Digital Divide still growing...

The BBC reports that the usage of computers, the internet, and other digital devices is still dominated by male under 55 year olds. This continuing trend is despite government efforts to try to get older people and women using the internet. The report also states that those on a lower income and without further or higher education are less likely to be using the internet (which is fairly obvious I would've thought- if you're not earning much, you're not likely to be able to buy a computer and pay a monthly broadband subscription are you ?!!!).

The report also mentions that 42% of students have created a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace as opposed to just 15% of the employed and only 2% of retired people. This is not really that surprising since students tend to have a lot of free time on their hands to use such sites whereas the employed are generally working (duh !) during the day and relaxing at night. I think retired people's reluctance to join such sites is probably due to their reputation as a "young person's thing" and so don't hold much interest for the older person (the exception being my 64 year old uncle who has a Bebo profile, but then again he also has a Honda Goldwing with neon underlighting so maybe he's not your typical retired person !!!).