Facebook and YouTube help the elderly keep their brains active and stave off memory loss, according to scientists. Pensioners who frequent social networking sites, and other online destinations, such as Skype – have more flexible brains than those who don’t, a study claims. The Internet was also found to reduce symptoms of anxiety, stress and [...]

On a recent Sunday evening, each of my kids was engaged with some electronic gadget or another. I was about to call for a moratorium on screen time and a return to family time. Unbeknown to me, they were already enjoying family time. My 9-year-old in our Philadelphia home was playing an online Scrabble game [...]

An organization intended to get more older Americans online launched Tuesday, backed by tech giants like Verizon, Facebook, Comcast, and Microsoft.

The Project to Get Older Adults onLine (GOAL) will work with aging groups in order to communicate the importance of getting more senior citizens on the Web.

Backed by such industry heavyweights as Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), Facebook and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), a new D.C.-based organization officially launched on Tuesday, with the goal of getting more seniors to adopt broadband services.

The FCC’s top broadband official helped launch a new initiative Tuesday aimed at encouraging more older adults to utilize the Internet. The initiative, known as the Project to Get Older Adults Online, will work to help promote the adoption of broadband services by senior citizens.

Granny, get your Google.

That’s the message from a new organization that aims to get more senior citizens online. Only about 35 percent of seniors have broadband service, compared with 65 percent of the entire adult population. That means they are missing out on everything from chat time with grandchildren to lifesaving tele-medicine.

Broadband offers many benefits for older U.S. residents, including telemedicine, increased contact with family and friends, and shopping without leaving the house, but they subscribe to the service at a much lower rate than other people, some advocates for the elderly said Tuesday.