Teaching old dogs new tricks in Year of the Dog (#79; Topic D)

Washington Post of 2/7/06 reports two surveys by Pew Internet and America Life Project, done in late 2004 and early 2005. Among 13 age categories, it is the youngest group, 12-17, that scores the highest -- 87% are online. Four other groups, aged in the 20s and 30s, have 80%+ scores; 2 groups in the 40s, 70%+; 2 in the 50s, 60%+; and 2 in the 60s, 50%+. Then, there is a significant drop; those in the 70-75 age group command only 26%; in the 76+ group, only 17%. One reason, given by the survey manager, is that "these folks were less likely to be in the workforce when computers were standard issues." I view it differently. Since computers have been with us for some 40 years now (one of my books, Accounting, Computers, and Management Information Systems, was published by McGraw-Hill in 1968), people in their 70s are unlikely to have no contact with computers in their working days. I think it is the way the question is posed -- or, at least, a follow-up question should be asked: "Do you have online computer access at home?" It seems to me that those in the younger age groups have online computer access either in school or at work, while those retirees must necessarily pay for these services from their own pocket. This being so, only when retirees' usage figures are pitted against other groups' home usage figures would figures be comparable -- when so, I suspect retirees' showing would compare favorably to that in other age groups.
Posted at 9:58 am, Saturday, February 11, 2006