There was a time when the Internet was almost the exclusive domain of youth. But that sort of ageism will soon be irrelevant, judging by the small but growing phenomenon of seniors turning to blogging.
The greying of the web recently hit the spotlight in Britain, where a 79-year-old grandfather — who goes by the handle 'geriatric1927' — jumped straight on to the latest trend in blogging: vlogging (as in video blogging).
The widower has found fame as the oldest active member on YouTube, the video hosting site owned by Google on which he recounts to the camera stories from his own grandparents who lived in Victorian England (The address of the website is (www.youtube.com/profile?user=geriatric1927).
In France, the residents of an old people's home in Brittany contribute to a joint blog called 'Alleuxnautes' (alleux.over-blog.com), and a 'storytelling grandma', Laurence Lamiable, has found success on www.abreuvetascience.net/bloglaurence.
A retired Belgian woman, Annie (blog.syrie.be), has also been giving glimpses of her life in Syria, where she has been living for the past four years. Right now, they and other senior bloggers are on the fringe of the Internet revolution. But studies show their number is growing, especially in the 50-70 year age group.
"The tool is common among the young, but the gap between the 25-34 year-olds and the seniors is not as big as that," said Alexis Helcmanocki, the head of Ipsos's new technologies division which organised the poll.
