The Perception of the Benefits and Drawbacks of Internet Usage by the Elderly People

Dilwar Hussain (), Penny Ross () and Peter Bednar ()
Additional contact information
Dilwar Hussain: University of Portsmouth
Penny Ross: University of Portsmouth
Peter Bednar: University of Portsmouth

A chapter in Digital Technology and Organizational Change, 2018, pp 199-212 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This project looks into the perception of the benefits and drawbacks of Internet usage by elderly people, born from the mid 1920s to the early 1940s, also known as the ‘silent generation’ (Lustria et al. in Health Informatics Journal 17(3):224–243, [1]). As governmental services are gradually becoming online, elderly people are required to use the Internet in order to complete the compulsory task(s). The Internet can be a challenging technology for the silent generation due to their experience and knowledge in using the computer and Internet. At the same time elderly people are anxious about Internet security, as they believe they can be victimised, hence the reason why the generation avoids the technology as much as possible. Participants also believed there was no need to use the Internet, as they have managed without the technology throughout their career. The paper also discusses the key elements by outlining the benefits and drawbacks relating to age-related disabilities, affordability, and privacy/security issues. In addition accessibility, usability and design issues are discussed and how that benefits and affects interaction with the Internet from a socio-technical perspective. During the observations participants were observed on how they interact with the Internet. The research suggests participants’ experienced accessibility, usability and design issues (i.e. using the mouse, keyboard, font-size, and logging-in).

Keywords: Internet; Computer; Technology; Elderly; Silent generation; Senior; Internet banking; Online shopping; Accessibility; Usability; Web design; Training; Privacy; Security; Risk; Keyboard; Mouse; Socio-technical systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:lnichp:978-3-319-62051-0_17

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319620510

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-62051-0_17

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organization from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().