This is Not Your Grandson’s Internet

By Betsy Carpenter, Coordinator, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships

The internet for many years has been seen as a young club, something for ages under 30, the “Net Generation.” This no longer holds any merit according to the PEW Internet & American Life Project’s new “Generations Online” report. Not only that, but ages 30+ are dominating many online activities; banking, shopping, health, travel. It doesn’t stop there, search and email show fairly equal use by all age groups! The excuse, “my audience isn’t searching” is now just as questionable as “the dog ate my homework.”

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What may be even more surprising, is the amount of growth seen in the 70-75 demographic, showing the biggest increase since 2005 (shooting from 26% to 45% currently online). In fact, compared to younger users who had high activity in social networking, messaging and entertainment, older demographics tended to use the internet for emailing, shopping and SEARCHING! It doesn’t stop there, however, they’re downloading videos and podcasts, reading blogs, making travel reservations and rating people and products!

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This is no longer your grandson’s internet – it’s for all!