Differences in how often older people use the internet is less driven by a person’s age and more by cognitive ability and socioeconomic factors such as education and employment status, a new study reveals.
Led by computing academics at Lancaster University in collaboration with researchers from University College London, the study examined how frequently adults aged 50 and over use the internet, and why some use it less than others.
The study’s authors examined nationally representative data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), which includes responses from more than 6,000 people, to also discover how ageing itself plays a part in how often people access the online world.
Their analysis reveals that most older people in England are using the internet a lot. ELSA data shows that more than 90% of people aged over 50 are regular (daily or monthly) internet users and internet use is higher than commonly assumed.
Although internet use is high, the analysis shows an age-related ‘digital divide’ among older people and their use of internet still persists, with internet use dropping with age. The data shows that 97.7% of people aged 50-64-years-old are regularly digitally active; 91.1% among those aged 65-79-years-old, and 65.7% of those aged 80 and older.
When looking for reasons to explain how age affects internet use the researchers looked at a range of factors including sex, marital status, mobility and physical impairments, long-term health conditions, wealth, education, employment status and cognitive ability.
They found that education, employment status and cognitive ability appear to play a central role in how often older people use the internet across age groups.
Other demographic and social factors as well as health and mobility issues are related to internet use, but do not appear to account for age-related declines in internet use.
Professor Bran Knowles of Lancaster University’s School of Computing and Communications and lead author of the research said: “Our study empirically refutes the common assumption that functional decline is the primary reason for older adults not using technology. We find that cognitive ability, employment status and education are more influential factors.”
These factors are reflected in older adults citing lack of skills as a key reason for not using the internet more, in contrast with lack of internet access which was rarely cited. This finding points to the importance of ‘life-long’ skills training more than provision of access to help bridge the age-based digital divide.
The study also finds, however, that when older people were asked why they did not use the internet more, the most common reason given overall was that people did not see any reason to use the internet more than they were already.
The researchers say their findings show a need for a greater discussion around the age-based digital divide, that there is a need to provide support for those who feel they do not have the skills to use the internet, but also that there is a need to recognise older people’s agency in deciding when they want to disengage from technologies in later life.
“Older people use the internet a lot across all age cohorts and are generally content with how frequently they log on, providing similar reasons for not using the internet as the rest of the population,” said Professor Knowles.
“The data could be showing us that there’s a tendency toward voluntary disengagement from technology in later life – perhaps a reprioritisation in how to spend one’s time,” she added.
“Given that the vast majority of older people are reasonably regular users, and not using the internet more is for most a matter of choice rather than due to other barriers, should we really be talking about the age-based digital divide simply in terms of exclusion, or should we also be talking about how ageing well may involve disengaging from the internet and doing other things?”
Researchers also call for technology designers and service providers to think of new ways to support older people’s choice to use the internet less.
Professor Knowles said: “It is important to provide assistance to individuals facing barriers to using the internet and wanting to use it more, but this doesn’t appear to be the case for the vast majority of older adults. Our findings indicate that, for the most part, non-use is an expression of personal preference in older age in which case designers should explore how technology design can support this choice.”
Professor Andrew Steptoe of University College London’s Department of Behavioural Science and Health and director of the ELSA said: “It is encouraging that internet use is becoming more common even among people in their 80s and 90s. This is increasingly important as government and local services, access to health care move online, while many goods and services are cheaper on the internet.”
The study, which was conducted as part of the DigiAge project funded by UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is outlined in the paper ‘Cohort Differences in Internet Use Amongst Older Adults’.
These new findings are published this week (April 15) at the CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , in Barcelona.
Data/statistical analysis
People