Saturday, February 23, 2008

As society and technology advance, older generations feels the pressure to advance with the times also. In a national study done by The Kaiser Family Foundation, seniors took a telephone survey asking them a variety of questions. e-health and the Elderly :How Seniors Use the Internet for Health Information was a study involved how much senior citizens used the internet and how they use the internet to obtain health information.

According to the the Kaiser survey:
-only 31% of seniors 65 and over had ever gone online
-of that 31%, 46% go online everyday

"While Internet rates among seniors are likely to increase significantly as baby boomers (who are already online in much higher numbers) join the ranks of senior citizens, those who are not already online don’t seem inclined to change."


My Experience


My grandparents are a perfect example (Grandfather in above picture on the right). They purchased a computer, but they use it for basic purposed. E-mail and travel. They have a digital camera and still print and mail everyone the photos that they have taken. Everyone keeps telling them to email the pictures, they just shrug it off. They like going to get their pictures developed and like the interaction with the people. The internet is used mainly as a means for communicating with family and friends, not as a information source or tool.



Share your experience



Link to Article


e - H e a l t h a n d t h e E l d e r l y : H o w S e n i o r s U s e t h e I n t e r n e t
f o r H e a l t h I n f o r m at i o n. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/e-Health-and-the-Elderly-How-Seniors-Use-the-Internet-for-Health-Information-Key-Findings-From-a-National-Survey-of-Older-Americans-Survey-Report.pdf

posted by AISHA JACKSON at 6:53 PM |

4 Comments:

At March 12, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Blogger ArielleProd1982 said........
My step grandfather is 93 years old, and he has the internet, and uses it mainly to check his stocks, his email, and to do a little banking but that's it. He just got Cable internet from dial up. He is on a strict budget and can't do much right now due to the economy. I hope they will make it through!

Arielle
 


At March 17, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Blogger Vantine said........
I used to do technical support for a brokerage firm. Sometimes the branch associates would forward a call from an elderly client who was trying to use the internet to track their investments.
I found that they experienced a high degree of frustration, not only because they didn't understand how to use their computers, but also from the sheer fact that they were somehow forced to use one.
Very interesting post!
 


At March 20, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Blogger Marlena said........
Have your grandparents taken any classes or anything? I know some libraries have programs designed for beginners on computers.
 


At March 20, 2008 at 3:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said........
I remember when my grandparents first got a computer. It was an old thing, but to them it was brand new technology. I remember the old Sierra games we had on that thing. I don't think they ever had Internet.