Bridging the Cybergap : Project Battles Isolation by Linking Retirees With Students Via Computers

Sol Ballotin, 85, has made a new friend over the Internet. He doesn’t know where she lives, what she looks like or even what her real name is.

But as often as twice a week, Ballotin, who lives in a retirement community in Torrance, carefully taps out messages on a computer to the high school student he knows as “Bear.”

In a project aimed at easing feelings of isolation among senior citizens and analyzing how they deal with computerized communication, Ballotin and more than 150 other elderly people throughout the country are being introduced to students in cyberspace.

Two USC professors--Pamela Wendt of the School of Gerontology and Michael Cody of the School of Communication--leased computers for dozens of retirement communities and taught the residents how to move a mouse and negotiate their way through America Online.

They also provided the online service for individuals with their own computers. Various schools, from elementary to high school, were contacted and asked to participate in the project.

Ballotin and most of the other seven participants at the Pacific Inn retirement home in Torrance said they get a kick out of striking up new computer acquaintances. Jannie Lee Johnson, 91, said her granddaughters and sister frequently e-mail each other and she wants to join the family communication circuit.

Some said they don’t want to feel left behind. “We’re fighting getting old,” said Connie Landis, 73. “We’re trying to stay part of the world.”

That’s exactly what Wendt had in mind when she conceived the project, paid for by a one-year grant to the gerontology and communications schools. “We no longer have the neighborhood communities we used to have,” she said. “People are socially isolated. They live away from their family. This lets them be connected once again.”

Cody said that hooking up the elderly with youths gives the senior citizens an opportunity to impart valuable insights to the youngsters as well as enjoy some company. “There are seniors giving advice to younger people on every topic you can imagine,” Cody said.

One retired interior decorator gave tips on designing a student’s room. Others offer personal views on historical events they lived through, he said.

Helena Minye, 16, was pleasantly surprised when Millie Bell, 84, mentioned taking a watercolor class.

“We both like art,” Minye said. “It sort of warmed up the conversation. We had more stuff to talk about.”

For some senior citizens who have had little recent contact with teenagers, “it takes them a few weeks to realize this kid is smart and tells good stories.”

Ballotin’s electronic pen pal is Dina Levkov, a junior at Granada Hills High School, who chose the computer name Bear for the bearhugs she and her brother exchange. Ballotin doesn’t know her real name because project organizers kept that information confidential and left it up to the participants to reveal personal information.

Levkov said she expected “all elderly people” to enjoy fishing and playing chess--two hobbies she happened to enjoy. But her stereotyped image did not pertain to Ballotin, who writes about his family, the places he has lived and the card games he likes to play. They did discover one common link: Ballotin used to run his own retail shop; her father also owns a business. “He sounds very pleasant,” said Levkov, who said she did not mind being identified as his pen pal. “His personality doesn’t strike me as very old.”

Ballotin--who said he remembers the development of television and the huge machines that were the ancestors of today’s computers--didn’t know his way around a keyboard a few months ago.

But, determined to familiarize himself with the computers that he sees his children use, “I learned that thing in about three weeks,” he said.

In addition to studying how the elderly communicate online, researchers are analyzing how they respond to computer training. At Pacific Inn, many said that the keys, cursor and type should all be larger. They also want to learn how to solve computer problems themselves. “I’d like to know what all the keys are for,” Ballotin said.

Entering cyberspace has introduced the seniors to the headaches that any computer user faces. When asked whether using the computer made her as nervous as it did when she first started, Francie Trotman, 78, replied, “No, it makes me mad. But it tickles me when it works.”

The researchers screen all the e-mail to collect data.

At first, the pen pals used only their online names, but many have since shared their identities.

Although the project ends for the seniors in June when the students’ school year is over, those at some sites hope to get their own computers and continue sending e-mail to their families and new friends.

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What They Said

‘We no longer have the neighborhood communities we used to have. People are socially isolated. They live away from their family. This lets them be connected once again.’

PAMELA WENDT, Professor at USC School of Gerontology

‘There are seniors giving advice to younger people on every topic you can imagine.’

Michael Cody, Professor at USC School of Communication

‘We’re fighting getting old. We’re trying to stay part of the world.’

Connie Landis, 73