More 50+'s using the internet

The UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) found that the net audience now stands at 38.8 million, up from 36.9 million at the same time last year.

The majority of internet newbies were made up of over-50s, with more men than women joining up.

Net services are increasingly targeting the older generation.

"The internet is getting older in more ways than one. Not only is the medium itself maturing but the audience is shifting towards older age groups," said Alex Burmaster, speaking on behalf of UKOM.

"There is a still a perception that the net is youth-centric but this is clearly not the reality," he added.

Over-50s account for 31% of the UK net audience. Men over 50 accounted for 38% of the 1.9 million new surfers.

Women over 50 accounted for 15%, women aged 21-34 for 14%, while girls aged 12-20 made up 12% of the total.

The older generation are attracted to a range of sites, including travel, genealogy, fashion, video and community sites, according to UKOM.

Carry on surfing

We have posted on this topic before but there is now additional evidence that clearly shows that web surfing materially impacts our brain in a positive way.

The researchers worked with 24 men and women aged between 55 and 78. Half of them had used the internet a lot; the others had little experience.

At the start of the research, they were asked to conduct a series of internet searches while their brains were scanned using a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures changes in blood flow around the brain to work out which parts are the most and least active.

After the initial scan, participants went home and used the internet to carry out specified tasks for an hour a day at least seven times over the following fortnight. Then they had a second brain scan, again while searching the internet.

The impact began immediately, with the first scan demonstrating brain activity in regions controlling language, reading, memory and vision.

By the time of the second scan, however, the activated areas had spread to include the frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, areas known to be important in working memory and decision-making. The researchers suggest internet searching stimulates brain cells and pathways, making them more active.

“Searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults,” said Teena Moody, one of the researchers who will be presenting this work at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago tomorrow.

It has long been known that as people age, their brain functions and abilities also change. In many respects these changes are beneficial — verbal and social skills tend to improve until at least late middle age, for example. In other areas there can be declines. One of the best known is mathematics, as shown by the number of mathematicians and physicists who do their best work early and then struggle to match their youthful performances.

In Britain around 700,000 people suffer from dementia, a condition in which so much of the brain has died that function is severely impaired.

The researchers argue that brains are similar to muscles, in that the more they are exercised, the healthier they become. So, activities such as internet use, reading and socialising can slow or reverse normal age-related declines.

Interestingly they reckon that internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading. So now you know! Carry on surfing!

Who'se afraid of new technology then!

Over-50s are increasingly relying on broadband internet to help them communicate with friends and family, new research has shown.

According to the study by Just Retired, 90 per cent of older people use email to keep in touch, while 65 per cent regularly head online to do their shopping.

Commenting on the findings, Nancy Johnson, technology and digital inclusion development manager at Age Concern, said that it is important over-65s are given help and support to allow them to make such good use of the web.

"Access is important, but the key to getting older people online is making sure education and training is available to demystify online technology and also demonstrate the potential benefits of going digital," she stated.

Staying involved and in touch ....

In a recent report 'Social Networking for Seniors' in the New York Times, Carla Winn suggests that one-third of Americans age 75 and over live alone and are increasingly turning to online social networks like Facebook and My Space for their social contacts. The article quotes Joseph Couglin director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as saying, “One of the greatest challenges or losses that we face as older adults, frankly, is not about our health, but it’s actually about our social network deteriorating on us, because our friends get sick, our spouse passes away, friends pass away, or we move. The new future of old age is about staying in society, staying in the workplace and staying very connected. And technology is going to be a very big part of that, because the new reality is, increasingly, a virtual reality. It provides a way to make new connections, new friends and new senses of purpose.”
Posted by Mike Scally at 09:35
Labels: technology

We are now the fastest growing age group of internet users

Once they were regarded as the “technophobe generation” but, according to a new report, the over 50s are now the UK’s fastest-growing age group of Internet users.

And the affluent ’silver surfers’ are starting to change the way that advertisers sell their products and services on the worldwide web.

For they belong to an age group that controls 80% of the country’s personal wealth, and accounts for 40% of consumer spending.

“That,”; says mature marketing expert Fiona Hought, “makes them one of the most powerful consumer forces in Internet shopping. And they are starting to flex their muscles.”

Fiona is managing director of Millennium, mature marketing specialists that have been tracking Internet usage among the over 50s.

New research has revealed that the over 50s now make up over a quarter of web users in the UK and 14% are over 70. This is a figure that has continued to grow over the last four years.

Silver Surfers' Day is on May 15th

This year it's bigger and better than ever with hundreds of free or nearly-free IT taster events all over the UK, in venues as diverse as a Sainsbury's supermarket in Folkestone and a Community Centre in the Scilly Isles. Many will be on Friday May 15th but others will be on other days, up until end of May.

So if you're over 50 years old and still unsure about computers then this is a great chance to just give it a go!

Silver Surfers' Day is run by Digital Unite, who've been getting older people online for thirteen years.

More evidence that the over 60's are flocking to the internet

"Older adults are the fastest growing demographic on the Internet," said Professor Vicki Hanson of the School of Computing at Scotland's University of Dundee on the opening day of a global World Wide Web conference in Madrid.

While just over one-fourth, or 26 percent, of 70-75 year olds went online in the United States in 2005, the proportion was 45 percent last year, according to data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, she said.

The percentage of those aged 76 years and over who surf the Web rose during the same period from 17 percent to 27 percent.

Britain has experienced similar sharp gains in Internet use by people in this age group, said Andrew Arch of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organisation for the Web.

"They are basically doing the same things as everyone else. Using the Web for communication, then quickly moving to other activities like information seeking, online banking, shopping," said Arch who works to boost Web accessibility for older and disabled users.

Sending and receiving e-mail is the most popular online activity for Internet users age 64 and older, according to the Pew study.

But older Internet users are less likely than younger Web surfers to do online banking and shopping -- and far less likely to use social networking sites, it found.

Generations online in 2009

Internet users take part in different activities based on their age group. That's according to a report, "Generations Online in 2009" released by Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Each age group, whether it's Generation Y or Baby Boomers, are all active on the Internet but do different activities. Generation Y, those between ages 18 and 32, comprise 26 percent of the adult population and 30 percent of the Internet-using population. Among the generational age groups, this is the largest.

Generation Y is also the most social. This group is most likely to use the Internet to play games (50 percent); watch videos online (72 percent); send instant messages (59 percent); use a social networking site (67 percent); create a profile on a social networking site (60 percent); read a blog (43 percent); create a blog (20 percent); or visit a virtual world (10 percent).

"Generation Y is the most well-rounded," said Susannah Fox, associate director at Pew Internet. "They are the most likely to have access to the most online technologies most of their adult lives. That means they probably can't imagine a world without these online activities. They probably never had a chance to form habits like older generations, and probably seems natural."

Social networks are high on the list of activities of Generation Y, a trend cited in an earlier report released by Pew Internet.

Generation X, defined as those between the ages of 33 and 44, share some similarities with Gen Y. Like Gen Y, people in this age group are likely to play games online (38 percent); watch videos online (57 percent); get job information (55 percent); send instant messages (38 percent); use social networking sites (36 percent); create a social networking site profile (29 percent); read a blog (34 percent); and create a blog (10 percent). Where those in the 33 to 44 age group stand out is in research.

Yet, this cohort is more likely than Gen Y to get information on health (82 percent); buy online (80 percent); bank online (65 percent); or visit government Web sites (64 percent) than other groups.

"Generation Y is most likely to have sampled most of what's available online, but generation X seems to be in a life stage that gives them the opportunity to use the Internet experience that they have," Fox said. "They're a pretty wired generation, plus they're at the point online where they're starting to manage some capital."

The population between 70 and 75 years old has grown the most. In a 2005 Pew Internet study, 26 percent were online. At this time 45 percent of the age group is now online.

"People are aging into this group," Fox said. "People are hanging onto their Internet connection through their life stages. We see the saturation start to seep into our older populations."

E-mail is heavily used across all age groups, though Internet users ages 55 and older rely on the medium more heavily. Ninety percent of younger Boomers (ages 45 to 54) and older Boomers (ages 55 to 63) are equally likely to use e-mail online. What they call the Silent Generation(Ughh!), defined as those between 64 to 72) uses e-mail (91 percent), while 79 percent of the G.I. Generation, ages 73 and older, uses e-mail.

Search, watching videos, news, and travel are also universal categories across all age groups.

"This report can give some nuance to the stereotypes we hold about generations and online activities," Fox said. "Some of these stereotypes hold true. It's pretty likely that teens with Internet access will go on social networking sites. It's also true that if you're in your 70s it's less likely you will have Internet access and will stay in the shallow waters of e-mail and searchThen there are those people in the middle, who are also doing interesting things."

Pew Internet conducted a series of telephone interviews in August 2008 of adult Internet users to compile the data for the study.

More evidence that the over 50's are pretty IT savvy.

Fifty, 60 and 70-year-olds are nearly as tech savvy as younger consumers, claims a study of 3,135 adults by the Consumer Electronics Association and TNS Compete.
We posted a recent briefing giving you evidence for this and this has been quickly followed by some more research from the the US which shows that:

• those in their 50s are just as likely to have a high-definition TV as those younger than 50;

• 80% of 60-somethings reported using a mobile phone in the past week--nearly the same usage rate as 18-34 year-olds;
  
• 71% of 60-somethings and 52% of 70-somethings reported using a search engine in the past week, compared to 77% of 18-34 year-olds. The online survey was conducted in November 2008.

When it comes to technology, the survey found that the main difference between older and younger generations is that aging consumers prefer more personal attention. While the majority of Americans are comfortable researching and purchasing products online, 63% of over 50s reported speaking with a sales associate in person when researching consumer electronics purchases, versus 47% of those ages 18-49. Older consumers also reported being frustrated with the complexity of new technologies.

Is Generation Y really superior to the over 50's in IT?

Watch this video and slideshow which presents solid evidence to show that the gap is not only not great between the generations but in many ways the over 50's are ahead of the youngsters. Fascinating study. You can watch the video or go more quickly through the slide show. The company behind this is Atticmedia which partners with Axia Interactive Media, a company of which I am Chairman. We work with together with some signifcant national clients and I am delighted to bring this presentation to a wider audience.

Over 55's are savvier online shoppers

Online shoppers in the 55+ age bracket are apparently far more likely than 16-24 year-olds to use Web 2.0 resources like blogs and forums in advance of any purchases, according to web hosting firm 1&1 Internet. Its survey found that 70% of older respondents do their research online before committing to purchases, compared to just 53% of the youngsters. So either these ‘silver surfers’ are just more in tune with the Web 2.0 blogosphere – or they’re a lot more careful

Checking for online feedback is now becoming an increasingly common part of online buying decisions. Overall, about two-thirds of those questioned said they regularly check the internet for material about the specific retailer before they make a purchase, while 46% said they tried to read some kind of online review about the particular product. Indeed, we’re increasingly reliant on the feedback that other users leave about previous purchases – around 40% said they routinely rely on websites’ star ratings and rankings. An assiduous 24% even go to the lengths of looking for customer service commitments on the website.

One in three of us is now perfectly happy to leave a review of a site or product after we make a purchase, whereas only one in five can be bothered writing a letter (although statistically, people still prefer the more old-fashioned approach of actually speaking to people about their experiences). And interestingly, this is probably good news for smaller retailers, at a time when they’ve never needed it more: now that it’s so easy for people to get feedback on the most unfamiliar of sellers, they’re more likely to trust them with their money. Well, as long as the feedback’s good.

How the 50+'s rely on the Internet

New research from Alliance & Leicester Current Accounts has revealed the extent to which the over 50s rely on the internet to help organise different areas of their lives, from their finances through to their love life.

These days, nearly three fifths (58%) of over 50s use the ‘net' to manage their finances, a further two in five (41%) book their holidays online, and almost one in five (18%) regularly log on to social networking websites such as Facebook and Friends Reunited.

With so much use of the internet, it is not surprising that online security is important to the over 50s. While six in ten (59%) of the over 50s say they are happy to buy products online, more than a half (51%) say they need to be sure a site is safe and secure before buying anything, and more than a quarter (27%) will only shop online at UK websites.

It seems that location matters too when it comes to using the internet. While two thirds (64%) feel confident using online banking in the safety of their own home, only 5% feel safe checking their bank balance at work, and only 2% would risk logging-on to their online banking at a shared or public computer, such as a library or internet cafe.

The over 70s have the least confidence to carry out their banking online, with almost one in three (31%) saying they have ‘no confidence at all' banking online, compared with only one fifth (21%) of those aged 50-59. Those over 70 are also more wary of giving their bank details online and more than a third (35%) will only pay for items online with a credit card, compared with just (27%) of those aged 50-59.

Over 50s use of the internet: men v women

There seems to be a divide between the sexes when it comes to having confidence in online banking. Seven out of ten (70%) of men over 50 feel confident banking online at home, compared to only 59% women. Almost one third (30%) of women believe online banking is unsafe and only 29% of women over 50 are happy to input their debit card details when buying online.

However, men over 50 are more conscientious about internet security than women, with almost two thirds (63%) of men claiming to always ensure their security software is up-to-date, with just 56% of women doing the same.