South Jersey Seniors Using Technology To Stay In Touch

South Jersey seniors using technology to stay in touch
Published: Thursday, June 30, 2011, 4:00 AM
By Kristina Pritchett/Gloucester County Times Gloucester County Times

Shirley Gregoris from West Deptford smiles at as she looks at a picture on Facebook, of her granddaughter and great granddaughter. Staff Photo by Tim Hawk/Gloucester County Times
Staying in touch with family members is proving to be easier for most senior citizens in South Jersey.

Grandparents are able to stay connected anywhere in the world by using Facebook, Skype, text messaging and emailing.

“I have a Facebook, a Myspace and a Twitter,” said Joe Ali, a 77-year-old resident of Clementon. “But I mostly use Facebook.”

Ali, who has been on Facebook for about five years, uses the social media website to stay in contact with his four children and 10 grandchildren.

“It’s easier to use these technologies because my one son is always traveling and he can read and then respond to me when he has the time,” Ali said.

Ali and his family are very close and socialize very often, and using the social media site helped link the family together.

“Even though my grandchildren swear I’m a spy for their parents,” Ali joked. “I’d never get them in trouble though.”

The uses of technology allows family members who talked once a week to now have the ability to talk once a day.

Dolores Quenzel, 79, who lived in Woodbury for 65 years and now lives in Astaro, Fla., connects with family everyday through the Internet.

“Facebook is my life line,” Quenzel said. “I get to see things I normally would miss. I get to see prom preparations and eighth grade graduations.”

Quenzel, who has four grandchildren and three children, stays in contact everyday through the website and text messaging.

“My granddaughter and grandson taught me how to text and sometimes we talk more than once a day,” Quenzel said. “It’s great.”

Jennifer Regina, a marketing professor at Rowan University, believes that people go to Facebook for communication because it has an easy learning curve.

“Even senior citizens realize how quick it is to become proficient,” Regina said.

Regina added that Facebook allows them to discover friends, people that they would not be able to find without the website.

“Facebook searches through high schools, colleges and job profiles that make it easy to find people,” Regina said.

Regina said the fastest growing market is 50 plus on Facebook and that the ease of use will continue to make it a great tool to stay connected.

Besides using the social media sites, seniors are looking to email as a way to stay in touch.

Originally from the Vineland area, Mary Lou Freshcoln uses Facebook and emailing to keep in contact with family and friends.

Freshcoln, 78, checks her email and Facebook everyday.

“Sometimes I get up to 50 emails a day, all of which I try to answer,” Freshcoln said.

Frescholn uses the technologies to stay in contact with her six children and 14 grandchildren, and all but one use Facebook.

“I use these things everyday so that I can see how my friends and family are doing. I check up on their health,” Freshcoln said.

Emailing not only has allowed people to stay in touch, but to separate the professional from the personal.

Kathy Smith, a 62-year-old resident of Williamstown, has been using the computer for over 10 years and has accumulated five email accounts.

“I have one for Facebook, one for Myspace, I have a Yahoo account, I have Gmail account and I have a Verizon account,” Smith said.

Smith said the reason behind all the email accounts was to be able to keep everything separated from one another.

“I tried to have different emails for different people. And I added more accounts when we had Comcast then switched to Verizon. So I made the Yahoo account because it was easier than emailing everyone about the Verizon email.”

For a faster way to communicate with family, seniors look to their phones for text messaging.

“Oh I text all the time, I had to go to unlimited otherwise my phone bill would be through the roof,” said June Peterson, a 64-year-old resident of Ocean City.

Peterson finds text messaging a more convenient way to speak to family, friends and co-workers.

“It’s a lot easier to send a text then to call and leave a voicemail. Then you have to hope they listen to the voicemail. With a text message you have a higher chance of them seeing it,” Peterson said.

Peterson has two sons and two granddaughters that she stays in contact with everyday.

“With my sons, I text them everyday, and then when we want to Skype we text a time then we meet up on Skype.”

Peterson said she uses Skype at least once a week to talk to her son in California or to chat with her granddaughters.

Text messaging has allowed people to be more comfortable during a conversation.

Tina Poole Finocchairo, a 59-year-old resident of Swedesboro, would rather send a text message than talk on the phone.

“I’ve always had this natural thing where I’d rather send an email or text. Phone conversations were never really my thing.”

Finocchairo has two children that she constantly texts everyday. She also sends messages to friends and other family members.

“My niece spends a lot of time in the hospital, (so) texting is our primary source of communication,” Finocchairo said. “It’s just more simple this way.”

Regina adds that the trend of social media and the use of technology to communicate is popular due to the fact that there is a higher response rate.

“Senior citizens are always looking for ways to make their lives easier and still allow them to keep in touch with their family and friends,” Regina said.

With generations living further apart, technology has filled the gap to tie families together, Regina said.

“Skype, texting and social media all allow people to keep instantly engaged and updated in lives that otherwise they would be missing out on,” Regina said.