65 Million Boomers Online

About 78 million Baby Boomers are living in the United States today, and 65.1 million of them are online. In fact, they account for one third (the largest constituency) of the 195.3 million Internet users in the U.S.

So, what are they doing online?

Regina Lewis, AOL's consumer adviser, dropped by CBS's The Saturday Early Show to answer that question, and to point the way to some Web sites created just for Baby Boomers.

SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR BOOMERS:  Boomers are expected to be the next wave of social networkers: It's hard to find a college student without a MySpace or a FaceBook page. To expand, networking sites are being forced to shift their focus to older users.  Right now, only about 1 million of the more than 215 million social networkers regularly active today are older than 50. But by the end of the year that number could explode to 20 million.

www.eons.com is a free site that has been described as "MySpace for the 50-plus crowd." You do have to be 50-plus to join. The average age of site users is between 50 and 60, with about the same number of men as women. Eons launched about seven months ago and already has more than 100,000 members.  Eons has formed dozens of online groups around the interests of an older crowd, such as Investing, Bookaholics, Boomer Music, etc.  And boomers still like to flirt; one of the most popular groups is: "Internet Dating After 50." 

 

BOOMER SEARCH ENGINE: www.cRANKy.com got its name because the creators say that many older users get cranky when they use more traditional search engines. Launched Jan. 1, this site is run by the same folks who launched Eons.com. 

BOOMER NEWS & TRENDS: www.Boomergirl.com is a new site for "Boomer Babes."  There are some provocative features like advice on sex and relationships and, coming soon, an insomniac's club for women awakened by hot flashes. Other sites that participate in a weekly Blogging Boomers Carnival are: Contemporary Retirement Rearview Mirror  Your Drum  Living Without Borders  Gen Plus  Man-o-pause  The Boomer Chronicles So Baby Boomer and LifeTwo  

BOOMER NOSTALGIA:  www.iRememberJFK.com focuses on the way things used to be, just looking at and reading about the old cars, clothes, food, gadgets, etc. from the '50s and '60s. If you have any of the stuff you see on the site stashed away in your addict, it might inspire you to pull it out. It can be a real hit with collectors. Dust it off and put it on eBay; you might be surprised at what it goes for.

Source: Web Sites for Baby Boomers, www.CBSNews.com, February 17, 2007