Findings recently released by Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed that individuals age 70 and older were fastest growing population of Internet users. Usage among older adults ages 70 to 74 showed an increase of 19 percent, followed by individuals 75 years of age and older at 10 percent.


To provide a framework for comparison, Internet users aged 25-29 was 85 percent during the same time frame. All in all, that's a respectable jump in technology usage for older adults who were living during a time when TV was a twinkle in a group of inventor’s eyes (British engineer Willoughby Smith got things started when he envisioned a system of "visual telegraphy" in the late 1800's).

Older Americans typically go online for health or religious information and to visit government Web sites. Teens and those in their twenties use the Internet for gaming, watching movies, reading and/or writing blogs and communicating via social networking sites.

The big “however,” however, is that people over 70, by 2007, had begun to use online dating companies in record numbers. One success story revolved around a 67 year old widow. Her daughter cautioned her against dating someone without a profile picture. She did anyway. The prospective couple met in January, 2006 and discovered that they lived five minutes apart. They married that year, in October.

Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington, who studies relationships, decided to spend a day explaining the ins and outs of online dating to her friend – an 80 year old woman.

The older woman had lined up a coffee date by the end of her first day “crash course”!