Now I think this is really cool. Pensioners in retirement homes are putting down their knitting and taking up the Wii.

Resident Barrie Edgar is 88

Residents as old as 103 have ditched knitting and bridge after getting hooked on the console.
Barrie Edgar, 88, said: “It’s great fun. We’ve only had it a few days but we can’t put it down.”

Jayne Naylor, director of the Sunrise Home in Birmingham, said it took off after a chef brought in one of the motion-sensitive consoles which mimic sports like tennis, bowling, and boxing.

I’ve never played a Wii, but I know that it requires some physical exertion involving more than your thumb – like the other game consoles. As one resident said, “it beats sitting around pushing buttons and getting carpal tunnel.”

The residents like to play bowling and tennis so much that the administrator has started to set up leagues. She says the group is very competitive.

In addition, it appears from one of the pictures here that the other residents are getting a lot of enjoyment from watching the competition.

If you have been around people this age very much, you know how difficult it is to get them to try new things to keep their minds active, get their muscles loose, and be social. Especially men.

The Wii seems to be the answer. And that’s just cool.

Boomers are the fastest growing segment of game playing. Good thing. When we move into the home, we don’t want to get our hats handed to us by somebody twenty years older.