When your family has moved away, your friends have died, your knees sometimes buckle beneath you, and your eyes can no longer decipher below the headlines it seems like your world is narrowing down. The television is 90% junk and the radio is pretty one-dimensional. But the internet... Ah! the internet is like opening up a whole new world that is expanding every day.

Seniors, more than anyone else, need to have computers and be on-line. Computer games and puzzles can keep one's mind active and challenged. E-texts can be downloaded and read in a font large enough to see without a magnifying glass, and creative hobbies like photography, writing, genealogy and music are all given new life once the computer is turned on.

Turning seniors on to computers is not always easy, but with a little nudge and some tempting programs most seniors can get over their initial hesitation. Email is a great motivator. Encouraging grandpa to keep in touch with his grandchildren via daily email can lighten his life immensely. Sharing pictures over the net is also a way to keep elders in the loop as children grow and become involved in sports or travel.

An online game of bridge can keep the game fresh even when there's not one going on close by, and we all know that solitaire can be addicting enough to pass the wee hours of the morning when one is unable to sleep. The distances can seem to melt away if uncle Ed is able to share an online game of race-cars with his 10 year old nephew, or a game of hearts with his brother George.

Social networking seems made to order for seniors. They may not use the networking sites in the same way as their younger counterparts, but never-the-less exchanging notes with people of similar interests and situations can lighten the load and open up great friendships. We used to have pen-pals, but the wait between correspondence was somewhat limiting. The internet has made the process much more immediate and enjoyable.

Finally, seniors should have computers so they can leave their memories and thoughts for all of us to appreciate. The world wide web is a vast collection of human records! We should be encouraging our elders to add their insights and experiences to the fascinating stories that are already recorded on the net. As the years go by our elders will have grown up with computers and it will be natural for them to use their computers extensively in their retirement and old age. But for right now, we should not wait. We don't want todays elders to miss what the internet can offer, and we don't want the internet to miss out on what they can offer!

Learn more about this author, Susan Kliebenstein.
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