March 25, 2004
The Net's Late Bloomers
By KATIE HAFNER

Walnut Creek, Calif.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/technology/circuits/25elde.html?th

The New York Times

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."

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