Survey: Broadband Seniors See Internet as Hard to Give Up

More than half of senior citizens (56%) would find it “very hard” to give up the Internet, according to new research from Older Americans Technology Services (OATS) and New York Law School.

Perhaps surprisingly the Internet was the only communications means or device cited as “very hard” to give up by more than half of survey respondents. Slightly less than half of respondents said they would find it “very hard” to give up cable TV (47%), their cellphone (45%) or their landline phone (45%).

“Broadband clearly brings the world to senior citizens,” said John Horrigan, a senior advisor for the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. “Without question it is helping seniors be more engaged with others. . . They clearly value being on line.”

The OATS and New York Law School research was based on a telephone survey of 1200 Americans aged 65 or older, including 780 broadband users and 420 who don’t use broadband.