Although stereotypically labeled as late subscribers to new forms of technology, many older adults have become interested in adapting to an increasingly digital world.

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center report, six in 10 seniors now go online, and 47 percent say they have a high-speed broadband connection at home. In addition, 77 percent of older adults currently have a cell phone.

While many seniors are making technological strides, the study also demonstrates that Internet and cell phone use greatly depend on a person’s financial status, educational attainment and age.

Some 68 percent of Americans in their early 70s go online regularly, but Internet use falls to 47 percent among 75–79-year-olds.

In addition, affluent and well-educated seniors are more likely to use technological tools. Ninety percent of seniors with an annual household income of $75,000 or more go online regularly, and 87 percent of seniors with a college degree surf the Web. In contrast, only 39 percent of seniors earning less than $30,000 annually go online, and 40 percent of seniors who have not attended college use the Internet.

Although older adults face a number of hurdles as they try to adapt to new technologies, Catholic seniors seem particularly interested in keeping up with the tweets of Pope Francis and maintaining contact with distant relatives through texting.

Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona maintains independent living senior housing sites that have become home to a tech-savvy group of older adults. According to site staff, most seniors are now using cell phones, and an estimated 40 percent of residents currently use email, Internet and texting.

While some seniors allow technical tools to become an integral part of their daily lives, many choose to avoid the Internet and cell phones because they are fearful they will not be able to use them on their own. These types of fears fueled Catholic Charities of Hawaii to develop a beginner’s iPad class to help seniors learn how to use the product.

Dianne Lim, program coordinator at Catholic Charities’ Lanakila Senior Center in Honolulu, said the class came about because “some of the more ‘tech savvy’ seniors at the senior center expressed an interest in learning more about what an iPad has to offer, and a couple had received one as a gift from their children but did not know how to operate it.”

She said she asked the seniors who already owned an iPad what they were using it for and found out they were mostly using it for games.

“I wanted to show them just how powerful a tool they had at their fingertips,” she said.

Although the class is mainly focused on the iPad, Lim explained that the instructor accepts questions about all forms of technology during monthly meetings and has also helped seniors learn more about smartphones and computers.

“It’s fun to watch their eyes light up when they learn something cool and new they didn’t know they could do before on their devices,” Lim said. “The class truly promotes the dignity of our seniors by expanding the range of what they can do with the technology that is in front of them. The seniors like the fact that they receive easy, step-by-step lessons and leave the class feeling like they have learned a lot.”

One participant in the class told Lim that she is grateful for the instruction she has received throughout the program.

In an email she said: “Seniors have difficultly transitioning from what they have learned to the skills necessary to navigate through a fast-changing technological world. Our granddaughters use texting as a means of communicating with us, and the information I have received throughout this class has broadened my knowledge of technology as a whole.”