The New York Times
For Some Internet Users, It's Better Late Than Never
By KATIE HAFNER
March 25, 2004
Walnut Creek, Calif.
WHEN Helen Karjala decided to set up her own computer last year, she was
fearless. She patiently plodded her way through the process of setting
up the machine and connecting to the Internet, an ordeal that can bring
unwholesome utterances to the lips of people half her age.
"I started investigating the wires and the prongs and I thought, 'I can
do this,' " recalled Mrs. Karjala, who is 88. "Of course, I needed a
magnifying glass."
Mrs. Karjala, who lives in Rossmoor, a retirement community in the San
Francisco Bay area, now spends at least an hour each day at the
computer. She exchanges e-mail messages with two dozen relatives in
Finland, keeps her language skills polished by reading a Finnish
newspaper online, and collects chicken and eggplant recipes.
Once largely written off as a lost cause, older Americans are now coming
into their own as Internet users. They are researching their family
histories, sending e-mail, running virtual book clubs, reading about
religion and travel, and pursuing other interests lifelong and new.
According to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project,
a research organization in Washington, the ranks of Americans over 65
who use the Internet have jumped by 47 percent since 2000, making them
the fastest-growing group to embrace the online world.
Despite the increases, this age group still has a long way to go. Only
22 percent of Americans over 65 go online, the study shows, compared
with 75 percent of those ages 30 to 49. But as Americans who are more
comfortable with computers gradually reach the age of 65, the percentage
going online (or more precisely, staying online) should soar.
"People who are in their 50's now, once they begin on a computer there's
no going back," said Tobey Dichter, president and chief executive of
Generations on Line, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia that
provides libraries, nursing homes and senior centers nationwide with
special software geared toward the elderly. "Once they get adept,
especially at the Internet, they don't give it up."
Susannah Fox, director of research at Pew, said the biggest factor
pushing older Americans toward Internet use has been family. "Younger
Internet users have probably encouraged their parents and grandparents
to start communicating with e-mail, and many seniors have turned out to
love it," Ms. Fox said.
For many of those younger users, the encouragement has extended to
actually setting up a computer for an aged relative. And there are other
sources of help: Generations on Line is just one of several programs
that have sprung up to assist older people. Senior centers and
retirement communities often have their own programs to guide the
uninitiated.
Mrs. Karjala, for example, said she was inspired by the computer club at
Rossmoor. After her husband, Matt, died four years ago, she began
visiting the club's quarters to send e-mail messages to relatives. She
was so taken with the novel mode of communication that she decided, with
encouragement from the club's administrators, to install a computer in
her home.
In setting up an Internet connection, Mrs. Karjala was aware that she
was entering a world populated mainly by people far younger than she
was, but she persevered. "It's my main hobby now," she said. "I don't do
lawn bowling." Her new goal is to hook up a printer a friend gave her.
Leonard Krauss, 74, president of the Rossmoor club, said that Mrs.
Karjala's experience was hardly unique. "People are continuing to learn
and stay mentally active instead of vegetating," he said.
That is the case with Kathryn Robinson, who was 99 when she first
learned to use a computer. Ms. Robinson, who is now 101 and lives at
Barclay Friends - A Senior Living Community, a nursing home in West
Chester, Pa., discovered the Internet through Generations on Line. She
uses the Internet daily to send greeting cards, look up information and
communicate with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"The computer has kept me busy and kept me in touch and interested in
life," she said in an e-mail exchange. "It's always a surprise to find
new information about subjects that interest me."
Indeed, a prominent support structure like Generations on Line or the
Rossmoor computer club can be surprisingly magnetic.
Of the 9,500 people who live at Rossmoor, where the average age is 78,
nearly one-third participate in the computer club, Mr. Krauss said. "And
it's growing," he added.
"There's definitely some peer pressure," said Louise Daum, 73, another
Rossmoor resident who is just starting out online. "I thought I'd better
dive in while I'm still mentally capable."
Mrs. Daum worries that she will hit the wrong button and lose all her
work, or even break the computer - common fears among the elderly.
"This is a generation that takes things very seriously," Ms. Dichter
said. "The first thing they worry about is that they'll break the
machine."
As more older people gain online access, there has been a concurrent
rise in the number of Web sites geared for them. Government agencies, in
particular, have patterned their sites after early models established by
organizations like SeniorNet, which has been around since 1986 and has
had a Web site, www.seniornet.org, since 1995. The United States
Administration on Aging has one (www.aoa.dhhs.gov), as does the Social
Security Administration (www .seniors.gov). And hundreds of general
sites have a special section devoted to the elderly, like a Yahoo
health site, dir.yahoo.com /health/senior_health.
Sites like these are intended to make it easier than ever for older
people to use the Web. Still, the barriers for an older person thinking
about going online can be formidable, Ms. Dichter said. "The phrase I
always hear is, 'They're leaving us behind,' " she said. "That's what
you hear as a constant refrain from people in their seventies."
Just the typing can be a deterrent. "Older people type very slowly," Ms.
Dichter said. "Some women who had been secretaries can type pretty fast,
but for a lot of men it's a real hunt and peck."
Then there are the peculiarities of Web pages. "Older people haven't
been able to learn how to tell what's clickable and what's not," Ms.
Dichter said.
Using the mouse, especially for those with tremors and arthritis, is
another challenge. One of the Rossmoor computer club's classes
concentrates on nothing but mouse navigation.
"I tell people to come to the mouse class because it's there that you
can really decide if you want to do it or not," said Don Torrence, 77, a
Rossmoor resident who teaches the class. One of the first activities in
the class involves playing computer solitaire, as the game requires a
great deal of clicking and dragging.
Mrs. Karjala was especially grateful for the introduction to solitaire.
She still remembers her mother banning all card games from the house
when she was a child.
Physicians even prescribe computer use to older patients who have
suffered minor strokes, to help them regain motor control. (For Mr.
Torrence, it worked the other way: the computer helped him figure out he
had had a stroke when he sat down at the keyboard one day and could not
move the mouse. "That's when I told my wife to call 911," he said. He
has since recovered.)
Rossmoor's two computer classrooms are outfitted not just with computers
but with a few additional aids, too, like a public address system, for
those with hearing difficulties. Those who attend sometimes get so
excited that they forget other things. "One woman who entered the
classroom with her walker got so inspired by the class that she left
without it," Mr. Krauss said. "We have people leaving their canes behind
all the time."
Technical needs at Rossmoor are modest. Mrs. Karjala is perfectly happy
with her Windows 95 operating system and her dial-up connection. When a
reporter asked her if she might be interested in getting a high-speed
connection, she asked what that was, then shook her head, "Oh no, I
don't need that," she said. "I have plenty of time."
Intimidation and fear still can put people off. Many older people are
not accustomed to mechanisms that work so quickly and essentially
invisibly.
"People over 65 grew up in more of a mechanical world and if you do
something wrong things break and they can't be undone," said Tom Tullis,
senior vice president for human interface design at Fidelity Investments
in Boston, which has watched elderly people interact with computers in
usability labs. "Your toaster doesn't have an undo button on it. If you
burn the toast, it's burned."
Mr. Tullis said that the older people who come into his labs will often
be slow to commit to a mouse click. "We refer to it as cautious clicking
behavior," he said. "They'll put their mouse over a link, then debate
about whether it's the right link to click on, and you don't see that
with younger folks."
Ms. Dichter said that time and again, when she talks with older people
who have ventured successfully onto the Internet, she is struck by the
sense of independence they gain. "The first positive impact on a
person's life is that self-empowerment, that feeling of, 'I can do it,'
" she said. "Then they're stunned and amazed at the resources
available."
In a survey of 16,000 searches performed by older Americans connected to
the Internet through Generations on Line, Ms. Dichter's organization
found that those users are not fixated on disease and illness. Rather,
she said, "they are curious and interested in the world around them."
In the survey, travel, history, hobbies and genealogy were among the top
search topics. Disease and illness ranked sixth. "They'll look up
Stephen Foster, Little Rascals, Billy Eckstine and Betty Grable," Ms.
Dichter said. "It's a source of pleasure to be able to research things
from the past, and they also look up hometowns and read newspapers from
other languages."
Watching Mrs. Karjala sitting at her computer desk, set up in the corner
of her small guest room, one cannot help wondering if the computer
occasionally heightens a sense of isolation.
Ms. Dichter agreed that this could be the case for old people who live
alone. But for those in nursing homes or retirement communities, it
fosters a sense of togetherness, she said. "It happens over and over,
when you watch people in a senior center and someone is at the computer,
and pretty soon there's a whole cluster of people kibitzing."
Ms. Dichter pointed out that going online was now something of an
imperative for the elderly. "There are resources dedicated to seniors
that aren't available any other way but online," she said. Many agencies
and services now have far fewer operators taking calls, she noted.
"Now,'' she said, "everybody directs you to the Web site."
NEW YORK TIMES:
© 2004 The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.