The "My Digital World" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished checking the travel forum TravelTalkOnline (TTOL) to see if anyone had a response for my cousin Susan who is heading to St. Martin soon and wants to know if anyone on the island makes their own brew.   Then I watched the YouTube video of my granddaughter Camille who came in second in a cheerleading competition at The University of Maryland, and now I am writing a story about my digital experiences on my blog.  Every day I check my email a few times, check TTOL to see what is happening on my favorite Caribbean island, check my bank account and credit card account and then click on the Extraordinary Stories icon.  I do this every day!  But, I don't check the news on my computer because that is the reason I buy the morning paper.  And, I love to read the paper.  It is, as George Costanza says, "One of the reasons I get up in the morning."  Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Project, recently authored a short story titled "Seniors' Moment in a Digital World" in which he writes that in 2012, for the first time, more than half of American's age 65 and older are online and one of the things that they do quite often is check the news on their computer.  Well, as I said, I don't read the news on my computer,  but I am one of the seniors in the digital world.  And, he goes on to write that over a third of those seniors are now active on social networking sites such a Facebook.  On top of that, over two-thirds of seniors now own and use a cellphone and some even browse the Internet, play games and launch apps on their phones.  About 10% of older online users have also themselves become producers of news by blogging, commenting on news stories they may have read, sharing links on their Facebook page and uploading photos they may have taken.  As for myself, I at one time was an active Facebook user, but have since stopped contributing unless I find I have to respond to another's comment, but I do add photos as well as contribute what you are now reading.  Lee goes on to tell how seniors have become e-patients, such as myself, because we search for insights about medical symptoms, treatments and .  But one of the greatest uses of the Internet for seniors would be shopping.  During the gift-giving season it makes it so much easier to do shopping without the worry of finding a parking space, walking the long aisles in the mall and having to carry the gifts to the car.  I just ordered a soccer jersey for my youngest son and frames for my photos I sell.  One of Lee's favorite statistics in his 13 years of research is that those age 75 and older who belong to Facebook have an average of 42 friends.  Now compared to 319 friends for those is their 20s, it isn't a impressive, but it shows that social networking is no longer just a place where young people hang out.  The digital world is for everyone.  Make use of it!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.