Poll: 15% of Israeli senior citizens are on Facebook

The stereotype of seniors sitting at home and doing little more than channel surfing may be quite off the mark, at least the channel part: 55 percent of the elderly in Israel report using a computer, and 15 percent even use Facebook.

They email quite a bit too: 76 percent regularly use their mail, reported a survey on leisure time use of the elderly conducted by JDC-ESHEL, a non-profit organization founded and supported by the Israeli government and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee with the aim of improving the status of the elderly in Israel.

The survey included 340 seniors and was prepared for presentation at the 18th meeting of the Israel Gerontological Society to be held Tuesday and Wednesday in Tel Aviv.

Over 1,000 researchers and other professionals are expected to attend the meet.

The survey found that 39 percent of the elderly use computers on a daily basis, with 66 percent of men and 47 percent of women using a computer.

However, as they age, there is less computer use with 50 percent of those aged 60 to 70 using a computer daily, while the figure drops to 28 percent for those over 70. Elderly women actually play computer games more than men do: 44 percent to 29 percent.

Television is still a major pastime, with 95 percent of the elderly saying they watch. Fifty-five percent said they preferred news and current events, 11 percent chose movies and 8 percent were interested the most in foreign series. Women much preferred reality shows while men men watched much more sports than women.

The more education an elderly person has, the less they watch channels 2 and 10, the survey found. Eighty percent of those with up to a high school education watch Channel 2, while only 45 percent of those with a college education watch Channel 2. For Channel 10, the numbers are 60 percent and 38 percent respectively.

The survey found that 61 percent of seniors have some form of relationship. Only 4 percent said they were not in a relationship - but wanted one, and 24 percent said they were not interested. For the younger elderly aged 60-70, 71 percent were in a relationship and only 51 percent of those over 70 said they were.