http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/victor_keegan/2007/08/endgame_for_silver_surfers.htmlSilver surfers, defined as internet users over the age of 65, spend more time on the web (42 hours a week) than any other group, according to the annual report of Ofcom, the communications regulator.
Good. Now let's get rid of them: not the people, the phrase. It is as patronising as it is counterproductive to call someone a silver surfer, conjuring up a picture of granny actually being able to type a few words into Google and then press carriage return all on her own. A lot of today's over-65s, let alone the over-50s, lived through the personal computer revolution of the early 1980s, sparked by the arrival of the BBC B computer and the Sinclair Spectrum, either actively themselves or through their children.
Now, with more time on their hands and in many cases more money, they are the natural beneficiaries of the innovations that are now sweeping the web, especially social networking sites, such as Facebook, which have so far not taken off for older people.
A third of people eligible to vote are over 55, and they are twice as likely to vote as younger people. Networks such as Facebook, with subgroups (or lobbies) that have the potential to attract millions of members who can be contacted instantly, offer a possible solution to the age-old difficulty of organising older people. Think what a debate over the size of the old-age pension would be like if millions of older people formed an online lobby to influence the government, threatening to switch their votes.
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