At Kensington Park, for instance, Layton's neighbors may not know what eBay is. But not every Web junkie can create elaborate three-dimensional tableaux by layering paper cutouts the way Layton's neighbor Bernice can.
Yet, the prevailing wisdom is that seniors need to keep up with their younger counterparts or be left behind.
Carolyn Layton, 74, whose severe arthritis restricts her to a motorized wheelchair in an assisted living home, keeps informed and in touch with friends and grandchildren via her computer and digital camera.
(Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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Making the Computer Easier to Use: Seniors interested in getting comfortable with the Internet can be hampered by physical characteristics of computers. A sophisticated world of "assistive devices" exists, primarily for people with physical disabilities, and some of these software programs and systems and devices can cost into the thousands of dollars.
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That won't be a problem for long, said Dychtwald, the gerontologist. And the reason is the coming retirement of the baby boomers.
With each passing day, more people who have indeed been exposed, even tethered, to the new world and its Web are crossing the threshold from what Dychtwald calls the land of "no time" to the land of "nothing but time," once known as retirement, but that in the future will increasingly include some form of work.
And as the oldest boomers approach 60, the distinction between youngsters and oldsters and information technology will diminish to the vanishing point.
Companies such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are beginning to wake up to this reality.
"The migration of the boomers and their enormous demographic heft and their willingness to spend money on technology is really sending a wake-up call," Dychtwald said. "The image of older adults listening to their AM station and not being able to program their VCR, that notion is fading in the sunset."
"This is a population that has had a longer interaction with technology -- and an expectation that technology makes life better," said Beth Mynatt, lead researcher for the Aware Home initiative at Georgia Tech. "Technology remade the workplace -- especially computing technology. If technology does these things for me at work, it should be doing things for me at home."
But those about to embark on old age who think they're ahead of the game because they're wired may not yet appreciate what technology companies have in store for them.
In countries with large aging populations, the future is already here. In Japan, you can buy a toilet that checks your temperature and tests your urine and stool, then sends the results to your doctor.
