Larger percentage of older generations going online in US
The internet continues to be populated largely by younger generations in the US, as over half the online population there is between 18 and 44 years old, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project surveys.
While just over one-fourth (26%) of US 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online.
Email remains the most popular US online activity, particularly among older users, with 74% if internet users aged 64 and older sending and receiving email.
At the same time, email has lost some ground among US teens; whereas 89% of teens claimed to use email in 2004, just 73% say they currently use email.
US teen internet users’ favourite online activity is game playing; 78% of 12-17 year old internet users play games online, compared with 73% of online teens who email, the second most popular activity for this age group.
A comScore report published last week revealed that online gaming sites in the US grew 27% during the past year to 86 million visitors in December 2008 (see Growth in US online gaming).
Americans’ total share of internet time spent playing online games grew from 3.7% in December 2007 to 4.9% in December 2008, comScore found.
Last August, Nielsen Online published a report which found that entertainment, games and video sites are the most popular websites with people under the age of 23 in the UK, with gaming sites most popular with 12-17 year-olds (see Entertainment, Gaming And Video Sites Are Most Popular With Young People).
| Generational Differences in Online Activities | ||||||||
| Online Teens (a) (12-17) | Gen Y (18-32) | Gen X (33-44) | Younger Boomers (45-54) | Older Boomers (55-63) | Silent Generation (64-72) | GI Generation (73+) | All Online Adults (b) | |
| Go online | 93% | 87% | 82% | 79% | 70% | 56% | 31% | 74% |
| Teens and Gen Y are more likely to engage in the following activities compared with older users: | ||||||||
| Play games online | 78 | 50 | 38 | 26 | 28 | 25 | 18 | 35 |
| Watch videos online | 57 | 72 | 57 | 49 | 30 | 24 | 14 | 52 |
| Get info about a job | 30 | 64 | 55 | 43 | 36 | 11 | 10 | 47 |
| Send instant messages | 68 | 59 | 38 | 28 | 23 | 25 | 18 | 38 |
| Use social networking sites | 65 | 67 | 36 | 20 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 35 |
| Download music | 59 | 58 | 46 | 22 | 21 | 16 | 5 | 37 |
| Create and SNS profile | 55 | 60 | 29 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 29 |
| Read blogs | 49 | 43 | 34 | 27 | 25 | 23 | 15 | 32 |
| Create a blog | 28 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 11 |
| Visit a virtual world | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Activities where Gen X users or older generations dominate: | ||||||||
| Get health info | 28 | 68 | 82 | 74 | 81 | 70 | 67 | 75 |
| Buy something online | 38 | 71 | 80 | 68 | 72 | 56 | 47 | 71 |
| Bank online | * | 57 | 65 | 53 | 49 | 45 | 24 | 55 |
| Visit gov’t sites | * | 55 | 64 | 62 | 63 | 60 | 31 | 59 |
| Get religious info | 26 | 31 | 38 | 42 | 30 | 30 | 26 | 35 |
| And for some activities, the youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, but there is less variation overall: | ||||||||
| Use email | 73 | 94 | 93 | 90 | 90 | 91 | 79 | 91 |
| Use search engines | * | 90 | 93 | 90 | 89 | 85 | 70 | 89 |
| Research products | * | 84 | 84 | 82 | 79 | 73 | 60 | 81 |
| Get news | 63 | 74 | 76 | 70 | 69 | 56 | 37 | 70 |
| Make travel reservations | * | 65 | 70 | 69 | 66 | 69 | 65 | 68 |
| Research for job | * | 51 | 59 | 57 | 48 | 33 | 9 | 51 |
| Rate a person or product | * | 37 | 35 | 29 | 30 | 25 | 16 | 32 |
| Download videos | 31 (bb) | 38 | 31 | 21 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 27 |
| Participate in an online auction | * | 26 | 31 | 27 | 26 | 16 | 6 | 26 |
| Download podcasts | 19 | 25 | 21 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 19 |
| (a) Source for online teens data: Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys conducted Oct-Nov 2006 and Nov 2007-Feb 2008. | ||||||||
| (b) Source for online adult data: Pew Internet & American life Project Surveys conducted August 2006, Feb-March 2007, Aug-Sept 2007, Oct-Dec 2007, May 2008, August 2008, November 2008 and December 2008. | ||||||||
| (bb) Most recent teen data for these activities comes from the Pew Internet & American Life Project Teens and Parents Survey conducted Oct-Nov 2004. | ||||||||
| * No teen data for these activities | ||||||||