(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-07 23:01

SANXENXO - "Today it's my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog."

So reads the first entry by one of the world's oldest Webloggers, Maria Amelia Lopez, who, at the age of 95, has surprised herself by a sudden conversion from Web-illiterate to cybercelebrity.

Web-blogger Maria Amelia Lopez walks along a street of Combarro, in the northern Spanish region of Galicia, October 5, 2007. At the age of 95 Lopez has surprised herself by a sudden conversion from Web-illiterate to cybercelebrity. [Agencies]

 

"At first I thought a blog was just a type of paper notebook," said Lopez, a great grandmother.

"When I saw my grandson using the Internet, it caught my attention. I said to myself 'What's this? You can find out about anything. I want an Internet!'"

With 60,000 regular readers so far, Lopez's homely mix of memory and chat, available at http://amis95.blogspot.com/, attracts regular readers from around the world and has put her back in touch with the younger generation in a way she had never imagined.

"No one pays any attention to old women any more. Not many people love us. But I was surprised by the Internet, because young people who were 18 years of age, or 14 or 15, tell me about their lives and what they think and ask my advice," said Lopez.

Only one in 10 people over the age of 65 use the Internet in Spain, slightly below the European average. Although that proportion has nearly doubled over the last two years, it still suggests older citizens are missing the digital revolution even though they make up a growing portion of the population.

"Age is more important (to determining Internet use) than income, gender .... or level of education," said Domingo Laborda, an official Spain's Industry Ministry.

The proportion of Internet users declines even more steeply after 65. Only 2.7 percent of over-74s has ever surfed the Net.

But technology can help break down the isolation brought so often by advancing age.

"Although nothing can make up for affection, the Internet can help communication, with mail, chat or messaging, and it's fun and always available," said the ministry's Laborda.

LOQUACIOUS

Visit Lopez's home in the village of Sanxenxo in the rainy northern Spanish region of Galicia and you see her ability to pour out words on the net is matched by loquaciousness in person.

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