Shift in Online Usage by Seniors

It has finally happened. The long anticipated adoption of the internet by the 65+ age has now been quantified by the Center for Media Research and the Pew Internet and American Life Project. While just a quarter of 70-75 years olds were on line in 2005, now close to 1/2 are now using the internet and not just for email. More older Americas are using social sites, buying online and gathering information from websites.

Close the three-quarters of older Americans are now using email. An equal number troll the web for health information. While these facts may not seem earth-shattering to many of you, they are in fact major changes in behavior. They represent a sea change in adoption of the web by seniors. 

For those of us in healthcare marketing and in marketing products and services to older Americans,  these are a very significant  developments. For example, the move toward bringing medical records online now has an almost universal push from the consumer side, with the greatest users of healthcare–the 65+ segment–leading the way.  It also has major implications in how we market to seniors in the coming years.