How to E-Mail Seniors Who Don’t Have a Computer

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Keeping in touch with grandparents and other older relatives can be a bit more challenging when they don’t use a computer. Fortunately, there are two new services available today that can bridge the gap between those who use e-mail and seniors who don’t.

E-mail to Snail Mail
While seniors make up the fastest growing group of Internet and e-mail users in the U.S., they still lag way behind the younger generations. Currently around 45 percent of people ages 70 to 75 go online compared to nearly 90 percent of those under age 35. To help, there’s a relatively new service called Sunnygram (888-517-8669) that will turn your e-mails into stamped letters so you can easily keep in touch with your grandma in formats that you’re both accustomed to.

The idea is simple: When you sign up your grandma, for example, she would get an e-mail address that you write to. Sunnygram then collects and prints out all the e-mail messages and pictures addressed to her, and snail mails them to her once a week in an appealing newsletter format (large font is an option too). Your grandma then has the option of responding through a Sunnygram prepaid letter which would be scanned and e-mailed to you. Or she can call a toll-free number and leave a voice message, which would get transcribed and sent to you in an e-mail. This service, which costs $13 per month, provides unlimited e-mail and photo printing and any number of family members and friends can correspond with her.

Another neat new service if you’re a Facebook user is PostEgram. It works similar to Sunnygram except it lets you share Facebook news and photos in a printed newsletter format that can be mailed out weekly, biweekly or monthly.