Abstract
This paper investigates the subject of social media consumption among the older Australians. However, the phrase ‘older Australians’ will be confined to people who have attained 65 years and above. Social media is a recent development that is most popular with younger people, yet recent trends show that older people are joining these platforms to connect with family members, former colleagues, and for general information.
The research will highlight key motivations for the adoption of social media among the older Australians. The paper will also present the barriers that such people face in the process of adopting the social media services.
Introduction
The internet has changed the way people interact and communicate. The social media is a 21st-century phenomenon that is highly popular with young generations. However, just like other technologies, older people are often the last to adopt new technologies. This case is true as far as the uptake of social media by senior people is concerned. In Australia, many younger people are technologically savvy.
They are the first to adopt new technologies including social media. However, the older Australians are catching up with social media consumption. They are increasingly joining social media platforms. What motivates the older Australians to join social media? Are there any barriers that they encounter in the process of joining the various social media platforms? This paper seeks to answer these questions.
Search Strategy
A search strategy involves the processes and approaches that researchers undertake to guide them in the process of identifying and obtaining the most appropriate and relevant sources to rely on for a given research topic (Blumberg, Cooper, & Schindler, 2014). In this research, the first approach will involve framing the research questions in the right and specific way to eliminate ambiguities.
This strategy ensures that the search focuses on specific variables that are identifiable from the research question (Blumberg et al., 2014). Secondly, the search strategy will involve the use of scholarly databases such as EBSCOhost and CINAHL that provide peer-reviewed articles, which have the required credibility. The sources will be restricted to the English language. The search will rely on the latest sources that are not older than six years.
Literature Review
The internet has become an integral part of the modern world. It has found application in numerous areas such as commerce, communication, and most importantly, as a social platform where people can interact with others. The advent of social media is a major invention of the 21st century.
Social media platforms allow people to connect with each other. By offering people a chance to generate a content that can be consumed by others, social media allows communication that does not rely on traditional means such as the use of letters and/or messengers (Niemelä, Huotari, & Kortelainen, 2012).
As inventions of the 21st century, the internet and social media have come at a time where a large number of people are getting older, yet their uptake in the senior age group population has been slow but gradually increasing over time. Few studies have delved into examining the impact and trends of social media adoption in older Australians.
According to Chang and Im (2014), Australia has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world. Hence, older Australians who are aged 65 years and beyond make a considerable share of the whole population. Based on the 2014 statistics, older Australians make up 13% of the whole population.
This figure translates to approximately 2.9 million people (Luu & Freeman, 2011). With improved healthcare, more and more people are likely to live and join this age group. According to Xie, Watkins, Golbeck, and Huang (2012), the older people are living at a time when it is impossible to ignore the influence of technology on many spheres of living. Hence, they have not been left behind in adopting the new technologies (Niemelä et al., 2012).
However, previous studies have shown that older people are more likely to ignore or delay the uptake of new technologies as compared to younger people in the population.
Motivating Factors that Push Older Australians to Join Social Media
While the existing literature supports the notion that older people are late adopters of new technologies, many researches have been dedicated to understanding the key drivers of the adoption of social media among the older Australians. According to Nimrod (2010), one of the main factors and motivation for adopting the new technology is the perception of usability.
In this case, if older Australians perceive that social media is useful, they are more likely to adopt it. Consequently, in explaining the current trend of social media adoption among the Australian seniors, factors such as the ability to connect to family members, as well as to keep in touch with former colleagues and work, are important usability indicators, which have pushed older Australians towards adopting new technologies (Chang & Im, 2014).
The uptake of the internet in the population has greatly increased since 2008 where more than 91% of younger people between 18-24 years are actively engaged in social media as compared to only 4% of the older population who were on social media in 2008 (Kobayashi, Wardle, & von Wagner, 2014). However, five years down the line, the older people, including the Australians, are now more engaged in social media.
Indeed, a study by Kobayashi et al. (2014) shows that 37% of senior people consider social media one of the main online activities. Although other uses of the internet, including emailing, online banking, and search for information, social media has become a fast growing activity in which older people have opted to participate.
Barriers to Social Media Uptake by Older Australians
Unlike the younger population, research points out that seniors experience various obstacles that make it difficult or hinder them from adopting the use of social media. The first obstacle relates to physical challenges to using technology. In explaining this obstacle, a research found that many older people who cited their reasons for not adopting social media and the internet indicated that physical or health conditions were a major hindrance to their adoption of new technology (Luu & Freeman, 2011).
Indeed, 2 out of 5 seniors confirmed having a physical or health condition that made their reading difficult or challenging. They also reported a disability and chronic disease that prevented them from fully using or participating in daily activities, including the use of social media (Niemelä et al., 2012). People who had health complications were found to be less likely to go online as compared to their healthy counterparts.
They were also less likely to own a major digital device or have a broadband at home (Chang & Im, 2014). The second obstacle relates to skepticism on the usability and relevance of adopting social media. Many older Australians are divided on whether the use or lack of use of social media has any negative consequences.
In this case, while 44% of non-users believe that they are missing out, 53% point out that they do not believe that they are missing anything (Chang & Im, 2014). Difficulties in learning new technologies are a major problem that older Australians face in adopting new technologies. 77% of older people pointed out that they needed some help to adopt new technologies (Chang & Im, 2014).
Concisely, the use of technology, and most importantly social media, is becoming a major trend among the older people in Australia, as they seek to connect with family, keep in touch with trends in the world, and/or accrue other benefits of being online.
Conclusion
It is evident that the adoption of social media among the senior people in Australia is gaining momentum as more and more people in this age group use internet and social media for different purposes. Social media is an important 21st-century invention of the internet that allows people to communicate and stay connected with others. Senior Australians have increasingly joined the platform to stay connected with the outside world, and most importantly, their families.
However, the older people are slow in adopting new technologies. This situation is caused by many factors and obstacles that have been highlighted in the literature review such as perception of usability, health complications, and physical challenges that are associated with aging. The challenge in learning the new technologies has also been highlighted as an obstacle.
Reference List
Blumberg, B., Cooper, D., & Schindler, P. (2014). Business Research Methods. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Publishing.
Chang, S., & Im, E. (2014). A path analysis of Internet health information seeking behaviors among older adults. Geriatric Nursing, 35(2), 137-141.
Kobayashi, L., Wardle, J., & von Wagner, C. (2014). Internet use, social engagement and health literacy decline during aging in a longitudinal cohort of older English adults. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 69(3), 278.
Luu, K., & Freeman, J. (2011). An analysis of the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and scientific literacy in Canada and Australia. Computers & Education, 56(4), 1072-1082.
Niemelä, R., Huotari, M., & Kortelainen, T. (2012). Enactment and use of information and the media among older adults. Library & Information Science Research, 34(3), 212-219.
Nimrod, G. (2010). Seniors’ online communities: A quantitative content analysis. The Gerontologist, 50(3), 382-392.
Xie, B., Watkins, I., Golbeck, J., & Huang, M. (2012). Understanding and Changing Older Adults’ Perceptions and Learning of Social Media. Educational Gerontology, 38(4), 282-296.