Plugging In : At 84, Ruth Newhall Blazes New Trails by Going High-Tech
It’s Tuesday night in a quiet shopping center, and a college class in Macintosh desktop publishing has just gathered for its weekly meeting. Nothing unusual, except, perhaps, for the 84-year-old woman sitting at the end desk.
After a lifetime of doing the unexpected, Ruth Newhall--matriarch of the Santa Clarita Valley town that bears her late husband’s family name, and former editor of its hometown newspaper--is keeping to form by learning to produce newsletters on the computer.
Although older Americans remain the least likely adults to own or use a home computer, the ever-inquisitive Newhall has been jockeying with the twenty- and thirtysomething classmates looking to enhance their careers.
“Why not?” said Newhall, widow of Scott Newhall, the famous newspaperman whose great-grandfather pioneered the Santa Clarita Valley area in the late 1800s. “It seems to me learning anything whatsoever, getting a new skill, is always interesting and stimulating,” she said.
Across the country, older Americans are plugging in and turning on computers. Nursing homes and retirement communities are putting their residents on the so-called Information Superhighway. There’s even SeniorNet Online, a national on-line service geared toward older users.
But those forays into high technology belie evidence that senior citizens with home computers remain a small, if fast-growing, minority. In 1993, according to a recent U.S. Census report, just 8.4% of people 65 and older owned personal computers. Those users tend to be the wealthier and better-educated seniors such as Newhall.
Seniors who have taken to computers, some less mobile than they used to be, rave about the ability to keep in touch with friends and family members via e-mail, manage their financial investments, monitor the news, and even shop on-line from an ever-widening array of vendors, experts say.
Computer use among older Americans will increase, researchers predict. If nothing else, their population is growing as the country’s median age climbs and today’s workplace computer users become tomorrow’s retirees. But there is much debate over whether seniors with PCs will become widespread any time soon.
Newhall, who will turn 85 on July 3, is the first to admit she’s not the typical senior citizen. Money clearly is not a barrier for a woman whose home is an ornate mansion in the Ventura County town of Piru. The 10-acre estate, 20 miles west of Newhall, has been called a “Poor Man’s Hearst Castle.”
Defying expectations is something she has done all her life, starting as a then-rare female student-body president at UC Berkeley. She went on to become a reporter, author and college journalism teacher. With her husband, an heir to the Newhall Land & Farming Co. fortune, she traveled the world and ran the feisty Newhall Signal newspaper from 1963 to 1988, mostly as editor.
Today, once a week, she makes the 60-mile, 90-minute round trip--part of it on a narrow and winding mountain road--from her home to the computer class in Thousand Oaks. It is offered by Chatsworth-based Learning Tree University, a private continuing education program similar to UCLA Extension.
Last Tuesday, Newhall attended the sixth, two-hour session in the eight-week computer graphics class. Upon completion, she plans to sign up for a more advanced session. “I still have a lot to learn. I can do text pretty well, but I’m a real dummy on graphics,” she said.
Despite her unusual life, Newhall is just another student in her computer class, blending in with those young enough to be her grandchildren. She pays close attention in part, she said, to make up for less-than-perfect eyesight and hearing.
“I get the feeling she doesn’t feel 80 is any different than 20,” said Sandy Fox, her teacher.
“I’ve taught a lot of classes and do a lot of assisting with other instructors,” Fox said. “And I’ve never even seen anybody that age in a computer class. Generally, you don’t find people beyond 55 or 60. I think it’s kind of exciting.”
Santa Clarita residents, meanwhile, need not fear their tranquillity is about to be shattered. Newhall said she’s not trying to get back into the publishing business, even in a small way. She only wants to learn how to produce catchy brochures and flyers for charity causes, and keep active.
“If there’s one thing that truly bugs me, it’s people who hang around and complain,” said Newhall, in characteristic fashion for a woman who was once said to wield “a velvet sledgehammer” in her work. “I see a lot of older people doing that.”
Nonetheless, Newhall conceded her “tremendous advantage” in having the resources and good health to pursue her interests. And she said she understands how some other seniors might be more insular. “I think they get seized with fears. They are afraid of new experiences,” she said.
Now on her third home computer system in the past eight years, a Macintosh Quadra 660AV with a 20-inch color monitor and laser printer, Newhall said she uses it every day, mostly for word processing. But as for the booming world of on-line services, she said, “I don’t have time for that stuff.”
Just how many seniors will follow Newhall’s keystrokes is unclear. According to the Census survey, seniors who own computers remain but a fraction of the 25.6% of all adults with PCs. More recent studies show the number of all adults owning PCs has grown even higher.
Yet the share of those age 65 and older with home computers did increase a tremendous 460%, faster than any other adult age group, climbing from a mere 1.5% in 1984 to the 8.4% figure in 1993, according to the Census data.
Some experts say the trend will continue as computers become an even more commonplace commodity and less intimidating for seniors never exposed to them at school or work. Gerontologist Douglas McConatha predicted computer ownership by seniors will catch up with the national average within 10 years and surpass it by 2011.
“The Microsoft ‘where do you want to go’ slogan really applies to these people, because sometimes the only place they can go is down the hall,” said McConatha, a professor of sociology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, who has documented how nursing home residents benefit from using PCs.
Patrick Burns, a spokesman for the National Council of Senior Citizens, agreed the potential is there. “But it won’t happen,” he said, arguing that seniors, with an average income of about $16,000 a year, will be unable to meet hefty equipment costs and afford ever-changing technologies.
“A lot of them will buy a computer and it will get dated fast,” said Burns, who is 36. “No one can keep up. I can’t keep up, and I’m willing to throw a lot of money at it,” he said.
Newhall, meanwhile, reflected on the irony that her husband, who died in 1992, never used a computer, writing his famous editorials instead on an old Royal typewriter. She often had to retype them for him.
“I used to grumble a lot,” she said, “about people being too stupid to use computers.”
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Computer Aged
Although the trend has attracted considerable interest, senior citizens using computers to broaden their horizons remain by far the exception rather than the rule. A recent U.S. Bureau of the Census report says Americans age 65 and above are less likely to have a computer at home than any other adult age group. And older Americans with computers at home as a group are the least likely to use them, according to the Census Bureau’s national survey. However, enthusiasts are encouraged because the share of seniors with home PCs has grown faster than any other adult age group, from 1.5% in 1984 to 8.4% in 1993. Experts believe that growth will continue in part because Americans on average are aging and PCs are becoming more of a consumer commodity. But key barriers for seniors include cost and fear of the technological unknown.
As of October, 1993:
AGE PROFILE
Age Percent With a % Change, Home Computer 1984-93 Total: 18 & older 25.6% 181% 18-21 30.4% 210 22-24 25.4% 274 25-34 25.3% 141 35-44 34.2% 104 45-54 34.4% 247 55-64 19.9% 315 65 and up 8.4% 460
INCOME PROFILE
Family Income: Percent With a Home Computer
All Households: 22.9% Less than $10,000: 5.8% $10,000 to $14,999: 8.0% $15,000 to $19,999: 11.8% $20,000 to $24,999: 15.4% $25,000 to $34,999: 21.2% $35,000 to $49,999: 31.1% $50,000 to $74,999: 45.4% $75,000 and over: 60.3% Income not reported: 17.8%
EDUCATIONAL PROFILE
Educational Attainment: Percent With a Home Computer
Less than 9th grade: 4.5% 9th to 11th grade: 8.1% High school graduate: 16.7% Some college: 33.1% Bachelor’s degree or higher: 48.7%
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Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census
