The Amazing Truth About Internet Use by Older Adults
The following post was written by guest author, Dr. Nikola Djordjevic.
Nikola is an MD and project manager at MedAlertHelp, an online medical alert comparison platform.
Almost everyone has felt the impact of the internet. There are very few places on earth, that the world wide web hasn’t reached. The adopters of the internet have also varied from the young to the old, individuals to corporates.
Smartphones were developed to make internet access a lot easier. There has been a general notion that older adults are slow adopters of technology, and while this might have some truth in it, recent developments show that older adults are swiftly migrating to digital life. In fact, a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre showed that over 50% of older Americans were internet users since way back in 2012.
Once they get familiar with the online environment, most seniors make it a regular activity in their daily lives. A clear perspective of the various uses of the internet among different groups is well illustrated by this infographic we at MedAlertHelp created about internet use by older adults.
According to this Pew report, younger seniors who are more educated and have higher incomes, use the internet at rates approaching or even exceeding the overall population. They also found that older social networking site users socialize with friends and family more frequently than non-users.
So what are some other things seniors are better at?
Sharing Content on Facebook
Although Millenials spend more hours every day on social media, it appears that Baby Boomers are 19% more likely to share content on Facebook than any other age group. Facebook is also the most popular social media site for Baby Boomers.
That content might not include a selfie with bunny ears, but you would definitely see them share critical information such as policy updates, political news or valuable business and trading news.
Emailing, reading the news, surfing the internet
Statistics from the report suggests that younger generations own smartphones in larger numbers compared to seniors. However, studies that compared smartphone use between Millenials and Baby Boomers found that emailing, reading the news and surfing the internet is in higher numbers among Baby Boomers.
Getting Health Updates and Information
Given that 70% of seniors use the internet, most of them on a daily basis, you might be wondering what they’re searching for online. According to Pew Research Center, a vast majority use their time on the internet to search for health information. This would make sense because as you get older you tend to be more conscious about your health. Moreover, there are a lot of reliable health websites on the internet with relevant and resourceful articles about one’s health.
It would be interesting to find out what future studies find about the integration of the internet in the lives of seniors. To learn more about internet adoption among older adults, go to https://medalerthelp.org/