The Web is big business, and our online communications and interactions and the data they leave behind are commodified by big business. Large-scale data aggregators, natural language systems that code and collect billions of posts, and tracking systems that follow our every click have fundamentally changed the spaces and places in which we compose, create, interact, research, and teach.

This article begins with an overview of cognitive psychology research on the effects of aging on literacy and suggests the additional complications facing older adults who consume and produce text within the frame of technology, particularly on-line usage. From an overview, the text moves to patterns corporations are using to target older adults, namely as consumers and as producers. The text then explores the use of philanthropy in the corporate literacy initiatives and suggests that there are complicated issues at hand in attempting to integrate the knowledge of aging and corporate strategies into our technical writing classrooms because we enter this discussion concerned about non-traditional students, older adults who are challenged to participate in contemporary literacy initiatives, and ourselves as aging participants as well. The article ends with suggestions of possible ways of addressing concerns regarding aging.

Suggests teachers helping older students in computer-aided classrooms should (1) expect these students to perform more slowly and to make more errors; (2) avoid comparisons that cause confusion due to students’ prior knowledge; (3) be aware of the danger of overload from information clutter; and (4) sequence assignments based on scaffolding concepts and on building skills through repetition.