Grandma and Grandpa

Grannies and Grandads across Great Britain have proved there’s more to retirement than just knitting scarves, watching Countdown and pottering around in sheds.

Yes, according to new research from banking giant Alliance & Leicester, many “silver surfers,” as they’re now known, rely on the internet to help organise different areas of their lives, from their finances through to their love lives.

These days, more than half of men and women over 50 use the net to manage their finances, two fifths book their holidays online, and one in five regularly log on to social networking websites such as Facebook and Friends Reunited.

It seems the days of having to explain to our elders that a floppy disc is actually hard, a keyboard is not just a musical instrument and not all mice are vermin, are long gone.

Proving that they’re just as tech-savvy as the PlayStation generation years younger than them, the over 50s are also the age group most likely to be aware of online security and fraud.

Well done Grandma and Grandpa, I love you!

  Friends or colleagues?

Hands up who’s heard of Facebook? Hands up who’s heard of My Space? And hands up who’s heard of  Bebo? Chances are (unless you’ve been living life like a recluse hermit in a deep, dark cave somewhere in Outer Mongolia…) that you’ll have heard of at least one of these social-networking sites, if not all three.

Yes, it seems that social-networking is now a phenomenon that simply cannot be escaped. Users can chat with friends, post photos and videos, and even buy other users a pint (well, who wouldn’t want a pint of cold cyber Carlsberg?), all with the click of a button. And if the user’s settings aren’t set to private, their online actions are visible to every other user, of which there are 35 million on Facebook in Europe alone.

But when it comes to privacy settings and choosing who and isn’t your online friend, should there be a safety cut-off point?

Causing controversy around the world, social-networking sites have seen many an office worker and naughty student rapped over their very public displays of anti-social behaviour. There are even stories of employers vetting potential employees using the sites, looking for tell-tale signs of mischievous misdemeanour and tomfoolery before hiring someone.

So then, hands up who’s heard of LinkedIn? Well now fans of Facebook who don’t want the whole of the office knowing, and laughing, about their weekend escapades can register with the site and enjoy an entirely new social-networking experience, one that’s tailor-made for colleagues and business associates.

The site, already with over a million users, has claimed 47% of the UK’s web users are mixing their social and professional lives by accepting networking invitations from “frolleagues” - colleagues who send friendship requests. And apparently, this should I/shouldn’t I “frolleague” dilemma is becoming so common that the Oxford English Dictionary is considering adding the term.

Do I think it’s a good idea to separate business and pleasure? Sure, especially if your endeavours are that crazy that they need to be ‘censored’. Having your entire Outlook address book knowing that you went wild with tequila last Thursday and spewed all over the floor doesn’t look very professional does it?

But what you publish online is really just a matter of common sense. I don’t think I’d go shouting from the roof top (or in this case lap top) about what I did last Saturday night. Probably because, quite pitifully, it was staying in and watching X-Factor…

So, “frolleagues”, a yes or a no? I say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em… And if you don’t want to join ‘em, register with LinkedIn.

 A scene from the last BT strategy meeting

BT is no longer interested in pimpin’ your broadband; its media boffins have thought of another ingenious way to ‘get down’ with ‘the kids’: appropriate a jaunty Sam Sparro song title into your lastest media campaign.

How do they do it? I wish I possessed merely a fraction of BT’s creative expertise.

So anyway, the BT ‘Black and Gold’ (only joking), the BT ‘21st Century Life’ report dropped into my inbox this morning with a running man and a blur of dayglo MC Hammer pants. Despite the obvious steal in the title, some interesting facts are contained therein.

I will summarise them just for you dear reader:

• In 1998, only 14% of internet users spent between six and ten hours online. In 2008 this figure jumped to 27%, with a further 23% spending between 11 to 30 hours online.

• 19% of internet users now visit more than 20 different sites in a week.

• In 1998, only 2% of internet users shopped online. Over the last ten years, that figure has rocketed to 41%. 48% of that shopping activity is for flights, while 42% is for clothes. Only 19% of us do our weekly grocery shop online.

• 25% of internet users have tried social networking. Unsurprisingly, the uptake is most prominent in 16 -24 year olds (58%). Downloading music is still a more popular net activity than social networking however, as is listening to internet radio.

• Broadband internet is now in 44% of UK households. Only 6% still use dial-up connections.

• Remarkably, there’s more face to face communication going on in 2008 than 1998, with 68% of BT customers engaging in the lost art of verbal conversation (51% in 1998).

• Fixed line telephone use is down to just 12% in 2008, usurped by mobile phone use, email and face to face conversations.

• Workers check their email an average of 4.9 times per hour.

• When asked how people would improve the internet, the top response was to make it faster.

• A major worry in 2008 is fraud, with 27% of internet users citing this as the single most important area for improvement.