NEW YORK — If Sen. John McCain is really serious about becoming a Web-savvy citizen, perhaps Kathryn Robinson can help.
Robinson is 106 — that’s 35 years older than McCain — and she began using the Internet at 98, at the Barclay Friends home in West Chester, Pa.
“I started to learn because I wanted to e-mail my family,” she says — in an e-mail message, naturally.
Blogs have been buzzing recently over McCain’s admission that when it comes to the Internet, “I’m an illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get.”
How unusual is it for a 71-year-old American to be unplugged? That depends how you look at the statistics. Only 35 percent of Americans over age 65 are online, according to data from April and May compiled by the Pew Internet Project at the Pew Research Center.
But when you account for factors such as race, wealth and education, the picture changes drastically.
“About three-quarters of white, college-educated men age over 65 use the Internet,” says Susannah Fox, director of the project.
“On one hand, a U.S. senator has access to information sources and staff assistance that most people do not,” Fox said. “On the other, the Internet has become such a go-to resource that it’s a curiosity to hear that someone doesn’t rely on it the way most Americans do.”
McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan presented a somewhat updated picture Friday: “He’s fully capable of browsing the Internet and checking websites. He has a Mac and uses it several times a week. He’s working on becoming more familiar with the Internet.”
