| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| Older adults' use of information and communications technology in everyday life | | Author(s) | Neil Selwyn, Stephen Gorard, John Furlong |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 23, part 5, September 2003 |
| Pages | pp 561-582 |
| Keywords | Information technology ; Telephone ; Usage [services] ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | Social commentators are beginning to recognise that encouraging older adults' use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is essential for the creation of bona fide information societies. So far, few studies have examined older adults' access to and use of ICTs in detail. This important aspect of the interaction between population ageing and societal change is more complex than the published literature's portrayal of a dichotomy between "successful users" and "unsuccessful non-users". This paper examines the extent and nature of ICT access and use by older people in their everyday lives. Information was collected from a sub-sample of 352 adults aged 60+ taken from a large household survey of ICT use in England and Wales among 1001 people. The findings suggest that using a computer is not only a minority activity for older people, but is also highly stratified by gender, age, marital status and educational background. Conversely, non-use of computers can be attributed to their low relevance and "relative advantage" to older people. The paper considers how political and academic assumptions about older people and ICTs might be refocused, away from trying to "change" older adults, towards involving them in changing ICT. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030922202 A |
| Classmark | UVB: UJ: QLD: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|