RECENT survey by PC manufacturer Packard Bell has shown some interesting facts about computer users aged over 50.

Half of them said that since buying a PC they spend more time tapping away at a keyboard than watching TV.

Increased PC usage among this group has also lead to the over-50s spending more time at home.

Forty-five per per cent of respondents indicated they now spend more time indoors doing household accounts, sending pictures and playing games.

Indeed, the PC certainly seems to be the new obsession among this sector with 53 per cent spending more than nine hours a week at their screens.

E-mail is the method of choice for contacting friends and relatives with 38 per cent regularly communicating on-line.

And more good news for internet users is that UK-based shoppers spent more than £1bn online last month.

This is a watershed figure for online shopping and with 43 per cent of homes connected to the web the figure is sure to keep on an upward trend over the coming months.

And it also proves that users are more confident about the security of online transactions now that companies have made their systems more robust.

It just shows that all those internet pioneers that went bust a few years ago were on to something good after all.