The other is that seniors nationwide are clamoring to get wired. Hostelers offered me several explanations for why they were here. Several inherited their kids' cast-off computers and want to figure out how to use them. Many want to track stocks. Past attendees came to understand what their children, who work in the Valley, do for a living.
Seniors are among the most avid users of online trading and financial-service Web sites.
It's clear that E-mail is the killer app, however. Personal connections made possible and maintained online are helping seniors get over their wariness of computers. Marguerite Meek of Hemlock, Mich., now has a large database of jokes that friends have zapped to her. She keeps them so she can send cheery postcards daily to ailing chums. Marguerite discovered the value of online correspondence several years ago, when she was the one who needed cheer.