Grandma's Tweetin'

If lately, grandma and grandpa have been filling your Facebook feed with status updates or pictures from their latest vaction, you are not alone... According to Pew Research Center and Princeton Survey Research Associates International 53% of seniors are actively online, 34% are using social media of some form, and 86% are using email.

The following data was gathered by the Nielsen Company, and reflect online activity of people 65 or older, as of 2009:

This first table shows what seniors are most actively doing online. The most common activity was checking personal e-mail. Viewing or printing maps and checking the weather followed close behind.

Top 10 Online Activities Performed in the Last 30 Days by People 65+ (U.S.)
RANK	Profile Point: Internet Activities in Last 30 Days	Audience Composition Percent
1	Personal E-mail	88.6
2	Viewed or Printed Maps Online	68.6
3	Checked Weather Online	60.1
4	Paid/Viewed Bills Online	51.2
5	View/Posted Photos Online	50.1
6	Read General/Political News	49.2
7	Checked Personal Health Care Info	47.3
8	Planned Leisure Travel Trip Online	39
9	Searched Recipes/Meal Planning Suggestions	38.4
10	Read Business/Finance News	37.8
Source: The Nielsen Company, Nielsen @Plan Fall 2009 Release, Adults 18+

The No. 1 online destination for people over 65 in November 2009 was Google Search, with 10.3 million unique visitors. Windows Media Player and Facebook were No. 2 and No. 3, with 8.2 million and 7.9 million visitors, respectively. Interestingly, Facebook, which came in at No. 3 in 2009, ranked No. 45 in 2008 among sites visited by senior citizens.

Overall, the number of unique visitors who are 65 or older on social networking and blog sites has increased 53 percent in the last two years alone. 8.2% of all social network and blog visitors are over 65, just 0.1 percentage points less than the number of teenagers who frequent these sites. Again, this data was collected in 2009, and most certainly has continued to increase in the past 3 years.

Top 10 Online Destinations Visited by People 65+ in November 2009 (U.S., Home and Work)
RANK	Site	Unique Audience (000)	Unique Audience Composition (%)
1	Google Search	10,253	7.7
2	Windows Media Player	8,241	10.9
3	Facebook	7,946	7.2
4	YouTube	7,668	8.4
5	Amazon	5,679	9.3
6	Yahoo! Mail	5,638	7.8
7	Yahoo! Search	5,583	8.7
8	Yahoo! Homepage	5,383	6.8
9	Bing Web	4,510	10.1
10	Google Maps	4,397	8.4
Source: The Nielsen Company

So don't be surprised when you see grandma tweeting from her iPhone about the latest rose ceremony from "The Bachelorette." Seniors are becoming a bigger part of the online social media landscape, and it appears they are here to stay.