Yoohoo, Mommies!

Your data intrigued me because it's so opposite what I know from my friends and neighbors that looked a bit further and came up with this article from The New York Times. It certainly tells another story, doesn't it.

This is more what I know.

Lucille

Since I know a ton of people over 65 who are totally computer savvy, including my 88 year old father and his wife, who bank online, I'd love to know the source for your statistics.

Elizabeth

Only 22% of the over-65s use a computer? I'd have guessed a little higher, even though I know so many who don't use a computer.

They don't say how they arrived at the figure or what level of use that

22% have.

The Canadian figure, according to Stats Canada, is 29% for Internet use, which isn't of course the same thing as using a computer. There are probably people who use computers without accessing the Internet.

(if not computer) use also varies by region quite a bit. Cheryl

Precisely.

Plus, the original question was specifically about Barbie clothes, which we can produce at no cost just to fill out a corner of the table so it looks like we have a little more stock.

It wasn't about "what business venture should we invest money in?" Buying each of us a large and small Webkinz to serve as "dressmaker's dummy", plus buying patterns to make their clothing, would mean investing more than we're expecting to earn from that little corner of the table. We were simply looking for pricing advice on our no-cost method of using scraps, not a way to spend even more money on this one-time venture that we have absolutely no intention of turning into a year-round business. The day after the craft fair, the display Barbies and the leftover clothes go to Toys for Tots and we go back to our real business ventures. Which don't involve spending $60 in order to sell $30 of product.

This particular clientele isn't computer-savvy, and if we have to explain it to them what Webkinz are (when we've never heard of them ourselves till yesterday), then it's not going to be a big seller.

Plus, despite the claims that Barbie is passe', last year's Channel 3 toy drive was covered extensively on TV, and I saw a lot of families with children (who certainly would know what kids their age play with) bringing in Barbies and Barbie accessories. A couple of the newspeople who are a bit younger than me do have children in the Webkinz age range, and they never said "oh, cool, Webkinz, my kids love them" as people were dropping off their donations, as they did with some of the other toys. After the fact, there was a summary, 1111 of these toys, 1234 of those toys were donated, and while Barbie got her own category, there was no separate category for Webkinz (I'm guessing if any were donated they were lumped into "stuffed animals"). If they'd said something about it, I would've googled to learn what it was.

But, for all the ubiquitousness that's claimed here, I never heard of them, and I'm certainly not completely out of touch; I read the newspaper and several magazines, watch both the local news and CNN, surf the web... none of the business reporters I follow have commented on the Webkinz craze, it didn't come up in any of the pre-Christmas "hot toys" reporting last year.

And none of the people either Mom or I consulted (most of whom are mothers or grandmothers) had ever heard of them, except for one who knew the name from seeing it on a "sold out" sign, not because she'd been begged to buy them. So, maybe it's YOU who are not typical, because here are three (admittedly small) survey groups in three states (NY, Calif, and Hawaii) who've never heard of these things. The family

11-year-old has never mentioned them to me (and we computer chat on a regular basis), DBF's nieces/nephews have never mentioned Webkinz to him, my friend's colleagues/kids/students have never mentioned Webkinz to her.

I do note that every one of you who's claimed they're the hottest things since Beanie Babies is along the Eastern Corridor. Not a peep about them from any of our Western correspondents, which is where I'm going to be selling the stuff. And I can tell you that people in California have never given a hoot about what's trendy on the East Coast; we create our own trends.

I know I've seen it on more than one occasion in the local newspaper, but they're now limiting free web access to only the newest articles; if you want something more than a couple weeks old, you have to pay for it.

I'll see what I can find that won't require you paying to read it.

Your relatives and acquaintances buck the trend. At the bridge club where I do all the mail outs I literally can only think of two now who do not have computers - they are in their late 80s. That club consists of about 350 people, mostly retired, a cross cut of society. I have mentioned them before and am happy to report only ONE still clings to aohell, but soon she is buying a new computer and has promised to fly solo.

There was a time when it was said women were taking over the internet, that was when the potential of communication through email was realized (I confess that was the first thing that grabbed my attention) and we all know women are great communicators.

Now I am hearing 'It's the old guys taking over' - both amongst my nerdy friends and at my computer place. In addition to cope with that we now have lots of CAP places where anyone can go to get started on the basics of a computer - and guess what ? They are inundated with seniors, the kids who come are generally ones who do not have access to computers outside of school.

I also notice in passing, that when I go to Future Shop/Staples et al, nobody treats me as a joke, they know that I am the mostly likely to walk out with a flash drive/spindle of DVDs/copy paper/printer refills etc.

I hate to see you dismiss many people (many of them here) based on what would seem to be extremely limited knowledge of seniors of even tolerable intelligence. Can it be that California sun has tetched the heads of seniors somehow ? I really doubt it !

Good link, it's sure more the way I know seniors, I particularly liked

"the ranks of Americans over 65 who use the Internet have jumped by 47 percent since 2000, making them the fastest-growing group to embrace the online world. "

47% is a VERY convincing quantity.

Here in the UK older folk using the internet are termed "Silver Surfers".

I recently helped a Newf from St. John's who now lives here with her daughter, set up the lap top her son sent her. She is undaunted and has been a speedy learner, she is riding the wave lol

I will watch the first show of the season. Is that fair enough?

V

Actually, it tells exactly the story I've experienced: "Despite the increases, this age group still has a long way to go. Only

22 percent of Americans over 65 go online, the study shows, compared with 75 percent of those ages 30 to 49."

If 22% are online that means nearly 4/5 are not. Hardly the overwhelming majority you claim in your neighborhood. Much closer to the percentages in Mom's neighborhood, where only one of the five older people on the block owns a computer.

"the ranks of Americans over 65 who use the Internet have jumped by 47 percent since 2000, making them the fastest-growing group to embrace the online world"

Well, sure, because if 75% of younger people are online, it's impossible to increase that by 47% (do the math). Whereas if 2 older people are online, adding just one more is a 50% increase.

My aunt readily admits that the only reason she does e-mail is because all her relatives are in Europe; the e-mail account is cheaper than airmail postage. If her relatives were just a local phone call away, she would have no interest in it at all. And that may be why it's so popular in your area -- because the grannies have all moved to Florida and left the kids and grandkids behind in Brooklyn. In this area, we have a lot of fifth- and sixth-generation local families; the grandkids are a local phone call, so there's no need for granny to learn to use a computer to communicate with them.

When her son set up my aunt's e-mail account, he had her send a test e-mail "hello, this is my new address". 10 of my next 10 contacts with her were either by phone or snail mail. The 11th was by e-mail only because I was stumped on a translation, and when I called to read it to her she admitted it might make more sense if she saw the convoluted sentence in writing; then she phoned to tell me how she'd translate it. She's only now reaching the point where she will e-mail me instead of calling or snail-mailing.

Like with my parents, she has a house and garden to keep up, a husband who needs to be driven to multiple doctor appointments, doctor and physical therapy appointments of her own; she doesn't have the time to play on the computer every day.

Well let's just leave the subject as you not understanding that your relatives are a minority and leave the insult lie here for all us seniors that you clearly feel we are pretty damn stupid in our dotage. Better wake up and smell the roses ! I see you still feel, even at your oh so clever age, you need to stay with aohell because god knows what fate would befall you if you handled the internet first hand. Bah ! I have no more to say now, you are wrong and I am going by first hand experience.

Not particularly impressive if it took a 47% jump (over 8 long years) to bring the total UP to 22%. And how many of those 47% were, in 2000,

57-year-old working people who aged into that statistic but have actually been using computers at work for years?

DBF is approaching increasing the number of over-65s online; he was actually *selling* computers (and thus knew how to use them) back in the Kaypro days (which is, what, nearly 30 years ago?) -- he may be newly embracing old age, but not newly "embracing the online world" ... at age

65, he will have been online for 15 years already.

Then my generation will get there, and over 65s will be nearly 100% online, not because they're becoming more adventurous but because we've been online for decades.

Think about it, Sheena... It's cold and snowy where you are. The old folks here are never housebound or isolated by winter weather, because we never have snow or icy roads. They're out and about and doing things, not home with only their computer for company. The local bus company gives free lifetime passes to people over 80, so there's no need for anyone in this town to sit home alone just because they've given up driving, and weather is never an issue.

Winters are nice enough that no one from here retires to Florida, housing prices are affordable enough and jobs plentiful enough that the younger generation doesn't need to refugee this area in order to buy a house or find work, therefore, there's no need for our local retirees to e-mail their distant grandkids, just drive over and pick them up for an afternoon.

In this area, we garden year-round. No long boring winter with nothing to do but surf gardening websites.

Unless I'm misrecollecting, you and Lucille and Mavia are all closer to

65 than my parents and their crowd, who are 80-something (one may even be 90 by now). That in itself might explain why they're not as computer savvy as you three spring chickens.

However, I suspect that if the doctor gets her way, and my parents give up the house and garden to move to a small retirement apartment where "gardening" will comprise a single flower box, that the survivor of them might eventually be persuaded to get online for companionship, but right now, they don't have time; they spend several hours a day out in the garden, and 2-3 days a week going to various medical appointments. And since I have unlimited long distance, they don't need to e-mail to keep in touch cheaply; I can call them every day without it costing me any more than if I called only once a week. On the other hand, if I pack off to some tropical island where it costs $1 a minute to call, that might be incentive enough to learn to e-mail.

Here in the Midwest they are big, big, big. The local convention center/hotel even advertises that they carry them on their outside board. They are available at most airport gift shops. Webkinz also are not a Toys R Us toy, but one, like Beanie Babies, that tends to be found in independent shops.

Linda

I have to break my word to say nothing more - MY LIFE IS NOTHING LIKE WHAT YOU ARE DESCRIBING ~ I go out pretty much regardless of weather, it's a VERY rare day I am in 24/24 - very rare. Your picture of seniors is terribly warped.

Will grab one of each and let her decide... Cheryl

LOL! If you're going to insist that people stick to answering only the exact question you ask, you really need to find another place to post your questions. This is Usenet: "you posts in public, you takes your chances."

Elizabeth

We've seen New Moon. Not her bag at all.

Cheryl

Yes, darling, but jumped *by* 47% is different than jumped *to* 47%, as I'm sure you realized on the second reading.

Elizabeth