Cohort studies of computer-mediated communication as a direction of sociological analysis

The article represents an overview of studies on the involvement of different age groups' representatives in computer practices. The special attention is paid to the cohort of elderly people, as one of the least studied cohorts in the context of computer-mediated interaction. The article contains the major achievements of the studies of the elderly's computer practices: the specific influence of online communication on health and self-esteem, the role of the Internet in everyday interaction. The conducted analysis of the research results and summarizing the conclusions allow to plan the further development of scientific studies on the cohort research of computermediated communication and to predict tendencies of their development.