The Era of the "Digital Senior"

〈 Publication Date: April 12, 2011 〉

In 2011, a "charismatic senior" emerged—a 77-year-old woman with over 10,000 followers in the microblogging world. She actively shares her unique perspectives daily on news delivered via television and newspapers.

To swiftly capture such shifts in the times, Dentsu Inc. established the "Dentsu Digital Senior Lab" in collaboration with Professor Yoshiaki Hashimoto of the University of Tokyo.
According to a survey conducted by the lab, a Tokyo-based man in his 60s, after retiring from his company, started playing in a "dad band" and posts videos of his live performances at music venues on video-sharing sites. This clearly shows a new era for seniors has arrived, far removed from the image of "retirement" from a generation ago.

This trend is not limited to the Tokyo metropolitan area. Similar digital seniors are emerging in large numbers across regional areas as well.
At PCTOOL (Toyama Prefecture), an NPO supporting IT literacy among the elderly, many seniors learn computers and the internet in a fun, club-like atmosphere. We see glimpses of this new digital senior lifestyle: someone sharing original recipes using vegetables harvested from their garden on their blog, another enjoying videos of their favorite enka singers on video sites, or someone using search engines to scout locations before traveling.

The DENTSU Digital Senior Lab will continue tracking and researching these trends among digital seniors.

Activities at PCTOOL