Over 50s lead dash to the internet: “The latest figures on new internet users in the UK have shown that people aged 50 or over made up the largest social group to join last year””: more than half of new users. As the article says, “Don’t knock silver surfers.” (Thanks to Twitter buddies @patientopinion and @age_uk.)
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To quote myself: “be careful when you hear people talking about how seniors are the ‘fastest growing group online’ since most of the growth comes from boomers aging in to the 65+ demographic, not people in their 80s and 90s suddenly going online.”
See:
http://pmedicine.org/epatients/archives/2008/06/participatory-medicine-at-nih.html
Also, such growth looks dramatic because this group lagged so far behind. Yes, they’re catching up, but they started from a low base.
For comparison to the U.S. please see:
http://www.pewinternet.org/Static-Pages/Trend-Data/Whos-Online.aspx