Unlike McCain, many seniors depend on Internet

By JOCELYN NOVECK

(AP) Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., answers question during an Associated...
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NEW YORK - If Sen. John McCain is really serious about becoming a Web-savvy citizen, perhaps Kathryn Robinson can help.

Robinson is now 106 - that's 35 years older than McCain - and she began using the Internet at 98, at the Barclay Friends home in West Chester, Pa., where she lives. "I started to learn because I wanted to e-mail my family," she says - in an e-mail message, naturally.

Blogs have been buzzing recently over McCain's admission that when it comes to the Internet, "I'm an illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get." And the 71-year-old presumptive Republican nominee, asked about his Web use last week by the New York Times, said that aides "go on for me. I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself."

How unusual is it for a 71-year-old American to be unplugged?

That depends how you look at the statistics. Only 35 percent of Americans over age 65 are online, according to data from April and May compiled by the Pew Internet Project at the Pew Research Center.

But when you account for factors like race, wealth and education, the picture changes dramatically. "About three-quarters of white, college-educated men age over 65 use the Internet," says Susannah Fox, director of the project.

"John McCain is an outlier when you compare him to his peers," Fox says. "On one hand, a U.S. senator has access to information sources and staff assistance that most people do not. On the other, the Internet has become such a go-to resource that it's a curiosity to hear that someone doesn't rely on it the way most Americans do."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080720/D921N5H80.html

It's not just beer money for most seniors

Good stuff. I'm not elderly yet, but depend on the Internet for a lot.

It's too damned hot to be outside today, so I am here.

Hey, maybe I am elderly. . .

Americans who vote for this guy have a death wish!

and I use the net for all sorts of things. I wonder how I survived wihout it

:hi:

That was at the local JC. They were also in my web/graphics design classes, taking stuff like Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver, HTML etc.

McCain is a caveman. :smoke:

at the tender age of 89. She lives in Europe, so she did it mostly on her own, with only long distance support from me. I would not call her a computer guru, but we regularly exchange emails, she can send attached files, subscribes to several newsletters, and can find any information she is interested in online.

McCain obvisouly has enough of a support system around him not to NEED to be online (does he use a Blackberry I wonder....). But what troubles me about this detail is the lack of mental curiosity that it shows. My mother would have gone online a long time ago but for irrelevant to the discussion here family reasons. But the curiosity and the fascination was there. Not so it seems with McC.

Not cause they can't figure it out. In the late 80's it was difficult. Most everything was done with basic DOS instead of Windows.

All it takes it a little desire.

didn't have browser applications that allow one to navigate.

and you'd think it would be prudent for someone with PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRATIONS to learn to use the freaking internet :o

that's pretty pitiful