Internet access eludes most older Iowans

As the sun rises every day over the Windcove retirement community in Cedar Falls, 77-year-old Dale Halupnik follows the same routine.

He gets online and browses the national news before reading the “green” edition of his local newspaper. He checks the weather, reads email, scans stock prices and skims Facebook.

If it's that time of year, Halupnik spends extra time online filing taxes or planning a trip. And, on any given Sunday, if he and his wife don't feel like battling traffic, they'll hook the computer up to their TV and watch a live stream from their church in the comfort of their easy chairs.

“I'm one of the fortunate people who got into computers more than 40 years ago,” Halupnik said. “I'm kind of a rare bird in terms of being comfortable around computers and the Internet.”

Only 27 percent of Iowans like Halupnik - age 70 or older - have high-speed Internet in their homes, according to new figures from Connect Iowa, a non-profit group promoting broadband access, adoption and use.

That percentage, below the national average of 30 percent, means most of Iowa's older population is missing out on today's virtual conveniences, said Amy Kuhlers, state program manager for Connect Iowa.

“There is a quality-of-life issue that is enhanced by the use of broadband,” Kuhlers said.

Advantages of Internet

High-speed Internet can help older users maintain control over their lives longer through online tools for banking, grocery shopping, and medical records, Kuhlers said. So Connect Iowa is working with leaders statewide to identify gaps in broadband access and use and to take steps to bridge those divides.

Efforts include educating potential users, improving accessibility and eliminating cost inhibitors, Kuhlers said. But there is a lot of work to do.

According to the Connect Iowa survey, 47 percent of the older respondents said they don't even own a computer. Only 19 percent said they have a laptop or a tablet. One reason older Iowans gave for not adopting home broadband was relevance, Kuhlers said.

“They just don't see that there is an application for their lives,” she said.

Other reasons include digital incompetence, cost and privacy concerns.

Halupnik, who has become a one-man “Geek Squad” for his retirement community, said he hears those excuses and tries to help his peers overcome those hurdles.

“They'll call me up on a constant basis and say, ‘Can you come over? My printer won't work' or ‘I can't get on the Internet,'?” he said. “It's not that they're ignorant. They just didn't grow up in the technology age.”

Lack of exposure

Halupnik, a retired engineer trained in computers and accounting, said he polled residents in his 70-unit building, and only 38 of the households use broadband. Those who aren't wired in said the technology is too confusing, expensive or unnecessary.

“They were never exposed to using computers and, as a result, they don't want to be bothered with them,” he said.

Of the 38 units with broadband, Halupnik said, one third use it to do only basic tasks, like email.

Others - like 97-year-old Mark Pulis - are trying to branch out. With his poor hearing, Pulis reads much of his news online, where he also checks his stocks.

And Pulis has a packed digital photo library.

“I would be lost without that computer,” Pulis said. “I don't know how I would occupy a lot of my time.”

Getting more people connected also can save businesses money and benefit the environment, said Jessica Ditto, communications director for Connected Nation, which oversees subsidiaries like Connect Iowa.

“More government initiatives are focused on promoting e-government services and creating cost savings for taking care of licensing and registration online,” Ditto said.

Connected Nation in 2008 analyzed the potential economic impact of stimulating broadband use. A 7 percentage point increase in broadband adoption could result in a direct economic impact nationally worth $134 billion a year, according to the analysis.

The annual economic impact for Iowa was estimated at $1.2 billion, including $64.6 million in annual mileage cost savings, according to the report.

“It has a tremendous effect on communities and can have life changing benefits to individuals,” particularly elderly residents, Ditto said. “It can allow them to function in society without being burdened by the lack of mobility they sometimes face with age.”

New recruit

The allure of those potential benefits prompted Rose Miller, 74, to finally hook up the computer that's been sitting unused in her Cedar Rapids home for a year.

“I'm now very confused, and the computer is smarter than me,” she said. “But I'm learning.”

Miller said she didn't get connected sooner because of privacy concerns and because she was intimidated by the learning curve.

“It seems like I'm in a haze trying to get through it all,” she said. “But I know a month from now I won't feel that way.”