argument that the age range of mac users is x to y once you're aware of the limitations of the numbers which you have.

That said, the question itself is uninformed and doesn't have enough parameters to answer it in any valid way.

For example, define "user." Define "Mac." Define "average age." Et al.

You ask why people keep telling you the line which you quoted. This was because in your original post, it was not clear what it was that you were stating. For example, the following two answers to the question can be substantially different.

"According to the MR stats, it is ..."
"The 'average' age of MR users is ..."
 
maestrocasa said:
This should be a poll. Then we'd know the average age of a MacRumors user (even if it's not necessarily the average age of a mac user)
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Crap. I never thought of that and it's a good idea. How do I turn this into a Poll?

So far I'm amazed out how many other geezers and semi-geezers are here. More are approaching old-farthood than I would have ever guessed. :D
 
Tallest Skil said:
Yes, I'm youngish, but I'm old at heart (and in mindset), believe me. Does it also count if I have a working Apple IIe?
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I had a working Apple ][+ in storage up until a few years ago when a mouse decided to take up residence in the damn thing. :mad: Paid $2600 for it new back in 82-83(?)
 
juleyah said:
And as we all know.... "once you go Mac, you never go back". ;)
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Do you like my tshirt? :D

Photo_77-20090707-224530.jpg


Cassie said:
I'm 16. Though it seems not too many people my age have any interest in Macs. I'd suspect the average age is between 20 and 24. Mid-twenties, basically.
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You sound older from your posts. :)
 
16 here.

Seems to me that LOTS of people my age are starting to go mac, but quite a few older (grand-parent age) people are going mac too, because coming from a generation foreign to computers, they find macs way easier to catch on to. Maybe this might have to do with where I live, but mac users around me tend to be at the high end or the low end of the spectrum.

I doubt many 70+ year olds would post on macrumors, so average age of posters doesn't make a difference.
 
I'm 14 (almost 15)

I've been using Macs since I started using a computer. (so like 4 or 5)

My parents both use Macs for personal use and so does my younger sister. (she's 10)
 
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