Never too old for Facebook - at 104!

Friday, 26 June 2009

In a survey, conducted in March by Age Concern into the networking activities of older people it was found that only one in six people over 55 have used a social networking site, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype.

That was when the charity held an "online week" to promote awareness of the value of social networking encouraging more over 55s to give it a go, especially as previous research from the charity found that two thirds of older users of social network sites say that their lives have greatly improved as a result.

The oldest user of Facebook is Ivy Bean of Leeds - who is 104 years young and loves social networking, so much so that she has 4,554 friends!

Ivy says: "I love getting online and receiving messages from people all over the world!"

Eighty-two year old Peter Oakley is another older person who loves to be online. In fact he has his own channel on YouTube (youtube.com/geriatric1927) with over 2.3 million views, and where 49,000 people subscribe to his video blogs.

As the veteran social networker says: "YouTube is a platform where I can demonstrate that the elderly have a role in society and possibly influence a better understanding between the generations."

Leonie Vlachos, digital inclusion manager for Age Concern England said that it was a stereotype that older people keep away from online social networking. In fact, she continued, many older people just need some support and training and then find it a valuable resource to enable them to stay in touch with friends and family and make new friends too.

The Minister for Digital Inclusion Paul Murphy said that as a silver surfer himself he welcomed Age Concern's campaign to encourage older people to "access and explore the Internet in such a friendly and supportive way."

It would be interesting to know just how many users there are over 80 however! One example is Ghanaian photographer, living in London, Mr James Aflah Barnor who at 80 is extremely active on Facebook, Google Chat and Skype and regularly communicates on Twitter! Indeed, he is highly computer literate in order to digitalise his photography and has learnt Photoshop too for manipulating his images.

So as always, the advice is - it's never too late to learn new skills, go online and start keeping in touch with friends on Facebook or other social networking sites of your choice, as you're only as old as you feel!

  What's this?