More and more older people are using social media
Older people are increasingly using social media. Particularly among 65 to 75-year-olds, social media use has taken off in recent years. In 2017, 64 percent of respondents in this age group said they had been active on social media in the three months prior to the survey. Five years earlier that was still 24 percent. This is evident from recent figures from Statistics Netherlands about online activities of the Dutch.
The use of social media by the over-75s has also increased, especially in 2017. At that time, 35 percent indicated that they had used social media, in 2016 this was still 22 percent and in 2012 only 5 percent. Almost everyone in the youngest age groups uses social media. This is 12 percent of all Dutch people aged 85 or older combined.
Also more and more on social networks
34 percent of 65 to 75-year-olds now use social networks, such as Facebook. That was 12 percent five years earlier. Among the oldest age group (75 plus), the share that is active on social networks increased from 2 percent in 2012 to 17,3 percent in 2017. On average, 63 percent of Dutch people aged 12 or older were active on social networks.
Older people are also increasingly online on the go
More and more older internet users are also going online outside the home: 61 percent of internet users aged 65 to 75 and 33 percent of over-75s did so in 2017. Five years earlier, this was 16 and 4 percent respectively.
Slightly more than half of the 65 to 75-year-olds used a mobile phone or smartphone for this purpose. This was lower at just over 75 percent among the elderly aged 20 and older. After the mobile phone or smartphone, the tablet is the most popular for internet use with 32 percent (65 to 75 years) and 19 percent (75+). In total, more than 82 percent of all Dutch people aged 12 or older use mobile internet.
People over 65 like to read a newspaper online
Of the 65 to 75 year olds, 75 percent say they use the internet to find information about goods and services, followed by 'searching for information about health' (60 percent) and reading the newspaper (58 percent).
People aged 75 and older show the same preference, but in this age group the percentages are slightly lower at 46 percent (information about goods and services), 37 percent (information about health) and 34 percent (newspapers).
That's logical no one comes to visit anymore like the children/grandchildren are too busy with all kinds of screens so they're also looking for it but on social media they still keep talking to the fellow man a bit, so do I if there are 2 or 3 X here someone comes to visit it is a lot while the other way around I often go to others in this case not family but friends made here and yes if you come there they can't use their smartphone or other app. hands off
Sorry to say but this is one of the dumbest things I've read. Of course, the number of people over 65 using the internet has grown. WE'RE ALL GETTING OLDER!
I've been using the internet for almost 30 years, half my life. Not the very first beginner yet, but I already had a computer before the internet and was one of the first to use compuserve. My first internet browser was Netscape and I've been through the whole development.
And not just me, millions of other peers. The number of users will only increase and in ten years' time almost 100% of the over-65s will be using the internet… how strange is that?
Soon there will be another study that shows that more and more people are using digital cameras…
In addition, I would like to add that by internet use I also mean social media. That simply runs parallel to the use of the Internet. The point is that it is not surprising that more and more people over 65 use this, because they were a lot younger and came into contact with computers and the internet for longer than people who are over 75 or older.
Knock young people grow old. And….. a fox loses its hair, not its pranks. So read here as habits.
On the other hand, more and more young people are leaving Facebook because their father and/or mother also have an FB account. And you don't want them as a friend because then they can see everything about you.
I've also read...young people are increasingly on instagram and I can't deal with that (yet). I'm also on it, but I'm not really interested in it... I prefer Pinterest, where you can see beautiful photos, landscapes, recipes, places, a little bit of everything. It's not so much a social media as a source of good photos.
What else do we have then? Line, Whatsapp, Messenger (belongs to facebook) which I don't have. Skype is probably one of them too.
On my phone I replaced Facebook with an app called friendly. This one still has the messenger built in. All notifications are also turned off. I hate that when I'm enjoying watching a movie, the phone keeps ringing notifications.
I am currently using Facebook more to connect with other digital nomads. The latest is FutureNet.club, which is almost exclusively for people who have a platform for their business there.
Then I also know Linkedin and Xing, both social media for making contacts in the business field. I personally don't care much about that. Although I did find some good contacts with them.
In principle I use them all, but have them spread over my devices. Skype only on my tablet and PCs, Whatsapp on my phone and PCs and Facebook on all.
Well, that's my personal situation. It depends on the theme that the piece was about…