• 81% of grandparents consider themselves to be ‘tech savvy’
• 86% of grandparents appreciate receiving thank you letters from their grandchildren
• Family time is important to 95% of grandparents
• 80% of grandparents consider good manners to be very important

Over eight in ten grandparents (81%) consider themselves to be ‘tech savvy’ but still appreciate and cherish letters from their family, according to a study commissioned by Royal Mail. The average grandparent uses social media for just under two hours a day (1.76 hours) with 60% using social media for less than an hour a day. When it comes to favoured social media channels, 65% of grandparents use Facebook, 15% use Instagram and 6% are Snapchat users. Smartphones are the most popular device for 74% of grandparents, closely followed by tablets/laptops (71%).

Ahead of Christmas, Royal Mail is encouraging grandchildren to take the time to share personal messages with their grandparents. 86% of grandparents appreciate receiving thank you letters from their grandchildren so it’s important to take the time to send a card following Christmas too.

Royal Mail spokesperson David Gold said “Although grandparents are increasingly tech savvy, they grew up in a very different era to their grandchildren. This research shows that written communication remains important to them and that taking the time to write a letter or card can really make their day. This Christmas we are encouraging grandchildren to show that they are thinking about their grandparents by writing letters and cards to them. But let’s not stop at Christmas. Those of us with grandparents should keep writing to them all year round and show them how much we love them.”

Letters and cards aren’t just for Christmas. Half (50%) of grandparents would like to receive letters on recent achievements from their grandchildren, followed by what they are up to at school (46%) and what they are excited about (46%).

When it comes to what grandparents themselves enjoy doing, their favourite hobby is eating out (72%), followed by holidaying abroad (62%), baking (46%) and going to the pub (44%). 60% of current grandparents consider themselves to be more active than their grandparents were and say the biggest difference between them is that they have different hobbies (57%). 61% of grandparents also say they have more in common with their grandchildren than their grandparents had with them.

Source: Royal Mail