The article deals with the peculiarities of the use of the Internet by the older age group of the Russian population. The indicators of participation in the Internet space in two groups: youth and pensioners are compared. This makes it possible to analyze the degree of “resource” of the Internet for the two “extreme” groups according to the age, to assess what opportunities Internet provides users and how they are used in different age groups. The resources of adaptation of elderly users and those who do not use the opportunities of the global network are identified.