Surfin’ Seniors Technology-Savvy Elders Are Expanding Their Minds And Bridging The Generation Gap
Hand-me-downs elicit memories of childhood and being the youngest in the family. So when used goods go the other way, to family elders, are they called hand-me-ups? An increasing number of seniors might be able to tell you. They are recipients of used computers from children who just had to have a new machine with a Pentium chip, gigabytes of storage and a warp speed external modern for themselves or their children.
Family computer donors have visions of their parents using the computers to play games, keep up with their correspondence and get connected to an e-mail provider- in essence, to join the modern technological age.
The fact that “grandparents” are becoming computer literate is no secret. Compaq, for example, ran a TV ad showing two white-haired ladies using a computer to find a recipe. Acer, another computer manufacturer, has run print ads targeted to seniors, and Apple ads have appeared in an AARP publication. Even before the first baby boomers (defined as those born between 1946 and 1964) started reaching the half-century mark this year, surveys indicated that around one third of Americans 50 and older already owned computers.
Seniors use computers to track investments, play games, surf the World Wide Web, run home businesses, handle finances and send e-mail.
A recent survey by the Del Webb Corp., developers of the famed Sun City retirement community in Arizona, revealed that West Coast seniors had the highest percentage of computer ownership, at 39 percent. America On Line, CompuServe, Prodigy and - more recently - AT&T, actively recruit users by sending them access software and just enough free online time to tempt them to change their lives forever.
Encouraged by widely dispersed families, grandparents become part of the computer generation. They learn that even long and frequent e-mail messages beat the cost and inconvenience of snail mail and telephone calls. (At least the cost is less if they inherited the computer, and the provider has a toll-free number.) Photographs of the newest family addition are broadcast to multiple e-mail addresses, hours after birth. One grandma brags about the monthly photo updates, and instead of whipping out real photos, hands out the Web site address where everyone can also see the baby.
According to a recent Yankelovich Monitor survey, nearly one quarter of computer owners subscribe to an online service. With browser software, purchased or downloaded from a server, users can progress from being on-line with e-mail to dabbling on the Internet. Seniors of the reading generation have long known where to access information. They use libraries. They read newspapers. So finding another place to access information is more than an idle teaser for them.
Acquire a computer and your ears perk up at names like Yahoo and Web Crawler, and almost by osmosis, you know they are directories or catalogue sites to sort through the uncountable number of sites on the Internet - sites that deal with health issues, travel information, how to play golf. Whatever you might dream of is available - or soon will be - on the Web.
Seniors are popular visitors to genealogy sites on the Net, which may be an outgrowth of a larger trend to tape or write a biography for the benefit of grandchildren or greatgrandchildren. It can be good therapy for the frail elderly, and books have been written and classes taught encouraging the pursuit.
Seniors actively participate in chat groups or bulletin boards (Internet versions of the old telephone party line), sharing ideas with those who shared their experiences way back when.
Politically active before e-mail, seniors also are likely to write their congressman or President Clinton with a click on the “send” button.
On-line telephone directories of e-mail addresses can reunite Korean War buddies or high school grads.
The technologically savvy ought to be immune to scams that reach out to us by telephone or snail mail. But there are scams on the Internet that target seniors. Conveniently enough, the National Fraud Information Center is a click away; send e-mail to nfic@internetmci.com.
Some aspects of life don’t change. But computers may provide unheard of intellectual mobility for large numbers of seniors and bridge the generation gap at the same time.
MEMO: Barbara Krueger publishes Senior Resource, a Web site that discusses housing choices for seniors and related financial information, from aging in place successfully to evaluating nursing homes. It can be visited at http://www.seniorresource.com.