First and foremost, more and more seniors are getting online via personal computers. According to a 2009 Nielsen report, the number of seniors online has increased by 6.2 million since 2004 (from 11.3 to 17.5 million). We hear regularly from seniors in the San Francisco Bay Area that they’d love to learn what computers can do for them. Nielsen’s findings don’t surprise us at all at Engage As You Age. In fact, we expect the number to increase even more in the coming years. A lot of that has to do with baby boomers that are already becoming senior citizens suddenly being categorized as “elders” or “senior citizens.” Still, we’re currently giving computer lessons to a 97-year-old San Francisco Bay Area resident and many other 80-something elders.
Below are some of the other findings that Nielsen had with regards to seniors using computers.
The top ten activities that these seniors perform online are:
- Sent a personal email (89%)
- Viewed or printed a map online (69%)
- Checked weather online (60%)
- Paid/viewed bills online (51%)
- Viewed/posted photos online (50%)
- Read news (49%)
- Checked personal health care information (47%)
- Planned leisure trip online (39%)
- Searched for recipes/meal plan (38%)
- Read business/finance news (38%)
The top ten websites that these seniors visit are:
- Google search
- Windows media player
- YouTube
- Amazon
- Yahoo! Mail
- Yahoo! Search
- Yahoo! Homepage
- Bing Web
- Google Maps
Click here for more details on the Nielsen study.
Contact Engage As You Age today if you have an aging parent or partner that would love to learn how to get online and reconnect with old friends and family or watch a YouTube video of their favorite old show or their hometown.
