Pew: Majority of Senior Citizens Are Now Online

For the first time, over half (53%) of people 65 and older are using the Internet for surfing or e-mail.

That comes after several years of little growth in broadband adoption, according to a new Pew Research Center study.

The FCC continues to push to boost broadband adoption rates as a way to make sure everyone has access to  education, healthcare, entertainment, government services and more increasingly available online.

Seniors still trail the overall population, 82% of which are online, but Pew calls the gains "significant." Of those online seniors, over a third (34%) are using it to socialize through Facebook and other sites. In addition, over two-thirds of seniors have a cell phone,

and one in 10 say they have a smart phone.

The study was based on a phone survey March 15-April 3 of 2,254 adults 18-plus, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.