It’s official -- baby boomers and senior citizens are the new hipsters.

“Greatest Generation” grandparents and "Boomer Zoomers” are living longer, fuller lives, going back to school, traveling widely and adopting new hobbies well into their golden years. Today’s grannies are tech-savvy, using cell phones, e-mail and actively blogging -- check out the “Can’t Open It” videos chronicling the challenge of opening a jar on Thoroughly Modern Millie.

And it doesn’t end there… the Entertainment Software Association reports that more than 25% of regular video game players are 50 and older. These are definitely not your father’s grandparents.

The active baby boomer and senior citizen demographic is growing at an amazing rate. Every minute this year 330 American Boomers will turn 60. The 80 million-strong baby boom generation is the largest, most wealthy and influential generation in the history of the US, with more than $2.3 *trillion* to spend.

This group is hugely important to retailers for Holiday 06. Forget reindeer sweaters, Old Spice and fruitcake -- this holiday season, what grandparents and baby boomers want to receive are the hottest tech toys.

A recent Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Nintendo found that 52% of grandparents and 68% of baby boomers want to receive the latest tech items, such as MP3 players and DVDs. Nearly a third of grandparents and baby boomers reported that they’d like a portable video game system, like Nintendo DS Lite, from their loved ones this year.

Looking to 2007, it’s critical that advertisers, marketers and PR professionals get the attention of this older, wiser demographic. Otherwise the gold in those golden years will be helping to build market share for the competition.

We can take a page from sophisticated marketers like L’Oreal and Ameriprise who are already leveraging older icons in their ad campaigns.

If 60 is the new 40, it’s time raise our sights above the almighty 18-34 demographic and start thinking about what the Greatest Tech Generation really wants, what they’re not getting, and how their needs should impact everyting from product R&D to brand management.

Want to know what’s on the minds of today’s seniors? Just take a look at what’s playing on their computers, PDAs and video game systems.