Wired Wisdom: How to Age Better Online

People 60 and over are the internet's fastest-growing demographic. Many myths surround older adults' online behavior, such as a lack of skills and being constantly duped. Yet, research shows that many in this age group are savvy and are, in fact, less likely to fall for online scams than younger adults. In this talk, Eszter Hargittai shares insights from her book Wired Wisdom (co-authored with John Palfrey, University of Chicago Press, 2025) about how older adults are incorporating digital media into their lives and what they, their support networks, journalists, policymakers, and companies can do to make these experiences more beneficial. The Wall Street Journal selected the book as a Best Book of 2025 on Health Aging, and the New Scientist included it among its Best Popular Science Books of 2025. 

Speaker Bio:

Eszter Hargittai is a Professor and holds the Chair of Internet Use and Society at the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich. She is Fellow of the International Communication Association and an External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is a past Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Hargittai’s research looks at how people may benefit from or be left behind as a result of their varied digital media uses, with a particular focus on how differences in people’s digital skills influence what they do online. She has looked at these questions in the domains of information seeking, health content (including Covid-19), political participation, job search, the sharing of creative content, and privacy management. Hargittai is author of Connected in Isolation: Digital Privilege in Unsettled Times (The MIT Press, 2022) and co-author of Wired Wisdom: Aging Better Online (with John Palfrey), which was published last year by the University of Chicago Press and called a “Best Book of 2025 on Healthy Aging by the Wall Street Journal and a Best Popular Science Book of 2025 by New Scientist. She holds a BA in Sociology from Smith College and a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University.