Digital Divide Highlights Canada’s Growing Population

Canada is growing! We are now  35,056,064 strong, but there is a digital divide between young and old! 

According to Statistics Canada, older Canadians increased their use of the Internet over the last decade, but remained less likely to do so for music listening and video viewing.

In 2010, 60% of seniors aged 65 to 74 and 29% of those aged 75 and over had used the Internet in the month prior to the survey. A decade earlier, Internet use (at home only) was less than 10% among those aged 65 and above. On the other hand, Internet use among young people aged 15 to 24 was almost universal by 2010.

But, the study goes on to note, even though older Canadians have increased their use of the Internet, there is a notable generation gap in the areas of video viewing and downloaded music.

In 2010, 87% of young people aged 15 to 24 listened to downloaded music at least once a week yet only 10% of Canadians aged 65 to 74 listened to music downloaded from the Internet on a weekly basis. But that’s not to say older Canadians are not musically inclined. They did listen to music as frequently as they did in the late 1990s, but from more traditional formats. Over one-half of music listeners aged 45 and over, and more than 80% of seniors aged 65 and over, listened to music only in traditional formats like CDs.

This study showed that the digital gap between generations in movie and video viewing. In 2010, nearly 80% of those aged 18 to 24 reported that they had used the Internet to watch movies or videos, including video clips. About 10% of seniors had done so.