Saturday, April 14, 2007
By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER
Teenage Web geniuses, move aside -- grandma's online, she's got a mouse, and she ain't afraid to click it.
Senior citizens and soon-to-be-senior baby boomers are getting wired in record numbers. In fact, contrary to what may be common wisdom, individuals over age 50 account for the fastest growing segment of online users, according to a variety of studies, including one by the non-profit Pew Research Center.
"There's a real myth about midlifers and older people being technophobes," said Sharon Whiteley, CEO of ThirdAge.com, a Web site geared toward users ages 45 to 70 that features articles about health, money and relationship issues.
"They're not technophobes. Mostly people are quite savvy, and they have younger family members who get them connected."
Current estimates put the number of those older than 50 online well above 25 million, or nearly a third the size of the nation's 75 million boomers. And that number will continue to grow, with the online population of older Americans projected to increase to as much as 35 million by year's end, according to ThirdAge.
Photo courtesy of whylradio.com.At the North Jersey branch of Senior Net, a national non-profit that teaches computer skills to seniors, the increasing tech savvy of older Americans is clear.
"When we first started [in 1995], there were people who didn't have computers, who weren't [computer] literate," said Debra Turitz, manager of the learning center based in JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly. "And now, we're getting a whole new crop of students coming by."
The new brand of student doesn't just have their children's hand-me-down computers. They have the newest hardware, and most already have basic navigation skills coming into courses offered by Senior Net.
The basic introduction class now includes segments on e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging and bulletin boards, said volunteer instructor George Vislocky, 77, of Cliffside Park. "We introduced blogging, which is so popular now, when two years ago nobody knew what blogs were. We're trying to keep up to date with the latest changing technologies."
A mere five years ago, Turitz and volunteer instructors -- many of them seniors themselves, like Vislocky -- introduced a Cruising the Internet class that taught e-mail attachment and search engine skills. Due to popular demand, they added classes on eBay, digital photography and Photoshop 18 months ago.
Digital photos
Photo of Nicaraguan seniors dancing on Webshots, a popular digital photo sharing site that aTenafly Senior Net volunteer calls "user friendly." Courtesy of webshots.com.
"One of the things now that's driving a lot of the need is the digital camera," said Vislocky. "Now they want to upload them and share them, and save them, and take them down to the pharmacy and get them printed out and stuff like that. They need those skills."
Increasing tech savvy and availability of fast computers may be ushering silver surfers into the 21st century. But what do seniors do online? As it turns out, they do what everyone else does: They communicate and they search for information.
Yet certain aspects of Web culture simply do not appeal to seniors.
"Social networking sites have not been embraced," said Vislocky, referring to sites like YouTube or MySpace.
"I encourage [students] to go to bulletin boards that address their hobbies. ... I don't think a lot of them just think to go online and start chatting with somebody."
Jerry Kaplan, CEO of senior-targeted game site Winster.com, agreed: "The seniors aren't trying to hook up." The mere mention of the word "networking" can be a turn-off for older online users, he explained. "But that doesn't mean they don't want to make friends. A non-dating orientation where seniors can meet each other and engage in a fun activity appeals to them."
Large fonts favored
A website with "universal design": ThirdAge.comAnother turn-off for seniors and mid-life Internet users may be Web site design.
"We're very conscious about font size -- nothing smaller than a 10-point," said Sharon Whiteley of ThirdAge. "We're also very careful not to use dark background with light type. We don't have a lot of stuff flashing or moving. That can take longer to load and can be distracting."
The key, she said, was to design for a universal audience. "People's eyes start changing at about 40, but [a well-designed Web site] won't be hard to see for a younger audience."
And what is an online turn-on for seniors? Perhaps as no surprise, seniors lead other age groups in visits to Medicare- and Medicaid-related Web sites, according to the Pew Research Center. Older surfers are also leaders in online genealogy research.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Where they click
Top things those 65 and older do online
# Send or read e-mail
# Look for health or medical information
# Get financial information
# Research family's history or genealogy
# Look for religious or spiritual information
Source: Pew Research Center, 2003-4
