Seniors Online: Few, but Fervent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only 15 percent of those aged 65 and
older are Internet savvy, but as a group those seniors are
fervent users, with 69 percent going online on a typical day,
according to a poll of 4,335 older Americans released on
Sunday.
That compares to 56 percent of all Americans who go online,
said the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which conducted
the survey from March to December 2000.
The survey showed that wired seniors were more likely than
their peers to be married, highly educated and enjoying
relatively high retirement incomes.
Women outnumber men among senior citizens by 141 to 100,
but 60 percent of online seniors are men, while only 40 percent
are women, the poll found. It noted that the statistics
mirrored those of the early Internet population.
But older women were coming online at faster rates than
other age groups. More than half of all senior citizens who
have gone online in the past six months are women, the poll
showed.
Once online, 93 percent of seniors said they had used
e-mail; 58 percent had found hobby information; 55 percent had
read the news; 53 percent had searched for health and medical
information; 53 percent had browsed the Internet ``just for
fun;'' and 53 percent had checked weather updates.
By contrast, young Internet users were more likely to
identify work-related research or shopping as their top
activities.
Fifty-six percent of online seniors said the Internet has
improved their connections with family members, reporting that
they are communicating more often with a daughter or son, now
that they use e-mail.
Generally, seniors were less likely than other age groups
to have sampled other Internet services, such as downloading
music, banking online or joining in online chat sessions.
The age group just behind the seniors -- people aged 50 to
64 -- were three times more likely to have Internet access, the
survey found. Fifty-one percent of people in this age group
reported having Internet access.
``Internet users aged 50-64 are likely to keep their
Internet access even after they retire and this 'silver
tsunami' may be the generation that takes advantage of all the
Internet has to offer them as they get older,'' the pollsters
wrote.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus one
percentage point. The full report is available on
www.pewinternet.org.