The nice thing about using a computer to stay in touch is that your e-mail address remains the same, whether your summer home and winter home are in different locations, or whether you are traveling.

Surfing the net. Sending e-mails to friends, children and grandchildren. Sharing photos online. Many retirees turn on their computer daily to check the news, explore new websites, send electronic messages to friends and family, and even to share photos with others.

How about you? If you're already using a computer, you might skip this article. If using a computer scares the daylights out of you, or you just haven’t gotten started online yet, you’ll find some tips (and hopefully the incentive) to start your cyber journey.

Resources and "How-to" Guides:

There are plenty of books available to help you learn the basics. Borrow these from your local library or check a bookstore. Better yet, rev up your curiosity and go online to explore what’s available free of charge. One of the best aspects of the World Wide Web (also called the Internet) is that it can be the largest library on earth, right in your own home.

Using your browser you can find virtually unlimited sources of information… recipes and cooking ideas, how to do home repair, puzzles and games, company and product data, travel guides… virtually anything you want to know can be found without leaving the comfort of your own home.

One excellent resource on "how to use a computer" can be found on the website created by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). In the "Computers and Technology" section of the AARP site, there are tutorial programs for learning the Internet, with definitions and samples, located at www.aarp.org/learninternet.

What’s stopping you?

Finally, it is a common human emotion to fear the unknown. If you feel hesitant that you’ll do something wrong – remember, you can’t really break a computer by pushing the wrong buttons. If you feel awkward asking what might seem like silly questions – being a beginner means there are no expectations, ask all sorts of questions and say with a laugh, "I’m just learning!" As technology continues to change and improve, even those experienced in computers find themselves asking for help when they come across something new.

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Learning the Jargon – Some Basic Terms

Some brief definitions may help you feel comfortable getting started online.

Internet: A network of computers spanning the globe. To connect to the Internet, your computer can dial-up via a telephone line. Another option is a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection. DSL is a high-speed connection that travels through your telephone line but does not prevent you from making or receiving calls while you are connected. Or, if you have a cable broadband connection to your home, your computer is always connected. Broadband connections are becoming more popular because it speeds up the process of receiving information and images over the Internet.

Internet Browser: A software program that enables you to view "web pages" on the Internet. Browsers typically come with a software package on a computer when you buy it. Common browsers are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

Web page: Like a page in a book, a web page contains written information and some graphics or pictures. Web pages can be complicated with lots of information, or very simple. Many websites change the content of their pages on a daily basis.

Web site: A collection of "pages" forms a site or area of the World Wide Web. Each website has a name and is owned by an individual, company, or organization. For example, www.SeniorK.com is the name of the retiree website owned and operated by Kellogg Company.

Home Page: Your browser will "open" to a certain page (which you can select) every time you connect to the Internet. This is called your Home Page. Also, each website has a home page, which is the main page of the website, or the first page you open when you go to that website.

Links: A link is an easy way to move from page to page. A text link is underlined. When you put your mouse on the underlined words and click, you move to another page. Graphic images are often links as well. An easy way to recognize a link is that your mouse pointer will become a hand with pointing finger when it is over a link.

Home Page Menu: Most sites will have what’s called a "menu" on their home page. This is typically a listing of "pages" in that site and it often appears on the left-hand side of the home page, or across the top. On the Senior K site, the menu appears on the the left-hand side of the home page and shows all the of main pages of the site, like "Senior Moments" and "Retiree Tips." You can go to those pages listed by clicking on the page name in the menu.

Search Engines: A program on the computer that enables you to search pages on the Internet for specific topics (called keywords) and then gives you a list of web pages or websites where the key words were found. Examples of search engines include: Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, Excite and Google. (A popular phrase these days is "I googled it," meaning I searched for it on the Internet.)

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): Each web page has a unique address called the URL (pronounced U-R-L). The Internet has a system for creating addresses that contains four parts: 1) A protocol name, which is a set of rules computers use to exchange information. The most common protocol on the Internet is http://. This stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. 2) The location of the site: www. This stands for World Wide Web. 3) The name of the organization that maintains the site, such as Kellogg or Senior K. 4) A suffix that identifies the kind of organization it is: com or org. Some common extensions are: com – commercial, edu – educational, gov – government, int – international, mil - military, net – network, org – organization.