They may been a bit slow to embrace the technology, but the old are fast catching up to young on Internet, particularly when it comes to using social networking and shopping websites in the US,a report has found.

According to the Pew Research Center report, adults aged 65 and older are now the fastest-growing group of people using the Internet, followed by by those aged 50 to 64.

Those those aged between 18 and 33 years are still way ahead in areas like using smartphones to connect online, their dominance is dropping in many web arenas, says the report.

"Even in areas that are still dominated by Millennials, older generations are making notable gains.

"Some of the areas that have seen the fastest rate of growth in recent years include older adults' participation in communication and entertainment activities online, especially in using social network sites such as Facebook," the US media quoted the study authors as saying.

The study report found that people aged between 46 and 55 years used social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter in May as compared to 20 per cent two years earlier.

Surprisingly the fastest adoption of social networking sites took place with adults aged 74 years and above, with use quadrupling in two years to 16 percent of the group, according to the report.

Overall use of online social networks by US adults of all ages nearly doubled in two years to 61 per cent, while 83 percent of young adults are members of such web communities, the study has found

"Searching for health information, an activity that was once the primary domain of older adults is now the third most popular online activity for all internet users 18 and older," the report said.