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When she revealed her age, it was well received. "I enjoyed the fact that I was the oldest woman on the WELL," Kamen says. "I found myself serving as a role model when someone came on saying they had just had their 40th birthday and were feeling over the hill. I could respond to that."
Like Kamen, Jerry Firman, 62, got acquainted with computers years ago. But when he sold his weekly Ohio newspaper, the Coshocton Free Enterpriser, he was looking for a new sense of community. He had taken up residence in an RV and loved the freedom but felt rootless. His solution: to build communities online. Through Third Age, an online site for seniors, Firman founded a chat room called Butt Out, which offers support for seniors trying to stop smoking. He joined another called the Novel Approach, where 16 regulars critique one another's manuscripts.
But Firman has received more personal benefits from chat rooms: last summer he found love. He and Rebecca Gose, 48, met in the Third Age Cafe and started e-mailing each other. Then in September Firman drove the RV to Colorado Springs to meet her. He has been there ever since; his RV is parked where he can see Pikes Peak out the front window when he wakes up. Firman enjoys that view every morning when he makes himself coffee and checks his e-mail on the computer set up on his dashboard. Sometimes there are messages from one of his five children from his three marriages or from a friend he has made in a chat room.
Recently he saw the strength of Internet friendship. A member of a Third Age chat group who calls himself "Skyhook" had a severe reaction to medication while he was online. Skyhook, a quadriplegic, was home alone in Ohio. The online group kept him alert while someone called 911. A few months later, Firman and some other members of the chat group paid a visit to Skyhook. After they saw his mobile home, they contacted Ohio social services, which helped make the dwelling more wheelchair accessible and updated his computer.
"I talk to an awful lot of people who are anxious for friendship," Firman says. The Internet is helping them find it. It helped Skyhook's friends save his life, and it's been a lifesaver for seniors who have widened their social circle, gained confidence and discovered a new world online.
--Reported by Greg Aunapu/Miami, William Dowell/New York, Chandrani Ghosh and Declan McCullagh/Washington, Maureen Harrington/Colorado Springs and Marc Hequet/St. Paul
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