Why "older people"?

Well, because statistically older people are more likely to use directory enquiries or not be au fait with the internet. It's a fact. Not all older people certainly but far more.

£9???

DH has just had one of my 'warnings.'

Older people are the least likely to have internet access so I don't see what's wrong with highlighting that they are the most likely people to bear such charges.

Well it would affect anyone without Internet access not just older people wouldn't it?

None of the older people at the Day Centre I visit to help with knitting have ever used a computer of any kind so, as others have said, referring to the fact that some, possibly many depending on age, older people do not have access to the internet is not unreasonable at all. Age does have something to do with using the internet because older older people have often never been shown and never felt the need to use it.

May of us in here are younger older people as opposed to older older people and the older older ones who do use the internet at home may well have had jobs where it was in use or just be interested and have felt the need. I don't think the people at the day centre I visit ever felt the need. Why would they?

My paternal gran never really learned how to use a telephone. She was born in 1892 and died in 1980.

may Many...

My mum doesn't have internet access at home. I wonder how many other parents of gransnetters that applies to.

It's not a criticism of someone to say that they are old and it's not ageist to notice and to comment on the fact that there are generational or age differences in behaviour. There are. It'd be odd if there weren't. Internet use is one of the most obvious.

My mum is 90 this year and has the internet but she really only uses it for the news or watching tv programmes she's missed.

I do wish she'd use her email, though, as then I could keep her more up to date with photos of greatgrandchildren and other family things.

SueDonim perhaps she might prefer 'whatsapp' if she has a smart phone. This is how my son sends all his photos of my grand-daughter

She doesn't have a smart phone, Tizliz, as she only keeps a PAYG mobile for emergencies. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

I think you will find phoenix that many older people, who might have sight problems and difficulty learning new things, do not have access to computers.

As we know, people are living much longer now. My Mum is nearly 97 and can just about manage doing what she has alwayhs done but could not possibly operate a computer - partly because her sight is so bad and partly because she would find it too confusing.

I'm not particularly savvy about computers myself but can do the basics. My lack of knowledge, though, would be laughable to young people.

Didn't the chap quote the statistics for the number of over 75 year olds who don't have access to the internet? Can't remember what the figure was but it sounded reasonable to me. My 87 year old mother who doesn't use the internet but does use WhatsApp and text may not be aware that Directory Enquiries isn't what it used to be.

A few weeks ago I was reading about the costs of Met Police using Directory Enquiries - well over £10,000 a year. I acknowledge that's a tiny percentage of the police budget but I do hate avoidable waste. Just mentioning this to point out it's not just older people who pay for the service!

Most of the people who come to our Library for computer tuition are'older people' and do find it difficult to learn.

If it was the interview I heard they also mentioned the vulnerable - which in a way is more worrying.

It's well known that it's harder to learn new stuff as you age. That's not a criticism either, just a fact of life.

DH is a Bowls Coach and 'on the committee' and they have a hell of a job persuading the members (age profile 80% over 60) to use e-mail to receive communications from the club even though a significant number of them have mobile and I pads.

Have you noticed how they're starting to put Audrey in this category in Coronation Street? They had her refer to trolls as gremlins, regarding Sally's trolls. Audrey is a business woman. She is modern, stylish, and young at heart. Of course she would know how to use a computer. It annoys me greatly that our newspaper advertises beginner classes for over 50's!

Pensioners may not be able, or willing, to afford internet. mY dad who was very capable man prefered to spend his pension on golf, travel and his car.

He did use the internet by proxy as he gave me his requests and I did his bidding, Easy Jet flights, cheap car insurance and so on he just did not consider it worth the money to him.

phoenix I've just been making this point this morning. Computers have been with us for decades. Social media in a very basic way started in 1969. It began in the way we know it now in the mid 1980 and really took off in the mid 1990s.
Young people used to believe that they had invented sex. Now they believe that they invented the internet.
I don't know anyone in their 50s or 60s who doesn't use social media. If you go to the library the people using the computers are pretty well 50/50 between students and older people.

Maybe the word 'elderly' would have been more appropriate...

I suppose the newsreader should have said it was unfair on anyone who didn't have internet access. I'm always amused now by the number of fashion shoots for the older woman where everyone is in their 50's.

My brother (65 this year) and his wife (just 60) will not use the internet and only have the most basic mobile phones and my Sil only uses hers for phoning for a lift. She doesn't drive either.

I am 75 and could not live without the internet and google!! I also shop on the internet and Christmas is a boon when I don't have to face the crowds.