America’s seniors have historically been late adopters to the world of technology compared to their younger compatriots, but their movement into digital life continues to deepen.

AMERICA’S SENIORS HAVE historically been late adopters to the world of technology compared to their younger compatriots, but their movement into digital life continues to deepen, according to newly released data from the Pew Research Center. The report takes advantage of a particularly large survey to conduct a unique exploration not only of technology use between Americans ages 65 or older and the rest of the population, but within the senior population as well.

Two different groups of older Americans emerge. The first group (which leans toward younger, more highly educated, or more affluent seniors) has relatively substantial technology assets, and also has a positive view toward the benefits of online platforms. The other (which tends to be older and less affluent, often with significant challenges with health or disability) is largely disconnected from the world of digital tools and services, both physically and psychologically.

As the internet plays an increasingly central role in connecting Americans of all ages to news and information, government services, health resources, and opportunities for social support, these divisions are noteworthy—particularly for the many organizations and individual caregivers who serve the older adult population. Among the key findings of this research:

Six in ten seniors now go online, and just under half are broadband adopters.

Younger, higher-income, and more highly educated seniors use the internet and broadband at rates approaching—or even exceeding—the general population; internet use and broadband adoption each drop off dramatically around age 75.

Seniors, like any other demographic group, are not monolithic, and there are important distinctions in their tech adoption patterns. Some 68 percent of Americans in their early 70s go online, and 55 percent have broadband at home. By contrast, internet adoption falls to 47 percent and broadband adoption falls to 34 percent among 75-79 year olds.

In addition, affluent and well-educated seniors adopt the internet and broadband at substantially higher rates than those with lower levels of income and educational attainment:

• Among seniors with an annual household income of $75,000 or more, 90 percent go online and 82 percent have broadband at home. For seniors earning less than $30,000 annually, 39 percent go online and 25 percent have broadband at home.
• Fully 87 percent of seniors with a college degree go online, and 76 percent are broadband adopters. Among seniors who have not attended college, 40 percent go online and just 27 percent have broadband at home.

Despite some of these unique challenges facing the older adult population when it comes to technology, most seniors who become internet users make visiting the digital world a regular occurrence. Among older adults who use the internet, 71 percent go online every day or almost every day, and an additional 11 percent go online three to five times per week.

These older internet users also have strongly positive attitudes about the benefits of online information in their personal lives. Fully 79 percent of older adults who use the internet agree with the statement that “people without internet access are at a real disadvantage because of all the information they might be missing,” while 94 percent agree with the statement that “the internet makes it much easier to find information today than in the past.”

Seniors differ from the general population in their device ownership habits

Device ownership among older adults differs notably from the population as a whole in several specific ways:

More than half of all Americans now have a smartphone, but among older adults, adoption levels sit at just 18 percent. Additionally, smartphone ownership among older adults has risen only modestly in recent years, from 11 percent in April 2011. A significant majority of older adults (77 percent) do have a cell phone of some kind, but by and large these tend to be more basic devices.

Fully 77 percent of seniors are now cell phone owners. This trails the national average—91 percent of all Americans own a cell phone—but represents a significant increase over the 69 percent of seniors who owned a cell phone in April 2012. More notably, cell phones are now owned by a majority of seniors in every major demographic subcategory. Even among the oldest seniors (those 80 years of age or older, just 37 percent of whom use the internet), cell phone adoption sits at 61 percent.

 

But even as cell phones are becoming more common among seniors, smartphones have yet to catch on with all but small pockets of the older adult population. Just 18 percent of seniors are smartphone adopters (this is well below the national adoption rate of 55 percent) and their rate of smartphone adoption has been growing at a relatively modest pace. Since the Pew Research Center  first began tracking data on smartphone ownership in May 2011, smartphone adoption nationally has increased by 20 percentage points—from 35 percent to 55 percent of American adults—but adoption levels among seniors have increased by just seven percentage points, from 11 percent to 18 percent.

Smartphone ownership is fairly low along the entire age spectrum of the older adult population, but decreases substantially for seniors in their mid-70s (10 percent of 75-79 year olds own a smartphone), and becomes nearly non-existent among seniors in their 80s and beyond (just 5 percent of those 80 and older are smartphone owners).

Even the most affluent seniors (that is, those who live in a household with an annual income of $75,000 or more) have high levels of smartphone ownership by the standards of the older adult population but trail members of the general population at a similar income level. Some 42 percent of older adults at this income level are smartphone owners. This is more than double the rate among seniors as a whole, but roughly half the smartphone ownership rate among high-income adults within the general population, 76 percent of whom are smartphone adopters.

Among the general public, smartphones are much more common than either tablet computers or e-book readers, such as Kindles or Nooks. But tablets, e-book readers, and smartphones are each owned by an identical 18 percent of older adults. In fact, the proportion of older adults who own either a tablet or an e-book reader is actually larger than the proportion owning a smartphone. Some 27 percent of seniors own a tablet, an e-book reader, or both, while 18 percent own a smartphone.

Some 18 percent of seniors own an e-book reader, and an identical 18 percent own a tablet computer. Taken together, 27 percent of older adults own a tablet, an e-book reader, or both.

E-book reader ownership levels among seniors are slightly lower than the national average (24 percent of all U.S. adults are e-book reader owners), while tablet ownership levels among seniors are around half the national average (34 percent of all U.S. adults are tablet owners).

Nationally, tablets and e-book readers are most popular among college graduates and higher-income Americans, and this is also true among seniors. Seniors who have graduated from college are around three times as likely to own both an e-book reader and a tablet as are seniors who have not attended college, and those with an annual household income of $75,000 or more per year are around four times as likely to own each device as are those with a household income of less than $30,000 per year.

Online seniors use social networking sites, but just 6 percent use Twitter

Usage of social networking sites by older Americans has been steadily increasing in recent years, but has not yet reached majority status—among older adults who use the internet, 46 percent use social networking sites such as Facebook, well below the national average of 73 percent of adult internet users. On a “total population” basis (that is, accounting for individuals who do not use the internet at all), 63 percent of all American adults, and 27 percent of all Americans ages 65 and older, are social networking site users.

As is the case for the online population as a whole, older women are more likely than older men to use social networking sites. Half (52 percent) of female internet users ages 65+ are social networking site adopters, compared with 39 percent of older men. Social networking site usage is also more common among the younger cohort of seniors, and adoption drops off dramatically after age 80. Some 54 percent of internet users ages 65-69 use social networking sites, compared with just 27 percent of internet users ages 80 and older.

Few older adults use Twitter—just 6 percent of online seniors report doing so, compared with 19 percent of all adult internet users. In total, that means that just 3 percent of all American seniors are Twitter users.

Once online, most seniors make the internet a daily part of their lives

Although seniors are less likely than the rest of the population to go online in the first place, once there they tend to make the internet a part of their daily routine. Among seniors who use the internet, 71 percent go online every day or almost every day and 11 percent go online three to five times per week. The subset of seniors who have a smartphone or a home broadband connection go online with even greater frequency: 78 percent of older broadband users go online every day or almost every day, as do 84 percent of older smartphone owners.

In addition to using digital tools with some frequency, seniors who have integrated the internet and other digital technologies into their lives tend to view them as essential resources that positively impact their daily life. Fully 79 percent of older adults who use the internet agree (47 percent strongly) with the statement that “people without internet access are at a real disadvantage because of all the information they might be missing.” And 94 percent agree (77 percent strongly) with the statement that “the internet makes it much easier to find information today than in the past.”

Seniors who do not currently go online, on the other hand, are much more divided when it comes to the benefits of technology—35 percent of older non-internet users disagree with the assessment that they are missing out on important information—with 18 percent of them disagreeing strongly.