Senior Citizens, Other Older
Adults Catching Up Fast in Use of Internet
Social Media
Social networking use among internet users ages
50 and older has nearly doubled -- from 22% to 42% over
the past year.
by Mary Madden, Senior Research
Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project
Aug. 27, 2010 - While social media use
has grown dramatically across all age groups, older
users have been especially enthusiastic over the past
year about embracing new networking tools. Although
email continues to be the primary way that older users
maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues,
many users now rely on social network platforms to help
manage their daily communications -- sharing links,
photos, videos, news and status updates with a growing
network of contacts.
Half (47%) of internet
users ages 50-64 and one-in-four (26%) users ages 65 and
older now use social networking sites.
Half of online adults ages 50-64
and one-in-four wired seniors now count themselves among
the Facebooking and LinkedIn masses. That's up from just
25% of online adults ages 50-64 and 13% of those ages 65
and older who reported social networking use one year
ago in a survey conducted in April 2009.
Young adult internet users ages
18-29 continue to be the heaviest users of social
networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, with 86%
saying they use the sites. However, over the past year,
their growth paled in comparison with the gains made by
older users.
Between April 2009 and May 2010, internet
users ages 50-64 who said they use a social networking
site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn grew 88% and
those ages 65 and older grew 100% in their adoption of
the sites, compared with a growth rate of 13% for those
ages 18-29.
One-in-ten (11%) online
adults ages 50-64 and one-in-twenty (5%) online adults
ages 65 and older now say they use Twitter or another
service to share updates about themselves or see updates
about others.
The use of Twitter and other
services to share status updates has also grown among
older users -- most notably among those ages 50-64.
While just 5% of users ages 50-64 had used Twitter or
another status-update service in 2009, 11% now say they
use these tools. On a typical day, 6% of online adults
ages 50-64 make Twitter a part of their routine, up from
the 1% who did so in 2009.
By comparison, social networking
sites have gained a much larger foothold in the lives of
older Americans over time. One-in-five (20%) online
adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites
on a typical day, up from 10% one year ago. Likewise,
13% of online adults ages 65 and older log on to social
networking sites, compared with just 4% who did so in
2009.
Email and online news are
still more appealing to older users, but social media
sites attract many repeat visitors.
While email may be falling out of
favor with today's teenagers, older adults still rely on
it heavily as an essential tool for their daily
communications. Overall, 92% of those ages 50-64 and 89%
of those ages 65 and older send or read email and more
than half of each group exchanges email messages on a
typical day. Online news gathering also ranks highly in
the daily media habits of older adults; 76% of internet
users ages 50-64 get news online, and 42% do so on a
typical day. Among internet users ages 65 and older, 62%
look for news online and 34% do so on a typical day.
Social media properties --
including networking and status-update sites -- are
newer additions to the daily digital diet of older
adults. Yet, the "stickiness" of the sites is notable.
To look at the data another way, among the pool of
adults ages 50 and older who use social networking
sites, 44% used them on the day prior to their being
contacted for our survey.
The pool of Twitter and status
update users ages 50 and older is too small to segment,
but the behavior of this limited early adopter group
does suggest a similar tendency towards regular use of
the sites.
By comparison, less than half of
online banking users ages 50 and older visited the sites
on a typical day and less than one-in-five older users
of online classified sites reported use of the sites
"yesterday."
Aug. 27, 2010 - While social media use
has grown dramatically across all age groups, older
users have been especially enthusiastic over the past
year about embracing new networking tools. Although
email continues to be the primary way that older users
maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues,
many users now rely on social network platforms to help
manage their daily communications -- sharing links,
photos, videos, news and status updates with a growing
network of contacts.
