p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- The idea that the Net is a playground for younger generations has been soundly debunked — in Canada, at least.

“The latest report by the Canadian Internet Project suggests that 51 per cent of Canadians aged 60 and older are online users – a higher rate than web use by all ages in many other countries,” says the Canadian Press.

What’s more, online use by “the elderly” extends beyond email and conducting web searches, according to project director Charles Zamaria.

“While more than half of Net users under 30 have visited a community or social networking site, as many as one in five elderly Canadians have done the same,” he says, going on:

“They’re incorporating their grandchildren into their purview and they’re engaging in similar activities, learning it much more readily than they would any other technology or any other media – and for Canada, that is fairly profound,”

The study found in 2007, 78% of Canadians were current Internet users, up from 72 per cent in 2004, says CP.

But while more and more older people are logging on, “Online use is particularly strong among teens, with 96 per cent aged 12-17 using the Net,” says CP, adding:

“Non-Internet users watched about three to 3 1/2 hours more TV per week than Internet users. But those online used some other traditional media more than non-Internet users did.

“And while there has been an overall decline in traditional media use from an average of 50 hours per week in 2004 to 45 hours in 2007, it is declining at the same rate among both groups, Zamaria said.”

“In other words, the Internet isn’t necessarily displacing traditional media but in fact it could be enhancing and supplementing the value of those traditional media,” he said.

(The pic is with apologies to much.net )

Canadian Press – Computers Study indicates half of Canadians 60 and over go online, September 29, 2008

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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