Older folks like Wii, PCs and cellphones, too

— -- Health issues forced Ted Campbell, 79, to give up real bowling in 1965. But Campbell, a resident of the Greenspring retirement community in Springfield, Va., bowls all the time now — on a Nintendo Wii video game system in a bowling league he organized at Greenspring.

Seniors like Campbell are helping dispel an age-old stereotype: that folks getting up in years have little or no interest in the latest technology. Video games, PCs, cellphones and such can help keep minds and bodies sharp. Tech companies are starting to pay closer attention to the mature market, and to folks with physical disabilities.

The topic of technology and aging takes center stage this weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On Saturday, CES hosts the first Silvers Summit, a showcase for products and services dedicated to keeping aging Boomers engaged, entertained and healthy. The day-long exhibition will feature speakers and/or product demonstrations from AARP, gaming giant Electronic Arts, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm, among others. Sessions will address everything from online dating after 50 to home monitoring of elderly relatives.

According to Forrester Research, U.S. adults 64 and older who bought technology in a recent three-month period spent an average $365 on consumer electronics products and $429 on computer hardware and peripherals. And Forrester points out that Americans 55 to 64 are more active in online finance, shopping and entertainment than those under 55.

EA says about a third of visitors to its Pogo.com puzzle, word and board game site are Boomers or older who say they play Pogo games to keep their minds sharp. Howard Byck, senior vice president of lifestyle products at AARP, says its own gaming area (Sudoku, Solitaire, etc.) is the most-visited part of aarp.org. He says 7 million Boomers without kids at home have video game systems.

At Greenspring, more than 200 people bowl on 30 teams in the Wii league, some bowling from electric carts, walkers or wheelchairs. Campbell reckons the average age is 82 or 83, the oldest a woman in her mid-90s. The biggest benefit is the social function, he says, and the opportunity "to do some exercise that they didn't do before."

And Mary Furlong, 60, a marketing consultant, says Boomers will never be seniors in the traditional sense. "Hell, no, they won't go," she says of Boomers trying to resist old age. "We text, we Skype, we Twitter," says Furlong.