Senior citizens embrace technology

Verne Biehl, 79, first learned to play the piano when he was 12 years old, but he took lessons only a year and later regretted not being able to play well.
Nearly 67 years have passed since he first had an opportunity to return to study the instrument he always loved.

Except, now his lessons are taught on a digital piano.

Technology has caught up with Verne Biehl and he is taking it in stride.

"The digital piano is interesting, a little different than a straight piano,” said this Marietta resident. It feels much different than my manual one.”

For millions of Americans who grew up without computers or the Internet, cell phones, iPods, global positioning systems, digital cameras (remember the flash bulb?) Nintendo or even a television, catching up with technology can be a daunting challenge.

“If you don't learn about it, you feel like you've been left behind,” said Karen Burfield of Marietta. “I'm just learning about the computer. My three daughters are encouraging me. I do e-mail and look things up.”

Burfield and Biehl are among a steadily growing army of seniors who are eagerly accepting the challenge and diving into the technical “soup.”

Both take classes at the O'Neill Senior Center in Marietta, introducing them to new technologies and to sharpen their basic skills.

For Burfield, the handwriting was on the wall when the doctor's office where she had worked for years, suddenly turned up with computers. It was do or die.

“I had to get on the computer to look things up,” she said. “I learned the basics.”
After she retired in 2003, Burfield joined a creative writing class at O'Neill Center and used the computer to help facilitate her writing.

“I'm really still just learning about it,” she said. “It helps me with writing. The one thing I hate is when something goes wrong and I have to ask for help.”


Read the entire article at The Marietta Times