Old people don’t use the internet?

Post-COVID research for England only:

A large majority of 50-64 year olds (88%) and 65-74 year olds (75%) in England use the internet every day or almost every day, compared to under half (46%) of those aged 75+.

Others use it less often, but among those aged 75+ more than two out of five (42%) do not use the internet

Two-fifths (39%) of people aged 52 plus in England say they are using the internet more since the start of the coronavirus. However, usage has increased most among groups already using the internet regularly, and so far, there is little evidence that significant numbers of those previously digitally excluded have been prompted to get online during the first few months of the pandemic.

Among those aged 75+, only around a quarter (24%) are using the internet more while nearly one in ten (9%) are using it less.

Although the over 75s make up the highest proportion of non-users, only 15% of these say they would like to use the internet more.

Study is ELSA (which is very large, and is a longitudinal study of people aged 50+ living in their own homes (owned or rented) in England only.

It does not necessarily therefore exclude people with dementia or illness which may prevent them accessing the internet. But the reasons are, in the context of the OP, irrelevant. The estate agent, on the evidence of two significant data sets, is not enormously inaccurate.

My 96 year old FIL has both a laptop and an iPad. He banks, shops online for groceries and anything to do with his collecting hobby. He uses Zoom to talk to his 97 year old sister in the US and recently upgraded his iPad as it wouldn't support the latest software! Older people don't use the internet........?!

I wonder what Tim Berners-Lee would have to say about this. I do feel for people who don’t understand what it’s all about though as it must appear scary to some. I was lucky to get into computers over 40 years ago and am the go to person in the house for advice but I wouldn’t hesitate to refer to tech savvy son in his thirties. I don’t know everything. I am so happy most older people can navigate their way through it.

This is the problem of classing all people in a group as being the same. Young/old, white/black, male/female.

Im 78 and in 1996 I did a Ph.D in Human Computer Interaction.

I am involved with several Probus groups representing about 400 people and I can say there are only 2 or 3 people out of all those groups that don’t use the internet. They all receive newsletters and information online constantly. The age range is 65-95, mostly people in their mid 70s. They are pretty savvy with phones,too. Maybe we are more advanced here but I would be surprised.

Siope

Post-COVID research for England only:

A large majority of 50-64 year olds (88%) and 65-74 year olds (75%) in England use the internet every day or almost every day, compared to under half (46%) of those aged 75+.

Others use it less often, but among those aged 75+ more than two out of five (42%) do not use the internet

Two-fifths (39%) of people aged 52 plus in England say they are using the internet more since the start of the coronavirus. However, usage has increased most among groups already using the internet regularly, and so far, there is little evidence that significant numbers of those previously digitally excluded have been prompted to get online during the first few months of the pandemic.

Among those aged 75+, only around a quarter (24%) are using the internet more while nearly one in ten (9%) are using it less.

Although the over 75s make up the highest proportion of non-users, only 15% of these say they would like to use the internet more.

Study is ELSA (which is very large, and is a longitudinal study of people aged 50+ living in their own homes (owned or rented) in England only.

It does not necessarily therefore exclude people with dementia or illness which may prevent them accessing the internet. But the reasons are, in the context of the OP, irrelevant. The estate agent, on the evidence of two significant data sets, is not enormously inaccurate.

Thank you for providing some balance and evidence!

If the estate agent had said that older people don’t use the Internet to buy homes, he may well have been right. Fewer older people than younger people are likely to be buying homes. But he wasn’t only selling the home to older people.

As Argymargy says, the survey above only deals in numbers of over 75 year olds using the internet. It doesn't look at why they do not use it and this is relevant in the context of the comment by the Estate Agency

Up to a million people have dementia. Most of them will be over 75. All but a small minority will not be capable of using a computer There may well be another million, if not more, who cannot use a computer for other mental and physical reasons.

If someone has dementia or other illness that makes using a computer impossible, it is highly unlikely that they are going out and about leading an active life and meeting people like this estate agent. People in this non-computer use group may be selling houses, usually because they are going into care, but they are likely to be reliant on younger people to handle the arrangements.

So, I think the estate agent's perceptions, as based on the over 75 year olds he is likely to meet, is wrong.

I started using computers in 1965 after a visiting studentship at Culham Laboratory and I'm now 77. I've used them for all sorts of tasks throughout my diverse work life and at home. By contrast my partner only learnt to use a PC to word-process aged 50 or so, can now use email and Google fairly well but struggles with anything beyond that, and mobile phones and tablets. I find computer use quite intuitive now but partner needs an explanation every time a problem occurs. Generalized, I would think there is quite a variation in computer familiarity amongst older people.

I might be wrong, but I perceive most of the older generation, I'm thinking now of parents of our demographic who might not have used computers, are now mostly dead.

I also think the estate agent was wrong, he needs to get out more maybe his views seem entrenched in the past. For example the "seniors golfing contingent" at my husband's previous golf club and current one, everything has been done online for yonks. I just don't know anyone anymore who isn't au fait with the rudimentary aspects of the internet, unless of course dementia is a factor. Life is pretty impossible without access these days, ordering repeat prescriptions for example, that's done on line now.

Obviously I’m not old

sarahcyn

A local estate agent told my client the other day: “you house isn’t selling because older people who might be interested don’t go online.”
Hello? My husband and I have a serious Rightmove addiction!

It goes without saying though that all of us here on GN do use the internet, and most of us have been doing so for years. Some of us are obviously experts, and others practically invented it.

But I can think of a few friends and relatives of around my age who don’t, and have no interest in doing so (and no, I don’t understand it either, but it’s their loss call).

If the estate agent had just included the word “some” in his statement he’d have been correct. And an estate agent having trouble selling a house would surely be well-advised to use a variety of platforms, not just advertising online.

Time to "out" that estate agent on local media, he'll soon change his tune or face a boycott on older people using his services to sell their properties, and there's a lot of us....

Ive been selling online since the late 1990s and both my Masters and my Doctorate were in human computer interaction. Im still selling online at 78.

I don't think people should get the huff about this. It's as M0nica says, there certainly are a large number of older people who will be completely unable to use a computer or purchase a property online. But they are the older ones who may have dementia or other mental health problems. This young man has confused them with the vast majority of older people who are perfectly capable of using computers, and have been doing so since before he was born. I wouldn't blame him, he just needs someone to explain it to him. He should definitely read this thread.

This is a June 2021 thread.
Do they still think this after so many services going online?

I wonder if the last few years (during and after the pandemic) may have encouraged those who were reticent to "have a go".

Well I think if I were thinking of buying a house I'd automatically look first in the local paper and maybe in estate agents' windows and if I found something that way it wouldn't occur to me to look online. Maybe that's all the agent agent meant.

That’s just what one of my family members and a couple of friends would do as well, winterwhite. None of them suffering from dementia or mental health issues either!

winterwhite

Well I think if I were thinking of buying a house I'd automatically look first in the local paper and maybe in estate agents' windows and if I found something that way it wouldn't occur to me to look online. Maybe that's all the agent agent meant.

Here I am, elderly and on internet. Whilst some would look on internet if they needed another home, I suspect we'd go to an agent.

I agree with the general quiet indignation here but I do confess to having a few friends and relatives around my age who are strictly head in the sand about anything IT and refuse to be shown either on the grounds that they haven't needed it up until now or they're too old. I don't peruse or persuade as they've definitely decided.

I was on computers in 1958 via MOD. Two large computers like four large wardrobes bunched together but taller. They were named Gert and Daisy - comedy characters from the war. Probably in a museum somewhere.

I think more and more people are searching via the Internet to be honest.
It wouldn't occur to me to go into an estate agent. I might call them up if they had recently sold something I liked and ask to be emailed anything similar.

My husband, who taught maths, persuaded the head to get a computer in 1980. Most of the staff thought it a ridiculous waste of money but, within a couple of years, he had a room full of computers, staff pleading for classes for them and he switched to teaching IT and maths. He's now 82. Who do these ageist folk think were the first people to use them?

Kim19 me too. A couple who use the post office as they won’t use a cash point, insist on paper utility bills and never compare providers.
I have another friend who was shown how to use Amazon and spends a huge amount of time returning stuff she’s accidentally ordered multiples off because she orders from her phone (how she was shown) and won’t use a tablet or pc.
Our bowls club, where payments must be by cash or cheque, no bank transfer.