Gerontechnology

Front matter

Understanding Older Adult Information and Communication Technology Use

Johanna L. H. Birkland

Q OPEN ACCESS BOOK

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Understanding Older Adult Technology Use: An Introduction to the ICT User Typology

Enthusiasts: The Technological Evangelists Practicalists: The Technological Tool Users Socializers: The Technological Social Butterflies Traditionalists: The Keepers of Technological Tradition Guardians: The Technological Resistance Fighters

User Types and the Life Course: Toward Understanding the Universality of User Types

The ICT User Typology in Context: A Theoretical Perspective

Chapter 10 Breaking the Digital Divide

Chapter 11 Discovery of the ICT User Typology viii Contents

Glossary 181 References 187

List of Figures

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

Figure 14.

Figure 15.

Figure 16.

(a) Boris’ Computer Room and (b) Boris’ Entertainment

ROOM A i454, oon at Patek Gate alee Ze ack Sana tense 37 Mindy Jean Keeps Her Digital Camera and Computer Hidden

i this Desk. asai ttet aces bh eek Saas aw sy eG 70 Fun versus Function.. . . aa ee 100 Willingness to Experiment/Play (On Their Own) with ICTs. . . 102 ICT Anxiety 24.40 gen ea Seth ea a ees 103 Self-assessed Skill Level. . 2... 2. ee ee ee 104

List of Tables

Table 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Table 4.

The ICT User Typology: Comparison of the Five User Types.

Secondary Participants by Generation and ICT User Type. . Designing Products and Services for the Five User Types. . .

111 153

About the Author

Johanna L. H. Birkland is an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia, USA. An interdisciplinary Gerontechnology scholar, she uses a mixture of approaches to study how technology use changes over the life course as well as intergenerational technology use and communication.

Acknowledgments

This research would not be possible without the participants who invited me into their homes and lives: thank you for sharing your stories with me. I appreciate the support of my current Bridgewater College colleagues, too numerous to list. Many thanks to Sarah Chauncey and Fatima Espinosa Vasquez for their numerous discussions about the material within these pages, and for being friends in addition to colleagues. I want to recognize and thank my mentors and those who guided my development as a researcher, most notably Michelle Kaarst-Brown, Janet Wilmoth, Renee Hill, and Steve Sawyer. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Bridgewater College Faculty Research Fund and the Syracuse University School of Information Studies Katzer Doctoral Research Fund. Thank you to the support team at Emerald, most notably Jen McCall and Rachel Ward. On a personal note, I want to thank the late Kathy Berggren for her support and mentorship. Finally, I owe my husband, Aaron, and my children, a debt of gratitude for supporting me, always.

Chapter 1

Understanding Older Adult Technology Use: An Introduction to the ICT User

Typology

Gwen,! born in 1946, is a retired administrative assistant who wants all the technologies that “young people have.” She has a large family, with five children, over 20 grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren. Highly involved in her community, she volunteers 20 hours a week as a teacher’s aide in an inner-city school, is active in her multi-generational church, and runs a small food pantry for her neighbors out of her apartment closet. Many of the neighborhood children in her low-income housing complex call her “Grandma Gwen.” Gwen is very interested in the technologies that young people use to communicate, including cell phones, social media, and texting. She is a prolific user of these communication technologies and mimics the use of the young people she knows:

I am the queen of texting. I have to text. I’m forced to do texting because some of my grandchildren just will not answer the telephone. They have their phones on vibrate so they just will not talk on the phone. So, if I want to ever talk to them I have to text. Pm a great texter and I know all the abbreviations. I make some of them up myself and I have them ask me what they mean [...] I don’t know what they say or think about me doing all this texting, but I love to do it. And I have to do it. (Gwen)

Margaret, born in 1938, has recently retired from her work as an administrative assistant, a role she returned to in the 1980s when she divorced after 20 years of staying home with her children. She enjoys gardening and attending her book club and has just volunteered for a political campaign. Margaret carefully regulates her use of the computer, the Internet, and her simple flip phone, often setting a timer to limit how long she stays on her computer. She fears that without such restrictions, she could be “sucked in” — losing track of time and disengaging from the world around her — a potential problem she sees with all technology use, including the television and telephone. She keeps her computer

‘All participants’ names are pseudonyms.

in the basement den and a television in the smallest spare bedroom to keep her main living space technology-free. She is cautious about technology and feels that it is often overused:

I feel that there’s a need, there’s definite need for all this modern technology. There’s a need for it but I think it’s just like many, many things it’s overdone. I think it’s absolutely mind-boggling ridiculous that cars now have TVs in them. Look out the window. Enjoy, see what you're seeing. It’s removing them [technology users] from a part of life that I think is important [...] you go to the mall and you see people walking around and they’re just talking on the cell phones. Talk, talk, talk on the cell phone. I thought you went to the mall to go shopping. So, I think that people go overboard on all that stuff. (Margaret)

Why are these two women so different? Why has Gwen embraced technology with such enthusiasm, but Margaret is cautious and controls her use of computers and cell phones? How do these women’s different approaches toward technology impact their lives, and how did the meanings they hold for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) develop?

This book presents a theory of ICT use by older adults, the ICT User Typology, which not only explains the diversity in older adult ICT use, but also helps practitioners, scholars, and designers to understand the older adult population’s needs and wants when it comes to technological interactions. This data-driven theory emerged from the findings of a rigorous, in-depth interpretative interactionist (Denzin, 2001) series of comparative case studies (Yin, 2009) of the use of ICTs by community-dwelling older adults (ages 65—75) in their everyday lives. The ICT User Typology describes five ICT user types — each of which has a unique view on technology and uses it in different ways. The focus of this book is in detailing these five types and understanding their fundamental traits. While the ICT User Typology is a data-driven theory, it has many practical applications for those who work with or design for older adults, including suggesting targeted design and marketing opportunities and identifying those older adults who are likely to take part in (or be excluded by) technological initiatives. (Practical applications of the theory are outlined in Chapter 10.)

The ICT User Typology: The Five User Types

The ICT User Typology is a theory of older adult ICT use that explains, describes, and predicts an older adult’s use of multiple ICT forms across various life contexts: family, work, leisure, and community. The ICT User Typology was developed from an intensive series of dialogic case studies of 17 older adult members of the Lucky Few generation, including over 156 hours of intensive interviews with these older adults and their friends, family members, and coworkers about ICT use; numerous observations of their homes and workplaces and

Understanding Older Adult Technology Use 3 of the older adults using technologies; and careful review of the documents that the older adults used in conjunction with their ICTs. The typology allows us to understand how and why there is such diversity in older adults’ ICT use and provides guidance in implementing customized services and products to meet the needs of our aging societies. In particular, the ICT User Typology categorizes older adults’ ICT use into one of five user types, each of which has a unique pattern of ICT introduction, use, display, and meaning they ascribe to technologies:

The Enthusiast user type thinks ICTs and other forms of technology are great fun toys. They have wonderful memories of using ICTs as children, including being encouraged by adults to “tinker” and “play” with technology. They carry this love of ICTs throughout their lives, often choosing technical careers. They surround themselves with other Enthusiasts as friends and, in some cases, become romantically involved with other Enthusiasts.

The Practicalist user type views ICTs as tools that are used to get a job done, for a specific purpose. They are typically exposed to ICTs in their work and they tend to hold jobs in which technology is heavily used. They are easily able to categorize their ICT device use into predominantly being used for one life context, such as being able to state that they use the Internet mostly for work, rather than in their leisure, family, or community lives.

The Socializer user type tends to have large intergenerational networks and be highly involved in their communities, often through religious organizations and/or large families. They view ICTs as connectors between people and tend to prefer mobile communication technology. Socializers, in order to keep in touch with their youngest contacts, learn to use the ICTs that their younger counterparts are using.

The Traditionalist user type also speaks about their love for ICTs. However, the technologies that Traditionalists love are the ones from their young adulthood (in the case of the older adults spoken about in this book, the television, radio, and telephone). They have a tendency toward nostalgia and find themselves so in love with these more traditional technologies that they have little room in their lives for more modern forms (e.g., computers and cell phones).

The Guardian user type tends to view all ICTs with suspicion, as they believe that technology can bring out the negative traits in individuals — traits such as gluttony and laziness. While they use many modern forms of advanced ICTs, they tend to be very cautious and regulated in how and how much they use them. They view themselves as protectors, or guardians, of society in its use of ICTs.

Why Is a Theory of Older Adult ICT Use Necessary?

Why do we need to understand older adult ICT use? The short answer is that the vast majority of our societies are aging. The worldwide older adult population (those age 65 and older) is projected to nearly double in the first third of this new century — from only 6.9% in 2000 to 12% in 2030. The more detailed figures are striking: the population percentage of older adults is expected to increase from 15.5% to 24.3% in Europe, 12.6% to 20.3% in North America, 5.5% to 11.6% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 6.0% to 12.0% in Asia during those same three decades. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, where high fertility rates have continually bolstered the younger population, the percentage of older adults is still expected to increase from 2.9% in 2000 to 3.7% in 2030 (Kinsella & Velkoff, 2001).

At the same time, our aging societies are facing an increasingly digitalized world. Services and organizations, including governments, have increasingly moved information and resources online — and in some cases, these can only be accessed digitally (Wright & Hill, 2009). Older adults (those aged 65 and older) report significantly lower usage of advanced ICTs such as computers and smartphones when compared to younger individuals (Heinz et al., 2013; Reisenwitz, Iyer, Kuhlmeier, & Eastman, 2007; van Deursen & Helsper, 2015; Van Volkom, Stapley, & Amaturo, 2014). These two phenomena taken together — lower use rates and increasing digitalization — have led to concerns that a “gray digital divide” will exclude elders (Friemel, 2016; Millward, 2003) and has been portrayed as part of the larger “aging crisis” facing our societies (Wright & Hill, 2009).

But do our aging societies represent a crisis, or an opportunity? Are older adults able to get access to the digital products and services they need, and what about the products and services they want? How can organizations take advantage of this growing market? How can we understand older adult technology use, and how can we understand the diversity in such use? What are the characteristics of the older adult market for ICT? services and devices?

The power of the ICT User Typology is that it allows classification of older adults into one of these five user types, helping us to understand how each of these types is introduced to, uses, and finds meaning in technology. For researchers, the ICT User Typology presents a theory of ICT adoption and use that may be insightful to apply in their own studies. For practitioners who work with older adults, the ICT User Typology presents an overview of the different

?The ICT User Typology was developed based upon the study of ICTs that are marketed to the general public. This includes both physical ICTs (e.g., cell phones and computers) and software and applications (e.g., social networking applications and computer programs). ICTs include technologies such as computers, telephones (landlines), cell phones, Internet, email, social networking software and applications, radio, television, and print media (magazines, catalogs, and newspapers). Internet and computer applications are also considered ICTs, such as Skype, word processing, digital image software, and so on. The theory also encapsulates assistive technologies that allow individuals to access the information or communication potential of these devices or media, such as “TV Ears” (a device that allows a hard of hearing listener to listen to a television). Assistive devices that do not allow a person to access a communication or information device (such as ramps, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks) are not included.

Understanding Older Adult Technology Use 5 ways older adults approach ICTs in their daily lives, illustrating which older adults are likely to take advantage of digital products and services and which older adults are at risk of exclusion, particularly if such use is required. For designers, the ICT User Typology guides the targeted and customized development of ICT products and services for the older adult market.

The ICT User Typology: Use as Domestication Patterns

The ICT User Typology suggests that there are five unique and easily identifiable domestication patterns among older adults. Domestication is the process by which ICTs are brought from the larger outer world into individuals’ lives, developing routines of use and meaning (Silverstone & Hirsch, 1992; Silverstone, Hirsch, & Morley, 1994). Domestication looks beyond the simple adoption or ownership of a device to understand ICT use in a context-rich environment (Haddon, 2007; Lie & Sgrensen, 1996; Silverstone & Haddon, 1996; Silverstone et al., 1994) as a series of steps:

e ICTs are first introduced to, or “appropriated” into a setting. During this time, ICTs are removed from the “public sphere” to acquire meaning in the “private sphere” of the home. Meanings in the private and public spheres are not necessarily similar: The same ICT can have vastly different meanings to different people.

e The ICT is displayed and arranged in the home, and through the process of objectification, certain individuals in the home come to identify with and feel comfortable with these technologies, while others do not.

e The ICT is used (or not), and this use is impacted by larger contextual factors in the home.

e The ICT and its placement in the home (or on the person) develop meaning to both the individual and the larger social society and help in both selfidentification and the identification of others, as users and non-users.

As a broad theory of ICT domestication, the ICT User Typology demonstrates the importance of taking a multiple ICT perspective to understand the older adult use and non-use. While a few studies have examined how older adults use multiple ICTs (Hilt & Lipschultz, 2004), the existing literature has typically focused on exploring use and non-use of a single ICT per study (typically computers and the Internet (van Deursen & Helsper, 2015; Xie & Jaeger, 2008)). Such a perspective does not illustrate how a non-user compensates for non-use or how older adults integrate the use of various ICTs together. Instead, The ICT User Typology focuses on how older adults incorporate, reject, and integrate the spectrum of ICTs into their lives. For instance, the Traditionalist user type in older age relies on one or two “point people” to access the more modern ICTs they do not use, while they deeply appreciate and heavily use the more traditional ICTs of their youth (radio, television, and telephone).

The ICT User Typology: A Context-rich Gerontechnological Theory

The ICT User Typology explores ICT use across older adults’ entire life contexts: their family, work, community, and leisure lives. Most importantly, it captures and describes older adults’ perspectives on their use, what makes them want to (or not want to) use a device, and what motivates them and why in their own words.

Gerontechnology, or the interdisciplinary study of gerontology and technology, has existed since 1989 (Graafmans & Brouwers, 1989). Gerontechnologists come from a diversity of fields, ranging from the sciences to social sciences; and span academics, clinicians, and other practitioners. As can be imagined, the literature in this area is quite diverse, being influenced both by the background of the researcher(s) and by the vast number of questions that can be asked about aging and technology.

The goals of Gerontechnology research and application include not only preventing, accommodating for, and delaying the cognitive and physical declines related to aging, but also for using technology to enhance the lives of older adults. Beyond the fundamentals of being well-cared for, Gerontechnology also includes studies of how technology can be used to promote older adults’ life satisfaction, communication, social connectivity, and volunteerism (Fozard, Rietsema, Bourma, & Graafmans, 2000). Gerontechnology has tackled using technological solutions to provide health care to our aging population (Czaja, 2016; Fischer, David, Crotty, Dierks, & Safran, 2014), smart home solutions (Majumder et al., 2017), and general guidelines for creating adaptive and inclusive technologies (Bouma, 2001). Gerontechnology has called for researchers to study all the areas of older adults’ lives: their health, family, community, leisure, and work lives (van Bronswijk, Bouma, & Fozard, 2002; van Bronswijk et al., 2009). Recently, there have been calls for Gerontechnologists to not just understand what ICTs older adults are adopting, but how and why they are using them (Schulz et al., 2015). The ICT User Typology addresses both the how and the why of older adult ICT use.

One important contribution that the field of Gerontology has made to the study of Gerontechnology has been the importance of understanding ICT use in terms of generations. Birth cohorts are groups of individuals who, by consequence of being born closely together, experience historical events at a similar life stage, developing a shared generational consciousness (Carlson, 2009; Edmunds & Turner, 2002; Eyerman & Turner, 1998). Media and technology is an important part of any generation’s experience (Naab & Schwarzenegger, 2017). The ICT User Typology was developed using generational sensitive sampling of the youngest generation of individuals who had reached older adulthood in the United States: the Lucky Few (participants ranged in age from 66 to 76 at the time of the study (born in 1936—1946)). The Lucky Few are a small generation born during the Great Depression and World War II(WWII). They tended to serve in the military during peacetime, while enjoying the benefits created for the WWII Generation that served before them, such as the GI Educational Bill.

Understanding Older Adult Technology Use 7

The Lucky Few women made tremendous strides in joining the workforce compared to previous generations; however, this was mainly in “pink-collared” professions (as nurses, administrative assistants, teachers, etc.) (Carlson, 2008).

Although the ICT User Typology was developed using a single generation of older adults, it is applicable to all generations/birth cohorts. Evidence from interviews with the older adults’ families, friends, and coworkers indicates that these five user types are universal and likely found in all generations at mid-adulthood and beyond. These additional individuals interviewed in this study ranged in age from 27 to 85 (Millennials to the WWII Generation), and their perspectives on ICT use echoed the five user types described in this book. It is likely that a person’s user type is influenced by childhood and early adulthood interactions with technology, regardless of a person’s generation/birth cohort.

While technological advances do not influence the essence of the types (Guardians will always be suspicious of all technology; Enthusiasts will always want the latest and greatest devices), the technologies an individual of a specific type prefers will reference their generational technological experiences. For instance, Traditionalists prefer the technologies of their youth. For members of the Lucky Few birth cohort (born in 1929—1946), the technologies of their youth were radio, television, and telephones. For members of the Millennial birth cohort (born in 1983—2001), the technologies of their youth were computers, cell phones (including smartphones), and social media (in addition to television and radio). Therefore, a Millennial Traditionalist will prefer the media of his/her youth (cell phones, social media, etc.) rather than newer technologies that develop in the future. What makes a Traditionalist is not their non-use of computers, but instead, the fact that they reject forms of technology that were not available in their youth. Chapter 8 explores the implications of the user typology for younger generations in-depth. Since the influences of childhood and early adulthood are incredibly important in shaping individual’s tendencies to become one type over another, Chapter 10 details the implications of the ICT User Typology for both gerontologists and childhood educational programs.

Chapters 2 through 6 deal with an extensive description of each of the five user types: the Enthusiast, Practicalist, Socializer, Traditionalist, and the Guardian. In these chapters, we hear directly from older adults. We peek into their homes and workspaces and come to understand ICT use from their own perspectives. Chapter 7 summarizes and contrasts the five user types. Chapter 8 explores the applicability of the ICT User Typology beyond the Lucky Few generation, exploring its impacts across generations. Chapter 9 grounds the ICT User Typology within other theoretical perspectives, understanding its fit within the gerontechnological and technology use literature. Chapter 10 provides recommendations for applying the user typology for practitioners and scholars. Chapter 11 provides a detailed methodological description of how the ICT User Typology was developed, allowing further study and possible replication not only in older adult populations, but also in younger populations as well. A Glossary of terms is included.

The next chapter takes us into the lives of Enthusiasts to understand their love of “all things with plugs” (Alice).

Chapter 2

Oh, I love technology. I have ever since I started using it way, way back when. But I just fell in love. I love everything from the word processor to the projector to making film strips. Recordkeeping is so easy and when I discovered spreadsheets, I was just in love. ’ve enjoyed the advantages of this kind of thing ever since they started making it available. I’m like a little kid in a candy store. I love to play around with everything — I just love this stuff. Love it. Love it! (Fred)

Love. Play. Fun. Toys.

To hear an Enthusiast speak about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is to listen to a love ballad and, with the other ear, to listen to a five-year-old bursting with excitement in a candy store. Fred, in his edited quote, represents the essential Enthusiast relationship with technology: one of adoration and excitement. In the original transcript, Fred continues for two pages to talk about all the technologies he loves. When you speak with an Enthusiast about technology, you open the floodgates to hearing about their passion — and their passion is most definitely technology.

Enthusiasts’ lives center on ICTs. They tend to have been exposed to ICTs early in childhood, in mostly positive interactions. They push technologies in their everyday lives to be used across work, family, community, and leisure tasks and relationships. They tend to form close bonds with other Enthusiasts, while filling their homes with ICTs in prominent places. Above all, ICTs invoke feelings of excitement — and using an ICT is much more play than work.

Enthusiasts tend to point toward a lifelong interest in technology that started at an early age, oftentimes with encouragement from their family members and older friends to explore technologies. Enthusiasts of this generation were the kids who often took apart their televisions, created kit radios, and modified their cars. When asked about their relationship with ICTs, they often share vivid memories from childhood about encountering a new technology for the first time. For instance, Fred spoke about his first encounter with television:

I remember the first TV I saw [...] it was a little TV screen, in a big box. It was black and white. In the Fifties there were only three channels in my city. After 11:30 at night the only thing on was a test pattern. That was the early Fifties. It was amazing and so nobody on our street had a TV. And then the one kid I hung around with on the street their family got a TV. We’d go down there and watch TV and they had the fights on Friday and that was about it. But it was amazing. Later they had movies on TV, you could watch the news [...] it was great! (Fred)

While Fred speaks about how limited early television was (with only the fights broadcast on Fridays), he also speaks in terms of amazement and enthusiasm. In their descriptions, Enthusiasts focus on the technology itself and their personal relationship with it. While other types see technology as being a tool to get something done or a connector between people, Enthusiasts think using technology (even for mundane tasks) is simply fun play. In childhood, this fascination was often encouraged by those around the Enthusiast. In particular, Enthusiasts were encouraged to “tinker,” to take technologies apart and put them back together:

My father was a mathematician engineer and he was career Army. He was into technology and electronics, so he would come home and bring radios and all kinds of stuff. So, I guess from the time I was a kid there was stuff around to play with. He would let me play with anything he brought home, and I just got into it. I’ve always just had this thing for playing with technology. (Fred)

Fred speaks about how his father was instrumental in his early love of technology by encouraging him to “play” with new gadgets. Similarly, Harry speaks about his grandfather, who tended to be on the leading edge of technologies and who let Harry play with his shortwave technology and other things that were available in his service department:

My grandfather ran the service department at a car dealership in the 1920s. My grandfather was an early adopter of technology and I grew up and around his shop. So, I think I grew up with the love of technology. My grandfather was always messing with new things. There was a shortwave radio that was my granddad’s and it was a Zenith which in the 1950s was an equivalent of the iPod. I always used it in his office and when he passed away I got the radio. So, I grew up in a technical environment, around cars being fixed and electronics. I was interested in electronics when

I was a kid. My grandfather was the first kind of direct influence, and I don’t really think anybody in particular really matched his influence on me. I got into ham radio in the Boy Scouts and I built a ham radio from a kit and did ham radio stuff and I really think that is because of my grandfather’s encouragement. (Harry)

Enthusiasts, unlike other types, tend to be able to point to one person who has been pivotal in their journey with technology, resulting in the development of what has become a lifelong love affair with “things with plugs” (Alice). Harry could point to his grandfather as being the most influential person in his relationship with technology, while Fred pointed toward his father. At times, these relationships could be quite fragile due to other factors, but the love of technology helped to maintain a connection. Fred shared that his relationship with his father was strained as Fred had chosen the career path of a teacher and an artist (and later an IT professional) rather than an engineer, as his father had wanted. However, throughout their relationship, they could always find a common ground over technology.

As Enthusiasts grow older, their “toys” tend to become bigger. Male Enthusiasts often turned toward “hot rodding” their cars by adding speakers and trying to make them faster:

I was also fiddling in high school and college with car radios trying to beef up my car radio to make it not one speaker like they all had. I wanted five speakers if I could put them in. I’ve always just had a thing about machinery. (Fred)

So, when I got out of the service I ended up going to college and I needed money. I gravitated towards cars, so I started selling cars for this little sports car dealership in a Midwest City. Some of the guys that were racing cars were having trouble keeping their cars running so I started making deals with them that I would rebuild their engine in return for being able to use their car to go through driver’s school. You had to go through four or six races in driver’s school and then you had to do six novice races. So, the deal was that I would fix their car and for racing weekend I would use it for the novice race and they would use it for the more advanced race, so it worked out pretty well. So, I ended up starting racing cars by working on them, I fixed them and stuff. Then after college I won a major motor race and I went off on kind of this quixotic exercise of becoming a professional racecar driver which didn’t work out. But in the course of it I got quite a reputation for fixing racing cars and then street cars, so I ended up with a car shop in a [North Eastern State]. I became the go to guy for exotic cars and stuff like that because they required a little higher level of mechanical insight to do that... so Pve always been interested in technology. Mechanics and technology. (Harry)