http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-usage-among-people-over-65-has-tripled-2015-11
Imagine logging on to your twitter account and on your feed is a selfie of your grandparents, the captioned filled with emojis. Weird right? Think again because statistics show that 35% of adults 65 and older have an account on some form of social media. the numbers have steadily increased from 2005 when only 2% of people 65 and older were on some form of social media, compared to the nowadays 90% of young adults on social media.
Older people don't use social media for the same reasons as young adults though. While we are tweeting about “oomf” they are using social media to reconnect with old friends, Find digital support groups for Chronic disease, and just trying to stay “hip”.
I think this is a very good idea for older people because for example my grandma has lots of long lost friends that she could easily be reconnected with via social media, giving her a sense of nostalgia of the “good ol’ days”. Some older people are incapable of going out of the house so social media can help them communicate with the outside world and even come together with support groups online. My great grandma is still alive today, but barely breathing. all she does is sit on the couch and watch tv and read the newspaper, confined by the wall of my grandma’s house. She is missing out on a lot of things and I think social media could help her keep up with world events and even find some old friends so she can really live a little.
One thing that still haunts my grandma is the fact that her best friend was dying in the hospital and her children would not let anyone see her on her deathbed, this affected my grandma because she could not say her final goodbye to her best friend since childhood. Social media could have easily made this situation disappear, whether via skype or text, social media could have given my grandma closure but since older people are not in touch with social media she has to live with that regret for the rest of her life
Older people don't use social media for the same reasons as young adults though. While we are tweeting about “oomf” they are using social media to reconnect with old friends, Find digital support groups for Chronic disease, and just trying to stay “hip”.
I think this is a very good idea for older people because for example my grandma has lots of long lost friends that she could easily be reconnected with via social media, giving her a sense of nostalgia of the “good ol’ days”. Some older people are incapable of going out of the house so social media can help them communicate with the outside world and even come together with support groups online. My great grandma is still alive today, but barely breathing. all she does is sit on the couch and watch tv and read the newspaper, confined by the wall of my grandma’s house. She is missing out on a lot of things and I think social media could help her keep up with world events and even find some old friends so she can really live a little.
One thing that still haunts my grandma is the fact that her best friend was dying in the hospital and her children would not let anyone see her on her deathbed, this affected my grandma because she could not say her final goodbye to her best friend since childhood. Social media could have easily made this situation disappear, whether via skype or text, social media could have given my grandma closure but since older people are not in touch with social media she has to live with that regret for the rest of her life