Over the past two years Advantage Home Care has seen significant growth in online inquiries about its services directly from elderly clients. In doing some research on the trends in senior use of the web I have uncovered this interesting article on the website www.mashable.com.
We have known for a while that Facebook users are getting a lot older, but now new data released by Nielson reveals that the number of seniors (65 and older) using the web has increased by six million in the past five years. Not only that, but nearly half the on-line seniors visited Facebook or YouTube last month, making them their third and fourth most visited online destinations.
The research confirmed a trend that we have seen in recent years: That more seniors are becoming active on the Web: In November of 2004 there were 11.3 active seniors online. In November 2009, that number jumped to 17.5 million. In addition, they spent more time on the Web, spending an average of more than 58 hours per month in front of the browser.
While those numbers didn’t surprise us, we were interested in the data that Nielsen collected on their browsing habits. Take a look at these two lists. The first reveals the most common activities of online seniors. The second shows the top ten websites and online destinations that this demographic visited last year.
Top 10 Online Activities Performed by People 65+
- Personal E-Mail
- Viewed or Printed Maps Online
- Checked Weather Online
- Paid Viewed Bills Online
- Viewed Posted Photos Online
- Read General/Political News
- Checked Personal Health Care Info
- Planned Leisure Travel Trip Online
- Searched Recipes/Meal Planning
- Read Business/Finance News
Top 10 Online Destinations Visited by People 65+
- Google Search
- Windows Media Player
- YouTube
- Amazon
- Yahoo!Mail
- Yahoo!Search
- Yahoo!Homepage
- Bing Web
- Google Maps
A majority of online seniors check their email, print maps, play around with photos and check the weather. All of these tasks seem utility-based, but then again, we expect that these numbers would be similar in almost any other demographic.
The more interesting data comes from the top 10 online destinations table. While Google Search was an obvious winner, Windows Media Player is a bit of as surprise until you realize how many websites are embedded in it. However, the rise of Facebook to number three on this list, when a year ago it was the number 45 most visited website by seniors, is a huge sign of just how mainstream social networking has become. YouTube at number four is another confirmation of this trend.
This is what happens when new technologies become more accessible and more mainstream.
Submitted by Rich Blumenthal at Advantage Home Care.