Who Is On Line? Report on Internet Use.

Pew Research Center recently issued a new report examining internet use over the past 15 years.  Americans’ Internet Access: 2000-2015 looks at uses of the Internet by different groups, based on age, education, income, gender and other factors. More than half of elders are going on line, according to the findings published in the report (“[o]lder adults have lagged behind younger adults in their adoption, but now a clear majority (58%) of senior citizens uses the internet.”) How fast are elders adopting Internet use? This figure puts it in perspective for us: “14% of seniors used the internet in 2000, while 58% do so today. Not until 2012 did more than half of all adults ages 65 and older report using the internet.”

This is important information on several levels.  With the push for the use of “elder-tech” to help folks age in place and many government agencies placing information on the web, consider how comfortable digital immigrants are with various technologies.  The internet of things can be wonderful, if one does go online…

Another report from Pew notes that yes, there are those who do not go online!  15% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?   Well if you are reading this blog, we know that you aren’t among that 15%.  For our purposes, looking at the data on age and internet use, the report provides that “[s]eniors are the group most likely to say they never go online. About four-in-ten adults ages 65 and older (39%) do not use the internet, compared with only 3% of 18- to 29-year-olds.”  As noted above, elders are adopting the internet at a faster rate in the past 15 years.  “Over time, the offline population has been shrinking, and for some groups that change has been especially dramatic. For example, 86% of adults 65 and older did not go online in 2000; today that figure has been cut in half.”