By Wailin Wong

Chicago Tribune

Dr. Manus Kraff's iMac and MacBook Pro are hooked up to a home wireless network. He recently replaced his old iPhone with the latest version and downloads podcasts of scientific lectures so he can listen to them while jogging. In his downtime at the office, he signs onto Google Reader to skim his favorite Web sites.

Kraff is 76 years old.

The way he has embraced technology is rare for his age group, which remains the last generation to go online in significant numbers. But in many ways, Kraff is on the leading edge of seniors wading deeper into technology at a pivotal time.

Even for some older adults who have resisted going online, the Internet is now too powerful to ignore. This year's presidential election underscores the generational divide, pitting a 72-year-old who has acknowledged he rarely goes online by himself against a 47- year-old who hired a founder of Facebook to organize Web-based support.

Still, the overall ranks of Web-savvy seniors remain low. Just 35 percent of Americans older than 65 use the Internet, according to data compiled in April and May by the Pew Internet & American Life Project . But that's up from 30 percent in November 2006. In comparison, 70 percent of people age s 50 to 64 use the Internet.

"Everyone knows that older adults are online," said Nataki Clarke, director of online marketing at AARP. "That's not the big news. The big news is that older Americans are using the Internet for new and pretty meaty tasks that they previously weren't doing."

Susan Good, who didn't disclose her age, goes online at least five times a day to look up information on Google, e-mail friends and family, and read about politics. When traveling, she keeps track of her calendar on her iPhone. "Without knowing how to use a cell phone and use a computer, and knowing how to type, you were kind of like an old soul instead of a young soul in modern America," Good said, explaining how she came to take private computer lessons from Tony Marengo, who calls himself The Mac Tutor.

Marengo tailors his instruction for adults who are 65 or older, visiting their homes for weekly or biweekly sessions that cost $75 an hour. He works with students such as Good and Kraff, as well as newcomers.

One client once put the mouse directly on the monitor, while another didn't know she could access other Web sites besides Yahoo because that was her browser's home page.

"There's such a level of apprehension whenever you're new to something," Marengo said. "The key is not to get frustrated."

When Kraff, the founder of the Kraff Eye Institute in Chicago, started taking classes in 2001, he thought, "Everybody else takes golf lessons and tennis lessons. I'm going to take computer lessons," he said.

During a recent session, Marengo showed Kraff how he could view messages from multiple accounts at one time, rather than clicking on each mailbox individually in his e-mail software.

"I learned something," said Kraff, tapping his forehead. "That's the pearl today."

With beginning students Marengo assigns simple homework, such as writing three e-mails or bookmarking four Web sites. And he always reminds his students that "there is no self-destruct button" on the computer, so they shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes.

Aleksey Gorelik, 79, a regular who reads Russian news sites and recently looked up online travel information before taking a trip to Canada, said, "I can see all the world on my computer. I e-mail with friends in Chicago.