With
more and more news and communication sources moving from print to online, I
always worry about those who might not be going online, especially our senior
citizens. Thankfully these days I think I can worry a little less.
In
2001 only 15% of Americans 65 and older went online (as per a Pew Research
study.) As of 2012, the number had significantly increased with 59% of our
Seniors going online at least “occasionally.”
So what does this really
mean? As
the number of Seniors going online regularly continues to increase, we can
worry less about their losing contact with local and world events. The access
to news online means they can keep up-to-date on the world around them and not
be ignorant to their surroundings. They
can also keep in touch with their distant friends and family by email, a much
quicker way to write and send a note than regular mail. (My apologies to the
United States Postal Service as the art of letter writing has died out since
email took over!)
I
also see this as a chance for Seniors to not be as isolated from their friends
and family, especially the children in their life. In 2010, Pew found that Seniors age 74 and
older were the fastest-growing demographic on social media. Grandma is on Facebook!
Of
course Grandma being on social media has a whole new set of challenges for
those who like to keep a few secrets from her…you might want to change your
picture settings to private before you post those drunken skinny dipping
pictures from spring break. But all in
all, there’s nothing better than knowing that Grandma can now keep up with the
news, her friends, and her family.
6 comments:
Hi Andrea,
I like your blog. Especially since my great uncle Charles, who is 98, has a Facebook page. This is the only way my long distance family can keep up with him. I think it is wonderful that seniors are using the internet to keep up with news and other things. Thanks for sharing the information!
Colette
Hi Andrea,
Really great title. You instantly had me wanting to read on.
One point of constructive criticism is to link out to sources, references or definitions. If what you're writing about really intrigues your reader, they'll want to learn more and know how you learned it.
Great images, cute and light-hearted post that still informs and provides great data.
Thanks!
Nancy Anderson
Hi Andrea, I really enjoyed your blog. Very relevant to me, especially since my mom has such a difficult time on the computer that I actually purchased an old selectric typewriter for her. She enjoys writing short stories, so I said if she typed them up I would set up a blog for her and post them. I thought a blog post entitled “How is Grandma keeping up with the news today is very pertinent to our class. I’m going to try and include more posts related to our class this week. Keep up the great work! Best, Lisa
Hi Andrea,
Excellent blog post. It was insightful, cited relevant facts/statistics and was timely and newsworthy. I can't find much to be critical about in terms of content.
I would however recommend some changes in terms of design. Including links to recent/related articles, or to general article categories, allows users to browse the site and discover more content. You have basic links on the right-hand side which lead to the blog archives, but these are not very discoverable. Also I don't see any tags/categories for the posts.
There are many free resources which can enhance design of blogger blogs. Going through and adding tags/categories to your previous articles would also improve user experience a bit.
However, these are all somewhat minor changes, ultimately what matters is the content, and yours is excellent.
Thanks!
-Mike
Hi Andrea, your blog was quite interesting and I feel like the old lady in the eSurance commercial because I'm not on Facebook and it appears even the elderly population has embraced this form of communication.
Hi Andrea, I love love love your blog. This is a very relevant topic for many people, myself included. My mom is 71 years old, and while she does get online sometime, she is still very old school, so she does very little online.
I am very curious to see your future topics. Your content is extremely timely. For one thing, everything is going digital, but also, our elderly are living longer than ever before, so having even the basic knowledge of how to manage on the great big internet will be very important for our seniors. Good stuff.
Post a Comment