If You Build It, They Will Come
Internet Usage Among Seniors 65 and Older

by Kitty Sheehan

Wayne Terwilliger just celebrated his 80^th birthday. "Twig" prepares to pitch batting practice to his Fort Worth Cats in the Texas heat. Terwilliger is the first minor-league manager to coach as an octogenarian, and only the second to do it in pro baseball. (Connie Mack managed the major-league Athletics from 1901 to 1950, retiring in his late 80s.) Beginning in 1948 as a draftee for the Chicago Cubs, serving as a Marine in World War II, then resuming baseball after the war, Twig spent the next 57 years in various roles on assorted baseball teams.

As Daniel McGraw writes in the Des Moines Register, “To see Terwilliger now, age doesn't appear a factor. He pitches batting practice and hits fungoes to the infield, and he is respected by players who are young enough to be his grandchildren.” Says former Dodger great Maury Wills after holding a base-running clinic for the young Cats players, "Staying in baseball does make him young, baseball keeps him around age 50." Another of Twig's anti-aging devices is the internet. Terwilliger has his own website www.wayneterwilliger.com.

The website offers stats and stories, details about Terwilliger's career, and even some merchandise. He covers all the bases, in other words.

Twig is not alone in his enjoyment of online activity. According to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life project, the ranks of Americans over age 65 who use the Internet have risen by 47% since 2000, making them the fastest-growing group to join the online community. In 2005, the number of Americans 65 and older online increased 25% from last year, to a total of almost 10 million users, while 55 to 64-year olds increased by 15%, to almost 16 million, according to Nielsen/ Net ratings.

What kinds of things do these seniors do online? According to studies from the Kaiser Family foundation, and Pew, email is the main activity. Over 50% of wired Americans 65 and older also check the weather, read news, search for hobby information, buy books, clothes and plane tickets, search for health information, and browse for fun on the internet. According to the US Administration on aging, “Fifty years ago at the first National Conference on Aging, older adult advocates called upon society to create more opportunities for the engagement and empowerment of older adults. Today, the internet information highway provides a means by which the disabled and active older adult alike can participate equally with other generations in accessing its information wealth and instant communications. Internet participation and connection, much like cable television, can reduce isolation, promote lifelong learning, and facilitate achievement of activities of daily living. “

A growing number of internet sites are being designed to attract the active older adult. Popular topics include information on travel, health, housing, and financial planning. An area attracting attention as of late is the senior “blog”—websites allowing users to share thoughts and information via personal diaries. One such senior blog was featured on the MSN homepage in June. This format provides an open forum for exchanging information about health, family, travel, music, movies, and aging in general. One female blog reader states, “If I want to see a movie, I check my favorite blog for a review, since I know the writer of the review is someone I can relate to, with my same values and tastes.” Seniors are also turning more to the web for companionship, with senior matchmaking sites on the rise as well.

A peek inside a senior website offers insight into what this segment of the population seeks online. On the site www.seniorwomen.com, Julia Sneden offers a “Culture Watch” archive in which she posts book reviews. In the June archive, she writes, ”Will in the World is a lively, accessible story that will engage readers who know little about Shakespeare, and absolutely delight those who do.

A Great Improvisation; Franklin, France, and the Birth of America should be required reading for any American history buff. It is worth the time and effort, just to understand how perilously close America came to never happening at all.” Clearly, more than recipes are being sought here.

Seniornet.org is a clearinghouse for all things web-related a senior may seek. The Wall Street Journal ranks it as the best website for retirees. One look offers discussion forums, community projects, computer information concerning viruses,user-friendly improvements for visually impaired users, and a broad range of web courses available for seniors. According to the website, “SeniorNet members learn and teach others to use computers and communications technologies to accomplish a variety of tasks. They learn to touch up photos and send and receive them in email, to desktop publish anything from a newsletter to an autobiography, manage personal and financial records, communicate with others across the country and the world and serve their communities. SeniorNet members share a desire to continue learning and a willingness to contribute their knowledge to others. SeniorNet grew out of a research project funded by the Markle Foundation in 1986 to determine if computers and telecommunications could enhance the lives of older adults.”

Some 65 and older users came online reluctantly, urged by their children, and now cannot imagine being without the internet as a resource. One such senior is Sandy Leeper, a 68-year-old Iowa woman. “I started using email because my class reunion was coming up, and I was supposed to send the invitations. For some of the people, all I had were email addresses. I thought, ‘What do they know that I don't?', so I had my son help me buy a computer. I taught myself how to send an email. Looking back, that seems so silly! But I can still remember the feeling of being helpless in front of the computer. I just dug in. Everyone kept saying, ‘you can't break the computer', and I didn't. Now I do most of my shopping online, and read 4 newspapers a day. If there is something I can't think of during a conversation, I run to the internet. This happens a lot! The whole group of women from my class reunion uses the internet as often as I do. We have our own club. We tell each other about new things to do online and sites we have discovered.”

Web designers and content authors are taking serious note of this growing demographic. The Administration on Aging website lists dozens of resources for making websites user-friendly to seniors, increasing access, educational programs for seniors, and senior content-friendly websites. The growing population of senior users and senior-friendly websites seems to indicate more and more, “if you build it, they will come”.