But perhaps the most surprising statistic is that senior citizens, on average use the computer more hours per week than any other group. Now many may think that is because most senior citizens are retired and have more time to give to the computer than the other groups, but the belief of technophobia in seniors needs to be taken into account also. Surveys taken among computer users between early 1994 and 1996 show that more and more seniors are learning to overcome their supposed technophobia as they take classes to become computer literate. They also show that seniors are using the Internet to start business, help the business they are in and promote themselves as modern. Whatever the reason, the elderly are getting over their fear of technology.
Education also plays a role in the number of seniors owning computers.
These figures show that seniors are not as technophobic as we all have assumed and been led to believe. The SeniorNet suspects that the reason seniors have been stigmatized as technophobic stems from an 1980 survey that indicated that corporate senior managers avoided computers, delegating clerical tasks, such as word processing, and answering email to their secretaries and lower level employees. However, it seems that once these tasks that are considered more secretarial than managerial are excluded, seniors are as likely as anyone to use the Internet. Perhaps one of the turning points for seniors to overcome their fear of technology, was the improvement of computers. Computers are much more user-friendly now.