Seniors’ use of social media triples since 2010

When someone asked seniors about their grandkids even just a few years ago, chances are they whipped out their wallets or purses to show a dog-eared photo. These days, more and more seniors pull out a smartphone and show pictures of the wee ones on a Facebook page.

Just how much are today’s seniors embracing technology? Use of social media by adults 65 and older has tripled since 2010, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. About 35 percent of all seniors use social media sites such as Facebook, up from 11 percent in 2010. The rise in social media is even starker when you compare today’s older adults to 2005, when only 3 percent of seniors used social media.

Overall, Pew says 58 percent of all seniors use the Internet today. In 2000, only 14 percent said they went online.