Volume 2, Issue 2 Spring 2005 Journal Home Page | Table of Contents | Contact the Editor Computers and the Internet:    The Age Gap Ever used a computer and felt like you were losing your marbles? by Alana L. Reeves

In the early 1980s, it was rare to find a personal computer in many homes.  These days, computers are easy to purchase or obtain access to; not only are they cheaper and made by countless companies, but more families can afford them--they are even being given away with the purchase of a car!  Computers have become a very important part of daily life for millions of people around the world, used by countless businesses and individuals for work, educational purposes, or game playing and other forms of entertainment.  Younger and older generations alike need to have at least a basic knowledge about computers and the ease that can come with doing things through the Internet so that no one is left in the dark in the age of technology where everything from going to the post office to get postage, sending a normal snail-mail letter, to balancing a checkbook is becoming an Internet activity that might one day be restricted solely to Internet availability.   I would like to offer my knowledge so that people who have limited knowledge of the Internet and its many advantages can easily expand their knowledge of computers and the Internet.

Since I was very young I have been around computers, whether I was playing Solitaire or typing “important documents” on my mother’s computer at her office, or playing (and learning simultaneously) “The Wagon Trail” in school.  Now that I am a 21-year-old college student, computers have become a part of my daily life to keep up with friends who have gone to colleges along the east coast or to find information on a professor’s Web site or on Georgia Southern University’s Web site, which is the home page on my personal computer because I have to access it so often in order to find information for graduation or for a certain professor.  However, what good would my computer be without an Internet connection?  Along with my computer, without my cable modem to link me to the outside world, my computer would be relatively useless to me except to type the never-ending supply of papers I submit to professors or to play an occasional game of FreeCell.

Even using an ATM is second nature for people under 20 years old according to Dr. Arthur Fisk, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor, during an interview with Amanda Crowell.  However, Fisk maintains that ATMs are not the only problem for people over the age of 20.  He also makes a good point that “[p]roblems increase when everything from software to World Wide Web pages to computerized library databases is targeted at young adults or children” (Crowell).  The problems are more specifically the lack of knowledge that older generations possess to use a variety of software and the inability to access the Internet at all in addition to “age-related changes in basic cognitive skills such as speed of information processing, spatial abilities, memory, and perceptual and attentional processes” (Marquie et al. 273).  While the Internet and its advantages may be focused toward the younger generations (people under 20 years old) one obvious solution is to broaden the focus and use the resources available to educate and train the older generations.  Fisk has been studying the use of computer technology by older generations at the Georgia Institute of Technology and works under the Center for Applied Cognitive Research on Aging.  His research has shown that “older adults want to learn to use computers, but most software isn’t designed to address their needs” (3).  For instance, one limitation is the increasing lack of motor control that older generations (people over 60) might have that would limit their use of a mouse or joystick or keyboard.

For years there has been much debate on the importance of technology, whether the computer and the Internet are only more troublesome for the youth of America and what will happen to the written word if everyone comes to rely on email and online texts, from not only the government, but also from scholars and the media.  According to a poll conducted by National Public Radio, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, only 27 percent of Americans over 60 years old have a computer in their home (NPR).  The survey also revealed that the consensus on why they do not use a computer is that they simply do not need one for their purposes (NPR).  In contrast, from looking at graphical evidence, 92 percent of Americans under 60 years old have used a computer, while 53 percent have access to the Internet and email at home (NPR).  In general, most Americans believe that computers and the Internet “have made Americans’ lives better” according to the poll.

Many studies have been done to understand and find new ways to educate the increasing older population and to understand how the younger generations are so in tune with what is going on in the way of technology and computers.  The study that I found to be the most helpful to my argument that younger generations are ahead was the study done by The BellSouth Foundation.  In 2000, the Power to Teach program was incorporated into schools to help discover new ways to help the older generation (the teachers, administrators, etc.) become educated with the new demands of the younger generations coming in and leaving their classrooms (the students) (1).  What was discovered was that “students are outpacing teachers in their familiarity with and use of technology” (6).  The fact that students are surpassing teachers with the use of technology is no surprise, since most average 15 year olds have never really dialed a phone or stood in line for movie tickets, which does not make them experts, but puts their parents and older relatives at a disadvantage of not being able to do so.  The report from the BellSouth foundation is a plethora of information taken directly from students in school and their teachers.  It paints a very sad portrait of classes taught on using computers using textbooks made in 1986 that make no mention of the Internet.

J.C. Marquie, L. Jourdan-Boddaert, and N. Huet give an overview of a study done to understand if adults underestimate themselves as far as computer knowledge is concerned (273).  According to their findings, “older participants were more lacking in confidence in their prospective judgments than the young, but only in the computer domain” (274).  Their study began with two groups, one with ages between 18 and 29 and the other with ages between 58 and 78 with a metacognitive questionnaire with general questions about computer knowledge and usage (275).   As the results showed, “in the computer domain it was the young who performed better than the older participants” with significant differences (276).

The aforementioned studies concluded that most people over the age of 60 are interested in learning how to use computers and the many advantages that are available through the Internet but that they are confused about how to go about using them.  Technology, in particular computers and the Internet, is quickly becoming an important and necessary part of life for many people.  The key to equalizing the knowledge of the younger and older generations is education.  Workshops and programs led by students and other knowledgeable volunteers would probably be extremely beneficial to those whose knowledge is lacking in what most of us would see as simple tasks involving computers or other forms on new technology that some of the older population does not use simply because they do not know how.  Tutorials and educational materials are out there for older generations (people over the age of 60), but some are not aware of their existence or, again, do not know how to access them, namely because they do not own or have access to a computer or the Internet.  The key to increasing the older American public’s interaction with computers and the Internet is education.

Tutorials Check out these on-line tutorials to help learn your way through the Internet. Below is a web tutorial for Netscape Composer, where anyone can create and edit their own Web pages, as well as publish them onto the World Wide Web. http://www.angelfire.com/md2/webtutorial/ Here the University of Albany has given tutorials and tips for using and searching the Web, using browsers, and software training.  They begin with the basics and go to the complex, from connecting to the Internet to how to use WS_FTP.  http://library.albany.edu/internet/ Mark Warner has created a Web site  to  educate about the Internet itself, Web browsers, guestbooks, searching the Internet, and researching on the Internet.  Included is a fun little quiz to test your knowledge of the Internet---harder than it looks. http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/welcome/ This is definitely the place to go to see Beginner's Guides for email, URLs, JavaScript, and the World Wide Web. http://www.refdesk.com/factbeg.html This site has information about books, DVDs, and CDs that will help a novice.  In addition, there are tutorials about  the World Wide Web, email and searching the Internet. http://www.useekufind.com/intutrl.htm The AARP gives information and links about "Basic Web Lessons."  They provide information on tool bars, address bars, taking care of common problems, printing, finding things using the Internet, and understanding the basics of the Internet. http://www.aarp.org/learntech/computers/basic_web/ Web Tutorial List has many options.  From their site, you can find computer tutorials on almost every subject. http://www.webtutoriallist.com/

Works Cited Crowell, Amanda.  “Age Brings ‘Capabilities, Not Limitations.’”  Research Horizons.  Georgia Institute of Technology http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-win97/aging.htm (28 Apr. 2005). Marquie, J.C. et. al.  “Do Older Adults Underestimate their Actual Computer Knowledge?”  Behaviour & Information Technology.  21.4 (2002): 273-80. National Public Radio.  “Survey Shows Widespread Enthusiasm for High Technology Americans Love Their Computers and the Internet; 'Digital Divide' Still Exists, but There Is Good News, Too.”  International Communications Research.  1 Mar. 2000. http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/poll/technology/ (28 Apr. 2005). The BellSouth Foundation.  “The Big Difference: The Growing Technology Gap Between Schools and Students: Findings from the BellSouth Foundation Power to Teach Program.”  2003. http://www.bellsouthfoundation.org/pdfs/pttreport03.pdf (28 Apr. 2005).