Date: Fri 09-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-seniors-Internet-Brand

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO: Seniors on The Net

The 55-plus age group is the fastest growing population joining the Internet

community. The very active PC Users Group at Heritage Village in Southbury

invited me twice to speak about the Internet. Here, I met Louise. Her story

and experiences are interesting and inspiring to folks of any age. She has

allowed me to share them with you.

After many years of illness, Louise's husband died. With children grown and

gone, she had to take over her finances and the other day-to-day living

functions some women have taken for granted as part of a happy marriage. On a

winter afternoon in 1989, on the day of the funeral, she received her first

computer lesson.

The Mac Plus was her first computer. Starting with Excel (Microsoft

spreadsheet software), she tracked her money flow by entering all checkbook

transactions. By 1990, she discovered Quicken. Personal finance tracking

became much easier. Louise was exposed to cyberspace in 1989 when her son gave

her a quick demonstration on Prodigy. She was hooked.

Active In Cyberspace

While on-line with Prodigy, Louise met a group of seniors who exchanged e-mail

routinely. When the rates were raised, they all moved to GEnie. After trying

Delphi and National, (two other on-line providers), she dropped GEnie and

joined CompuServe. By this time, she was using an IBM PC clone. Louise became

a sysop (a moderator of a discussion group) for the Retirement Living Forum.

She was forced to leave when CompuServe shut it down four years later. Along

the way she became active on SeniorNet at AOL. All the access problems at AOL

and a growing interest in the Heritage Village Computer Users Group resulted

in her dropping AOL as a provider. When the Woodbury Telephone Company became

a small local Internet Service Provider (ISP), this allowed Louise direct

access to the Internet. By this time, Louise had a keen sense of cyberspace

connectivity. She just recently dropped Woodbury to join Erols, signing a

three-year contract.

Louise runs the Internet Special Interest Group (SIG) for the computer club.

In addition to the two monthly regular meetings, twice a week she hosts

gatherings of those members who are particularly interested in learning how to

use the Internet. The club has a computer room in the basement of the Victor

Borge mansion with computers and a phone line to cyberspace donated by

Woodbury Telephone.

Sound Advice

I asked Louise for her advice to new seniors joining the Internet. She

recommends that seniors should jump in with both feet, buy the fastest

processor, largest hard drive, and fastest modem (56K) they can afford. Spend

a little more, but you get what you pay for, she advises. She cautions that

persistence and patience are required as everything isn't learned overnight.

She points out that seniors can take low cost ($40-$50) computer courses

specifically geared to folks over 55 at SeniorNet Centers. Currently, there

are 110 locations nationwide.

These centers are able to keep costs low through sponsorships from private

foundations, computer companies, health care providers and financial

companies. Here in Connecticut, they can be found at senior centers in Groton,

Manchester, Mansfield, New Haven, and Norwalk. If the nearest location is too

far to travel, join a local computer club, or find a tutor (possibly a high

school student or moonlighting teacher), in order to get over any rough spots.

This can avoid a great deal of frustration.

As a final question, I asked Louise how these experiences have impacted on her

life. She said: "Computers will be wonderful in our golden years by offering

us e-mail, shopping, and general entertainment. They can be accessed at any

time, storm or not, day or night. They give us something to share with kids

and grandkids who most likely use them already. My life changed for the better

when I started using one. The hours a day I use them are well worth it." Well

said, Louise!

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.seniornet.com/

http://seniors-site.com/

http://206.232.136.2/CGA/

http://www.wtco.net/~hvcc

( This is the 85th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, "WebTV" is the subject on tap. Stay tuned. Until next week,

happy travels through cyberspace.

Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People can be found at

http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to

rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com. )