The digital divide between young and older generations is a myth, writes Jim Bright.

Gerard from Bella Vista is a manager in a greenfield start-up business. Charged with recruiting and developing a completely new group of staff in a relatively high-tech environment, he wonders whether he should focus on younger, so-called "Gen Y" applicants.

He writes, "While I will vigorously uphold anti-age discrimination policies in recruitment, from what I've been told in seminars and have read, am I likely to end up with a disproportionate number of Gen Y employees because they are more tech savvy?"

Gerard is reflecting one of the commonly held stereotypes about generational differences. Typically, claims are made that this generation is less materialistic, more tech savvy, less loyal and wanting a place at the top table.

I am sceptical about many of the supposed differences and when good-quality independently reviewed evidence is considered, most of it concludes that if any differences exist, they are trivial, or in directions counter to the stereotype.

One of the more persistent claims is that Gen Ys and younger generations are "digital natives" - they have been brought up with the technology and therefore differ markedly in their usage patterns compared with older generations who adopted technology in their later years. If this is the case, Gerard might have a point. But he doesn't and here's why.

Researchers at the Open University in Britain have recently completed possibly the biggest study of this issue to date (Older Students' Use of Digital Technologies in Distance Education, by Chetz Colwell, Anne Jelfs and John T.E. Richardson, as reported by Gerald Haigh, a British journalist).

They surveyed 7000 students aged between 21 and 100, asking them about technology usage. In total, 4066 students responded. Interestingly, more than 60 per cent of those aged over 60 elected to respond online, whereas nearly 54 per cent of twentysomethings used pencil and paper (a technology very popular before tablet computing).

Some age differences emerged. The younger students tended to use more features on their mobile phones such as texting and cameras, compared with older students. However, critically, the study found no evidence of a sudden drop in technology usage at the age of 30, as the digital native proponents would argue. Instead, there was a gradual decline.

What is often overlooked in the age and technology debate is that technology is expensive. Therefore, a person's disposable income or occupation (which can provide access to expensive technology) may be a better indicator of a person's tech savvy than their age.

What the authors did report, however, was that a positive attitude to technology, at any age, was correlated with better study habits and presumably higher-achieving students. Schools are increasingly getting with the program here and the pioneering (and well-resourced) ones are insisting primary-school-age students have iPads or laptops.

So Gerard might want to consider including questions or exercises in his recruitment process that capture his candidates' attitudes towards technology, as this may turn out to be a better predictor of engagement than age.

For candidates, using age as an excuse or telling yourself that you've missed the technology boat is simply not going to wash with employers. Although recently technology has received bad press due to hacking, bullying and cyber-crime stories, this merely underlines the importance of engaging with technology at all ages and fully understanding its potential as well as its pitfalls.

Jim Bright is professor of career education and development at ACU and a partner at Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy. Email marked clearly "FOR PUBLICATION" to brightside@jimbright.com.