Surfing the silver way: watch the reaction of an 82-year-old digital novice join Tinder

She has never used the Internet before. But last Monday, 82-year-old Kerstin Wolgers began her digital discovery - equipped with a webcam, heart rate monitor and other mobile technology.

Today marks the start of the EU Summit on Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing, a discussion on how demographic change can offer new opportunities for innovation and growth - 'the Silver opportunity'.

Mynewsdesk followed Swedish actor and dancer Kertin's foray into the digital world in real time to explore the opportunity.

Here is the moment Kerstin first joined the popular dating app Tinder! (click on "CC" icon for English subtitles)...

This was one of Kerstin's first social media experiences as part of he week long Mynewsdesk NOW campaign.

Digital in context

Like Kerstin,  21% of the UK can't use the web and live outside of the digital society. According to a McKinsey report on barriers to Internet adoption, it is estimated that only 7% of the world's online population are seniors (aged 55 and above).

In West Europe, Internet penetration has reached 81%, according to We Are Social's  Digital, Social and Mobile Worldwide 2015 report. The UK has amongst the highest Internet penetration in West Europe with 89% of the population online, against a comparatively low global average of 42%.

Benchmarking this against  Broadband Delivery UK's target to provide superfast broadband coverage to 90% of the UK by 2016, the Internet penetration stats seem to indicate that the UK is making steady progress.

When it comes to social media, 59% of the UK population has active social media accounts, 1% proportionally higher than the USA. The global average is 29%.

Mynewsdesk NOW

Living without the Internet can affect almost every aspect of a person's daily life. From practical activities such as booking travel tickets and staying in touch with friends, to being excluded from political and social debates, or even having your voice heard on community issues.

The Internet has become to us what a landline once was - something we expect everyone to have. Those who do not have Internet access, primarily senior citizens, encounter serious challenges, especially in an increasingly digitised, 'paperless' world.

Which is why we followed Kerstin in her various on and offline meetings and conversations. She joined social media, including online dating app Tinder, and discussed what she saw were the advantages and disadvantages of digitisation.

You can see her experiences on  mynewsdesknow.se and continue to follow Kerstin on Twitter and KerstinWolgers on Instagram.

"Through the communication that takes place in real time, companies have more opportunities to find where and how to communicate in a relevant way, with the right people. With the help of digital technologies, there are great opportunities these people to spread relevant information to others. Companies can save money and gain other business value through this.

We hope that the Mynewsdesk NOW project has inspired mature people to join the digital society, and encouraged professional communicators to take advantage of events in real time" - Sofia Juhlin, Nordic Marketing Manager, Mynewsdesk.