It wasn’t so long ago that even people in their mid-40s were considered “computer-challenged,” struggling to complete basic tasks in Microsoft (News - Alert) Office, surf the internet, and even send and receive e-mails, never mind grandma and grandpa. These days, things are radically different—seniors are getting tech-savvy and it is helping to influence them when making major life decisions.

In December, Emeritus Senior Living, touted as “the nation’s largest memory care and assisted living provider,” conducted a survey across 28 of its locations. These locations feature ConnectedLiving, a program that provides training and support for seniors, as well as an interface that is easy for them to navigate. It features all of seniors’ favorite tools including e-mail, video chat, photos, games, social media, the Internet, and a library.

The results revealed some interesting insights, most notably the fact that a whopping 82 percent of family members indicated that they would recommend a senior living community to others, based on the availability of Internet access and computers. In fact, findings showed that when the technology available is tailored to meet the needs of seniors and training and support for seniors are also included, this number becomes even larger.

With the emergence of mHealth and the wide variety of communications tools available via the Internet from video chatting to email to Facebook (News - Alert), the Web has become a very important part of many seniors’ lives, whether they want to research an ailment online or keep up with the latest photos of their grandchildren. The study confirmed this, with 45 percent of the family members surveyed indicating that ConnectedLiving has played a positive role in keeping their loved ones connected to the rest of the family. Further, 58 percent indicated that the program is “important” or “very important” for residents. 

The findings of this study hold important insights not only for assisted living homes, but also for mobile providers, app developers, and any other business that is either completely missing the senior demographic or is attempting to target the senior demographic.