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.
Helping senior citizens recognize the Internet's relevance to daily life is key in encouraging them to adopt broadband, representatives from groups for aging adults said Tuesday during a news conference. Consumer Action, Older Adults Technology Services and others formed Project Goal to promote broadband adoption to older adults. While 65 percent of Americans have adopted broadband, only about 35 percent of those over 65 have, said Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC Omnibus Broadband Initiative….
Get Older Americans Online -- is launching April 6 with a press conference at the National Press Club and a speech by Federal Communications Commission senior broadband adviser Blair Levin.
The Internet is an increasingly necessary service for individuals of all ages, and is of even greater importance to the aging population. In addition to providing health information, entertainment and serving as an education tool, the Internet also […]
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Mississippi Winn has 54 friends on Facebook. She enjoys all the benefits that having a broadband connection and joining a social network provides: communicating with family and reconnecting with friends. One interesting thing about Mississippi: she’s 113 years old! Yes, Facebook is now an online community of not only the young but also a rapidly growing number of older adults.
Today, I’m launching a new effort to promote broadband adoption by the older adult community. Project GOAL (the Project to Get Older Adults Online) will help work with aging organizations to communicate the importance of getting our older community online. It’s clear that having high-speed Internet at home can offer older individuals so many benefits: telemedicine, the convenience and savings of shopping at home, entertainment, health information, and of course social networking! Yet, only 35% of older adults (65 and older) have broadband at home – and the numbers drop considerably in even older age brackets.