Senior Citizens Surf The Web

Senior Citizens Surf The Web For Health of Mind And Body

From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Don Knapp

January 20, 2000

Senior Surf

"Lets go down one more, push your enter key..." says a volunteer helping senior citizens work a web session on the Internet.

David Lansdale has found a way to spark up the lives of the elderly. He gets them wired to the Internet.
"If you hit your enter key, it will bring up this particular email..."

Pauline Allen is one of those who has started using the Internet, "I thought I was through with life, I was ready for a rocking chair, because I was 86 years old. And I haven't found the rocking chair, yet." "You found the keyboard? "asks the reporter. "That's right, I found the keyboard."

The average age of Lansdale's students is around 68. All are in nursing or assisted care homes. He used family relationships to introduce them to the World Wide Web.

David Lansdale says, "Here they are in California, the family was back in New York, the opportunity to connect, to cross the time and space, was incredibly precious opportunity to them."

"I hear you are so beautiful." Lillian Sher dictates an e-mail to a newborn great-granddaughter. Working with one another, the seniors learn as a group. They learn to master the Internet and to overcome what Lansdale calls the maladies of the institutionalized: loneliness, helplessness, boredom, and cognitive decline.

Mary Harvey says, "Bingo just doesn't appeal to me. But this does, believe me, this does."

Ninety-four year old Ruth Hyman is a star pupil and instructor. She says, "When I send a letter to my grandchildren, and great grandchildren, they hang it up in their offices, just like I used to hang their drawings on my refrigerator. Ha, ha."

David Lansdale says, "There's a collective benefit. There is an element, tremendous element of therapy. Remember we started as a support group."

Dixon Moorehouse says, "I just wish I was 15 years old and getting to learn all this." The seniors call their weekly meetings Monday Night Live. And many say the meetings have given them new life.

Ruth Hyman says, "Three years ago, they told me I wasn't going to live. But I showed them, and got work, and I've worked ever since."

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