The interesting thing I've noticed with my grandparents and great-aunts/uncles as test cases is that it's not really universal. Both of my grandfathers are over 80.
One of them carefully writes down how many times he has to click on something (he can't ever remember whether to single or double click), doesn't really understand that he's not on a typewriter and can use the backspace, so all of his mistakes are still inline, is comfortable with email and not much more. His little sister, in her 70s, however, has more Facebook friends than I do.
My other grandfather, the older of the two (83), plays backgammon against random people on Yahoo Games, uses instant messaging, regularly buys stuff online, reads my blog and even asked me what Twitter was, commenting that, "It seemed like another kind of blog." When we first set up a company newsletter, he was the first subscriber. He still works most days and complains that he can't get DSL at his house and so he prefers to surf at the office.
One of them carefully writes down how many times he has to click on something (he can't ever remember whether to single or double click), doesn't really understand that he's not on a typewriter and can use the backspace, so all of his mistakes are still inline, is comfortable with email and not much more. His little sister, in her 70s, however, has more Facebook friends than I do.
My other grandfather, the older of the two (83), plays backgammon against random people on Yahoo Games, uses instant messaging, regularly buys stuff online, reads my blog and even asked me what Twitter was, commenting that, "It seemed like another kind of blog." When we first set up a company newsletter, he was the first subscriber. He still works most days and complains that he can't get DSL at his house and so he prefers to surf at the office.