Unlike Sen. John McCain, many seniors depend on the Internet

Published Monday July 21st, 2008


Jocelyn Noveck, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


NEW YORK - If Senator 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, Pennsylvania, 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 presidential 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 on how you look at the statistics. Only 35 per cent 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.

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