Seniors Citizens Get PC Help, Net Access

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April 21, 1999 (6:50 AM EDT)

By Mo Krochmal,

NEW YORK -- Senior citizens are getting online, making for one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. Internet market.

This week at the 50-Plus Expo trade show, senior citizens crowded free computer classes on how to use the Internet, how to buy a computer, and how the year 2000 computer problem will affect them.

That kind of interest from seniors is not unusual.

"It's the Internet, it's pushing this more than anything else," said Alvin Guzman, the manager of AGS Systems, a New York-based company that sells computers and specializes in computer training for those aged 50 and older.

"It's an untapped market," said Guzman. AGS has 10 teachers, working from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, including Sunday, giving seniors computer lessons that range in cost from $69 to $300.

According to an October 1998 survey by the advocacy group SeniorNet and the brokerage firm Charles Schwab, more than 13 million adults over the age of 50 have Internet access. The survey estimates that 40 percent of all U.S. adults over the age of 50 have a computer at home -- up from 29 percent in 1995.

According to Microsoft, more than 20 percent of the people who use its popular Microsoft Investor software are older than 50. And E-Trade, the online brokerage firm, said a quarter of its customers are over 55 -- up from 19 percent in June 1997.

Senior clients are taking a big interest in the Internet for investments, said Nick Solomon, associate vice president for investments for Gruntal and Co., a New York financial-advising firm. "They want to get involved," he said.

While AGS makes a business in selling training, others provide it free. The Isabella Geriatric Center, a senior care center in Harlem whose residents are an average of 81-years-old, has offered quarterly computer classes and has seen them filled, said Mimi Koren, public-affairs coordinator.

"They want to use e-mail," said Koren.

Kay Yannatos, a 66-year-old Bronx resident and a retired X-ray technician, sat through the lessons offered Monday and said she learned a little bit.

"I'm not too computer literate," she said. Yannatos said she uses an Apple G3-powered laptop at home to do her e-mail through her America Online account. "I don't buy online and I haven't used the chat rooms. I'm not into that," she said.