Six Million More Seniors Using the Web than Five Years Ago

A study published this week by Nielsen showed that more people aged 65 and over are going online, as well as spending more time browsing (time spent on the Internet by seniors increased 11 percent in the last five years, from approximately 52 hours per month in November 2004 to just over 58 hours in 2009).

More interestingly, the 8th most popular online activity is planning for a leisure trip (ranking just under news-reading and checking personal health care). In terms of websites visited, Google, Facebook and Youtube all make the top 5.

Infographic: Global Map of Social Web

I always tend to get a little excited at the sight/ mention of infographics. To me, they’re a great way of presenting information to people in a fun, clear and visual way. Here’s one that got published last week by the Global Web Index which visualises the number of active bloggers, social networkers, video sharers, photo uploaders and microbloggers in the UK and other countries around the world. Interesting!

Opera’s push into the mainstream

Interesting article on the BBC website by Alex Stranger on how Opera is changing it’s image through new initiatives. One quote stood out for me early on in the article: La Scala spokesman Carlo Maria Cella saying “Every theatre has to cultivate a renewal of its audience. As someone wrote: new blood for the old ceremony.”

The power of the Staycation continues

A while back I logged a  post on here detailing the rise of the British ’staycation’ and it’s effect on London’s arts. The BBC website published a news story today claiming that museums and galleries are seeing an increase in visitors, most likely due to the recession. An interesting quote by the Director at the Arts Fund, Andrew McDonald, stood out, “It’s clear that when times are tough our cultural institutions provide both a great value-for-money experience and a distraction from financial worries.”

Bolder and Wiser is upon us!

Our Bolder & Wiser event takes place at NCVO tommorrow. While the event is now fully booked, we’ll be posting highlights from the day on our upcoming Youtube channel. We’ll post more news on this blog as it happens. If you are attending, go to our Bolder & Wiser page for details on the breakout sessions and the delegate list.

Also, check out our Older People tag here on the blog for more info, and please do join in and comment on what we’re writing. You can also follow us on Twitter @audienceslondon for the latest news, and we’ll be using the hash tag #bolderandwiser to collect together what people are saying about the event.

Older People and Voluntary Arts: Steps to Meaningful Participation

The Voluntary Arts Network is the national development agency for arts participation. They regularly publish the VAN Briefing, a handy set of factsheets that offer loads of tips on how to encourage participation in the arts. One particular Briefing, called ‘Older People and Voluntary Arts: Steps to Meaningful Participation‘ adapts information from the Age & Opportunity report, Guidlines for Working with Older People and the Arts and breaks down the information into three steps: Planning, Implementation and Monitoring & Evaluation.

How growing old became fun

An ineteresting article posted on yesterday’s Guardian website examined the link between older people’s improved state of healthcare and their resulting need for more varied lifestyles. One quote by Emma Soames from Saga magazine really stood out for me, “Old age is often painted as a place of vulnerability, frailty and great expense. But you can – people already do – have a good quality of life in your 70s. I don’t want to live to 120, but I would like the end of my life to be active and valid.” This begs for the question: What could the arts sector do to fit in to this desire for activity and validity?

Fancy working after 65? Think again…

A little bit of live news coverage today from the AL’s fictitious Newsroom (!) The High Court has ruled that British employers are allowed to force employees over the age of 65 to retire, even if the employee doesn’t want to leave. According to the BBC article covering the issue, ‘The majority of people retire before 65, but 1.3 million people work beyond state pension age. It has been suggested that many more would if their employer permitted it.’ Looking at a 2006 Guardian article adressing the fact that ‘2.6 million people aged between 50 and 65 who are unemployed or economically inactive would prefer to be working’, does today’s ruling seem sensible or unfair? And what effect could this have on older people’s engagement with the arts?

On local news, the BBC has also published an article  today showing that elderly Londoners are finding it harder to book journeys using the Dial-a-Ride service due to the introduction of a new computerised system in 2008.

Older People and the Internet

The Office of National Statistics website is currently running a ‘Focus on… Older People’ feature that collects and dissects data from several sources (mainly from the Census) that relates to the ageing population. One of the most interesting finds is the research carried out on the relationship between older people and the internet.

The Focus on Older People 2005 Report (p.85) shows that research carried out by the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing at University College London claims up to 36.8% of all males and 26.5% of all females aged 60-64 will use the internet.

Use of internet:1 by age and sex, 2002
England
	a) Uses Internet
	50–54	55–59	60–64	65–69	70–74	75–79	80 and over
Males	59.4%	48.7%	36.8%	28.8%	18.7%	15.6%	9%
Females	47.7%	40.4%	26.5%	17.9%	10.7%	10%	6.5%
1Respondents asked whether they used Internet.
Source: English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, University College London
ONS Report: Focus on Older People 2005; p.85 .

The Great British Staycation

Summer seems to have stirred up the Staycation trend rather nicely it seems. Recent reports have shown that this year’s Edinburgh Festival has Staycationers (and the power of nostalgia) to thank for its ticket sales success. There have also been reports that London is now the most popular destination for British Staycationers, who are likely to spend up to a week in the Capital sometime this year.