The Distracted Mind by Adam Gazzaley & Larry D. Rosen

Author:Adam Gazzaley & Larry D. Rosen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 2016-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Older Adults

Although technology is often considered a tool for the young, they are not the only ones engaging in the high-tech world. Another study from Dr. Rosen’s lab compared five generations of Americans on their technology use.22 Interestingly, although baby boomer adults showed the least technology usage of all generations, a substantial proportion of them used technology regularly. We asked individuals from all generations how many hours per day they used various technologies with the understanding that many of those reports were inflated by overlapping use. The most technologically active groups—iGeneration teens and Net Generation young adults—used technology about twenty hours per day, again exaggerated by multitasking. As expected, older adults showed fewer daily hours of use but their use still remained high at nearly 12.5 hours per day. When looking at which technologies baby boomers preferred, the most popular were: watching television (2.4 hours per day), talking on the phone (1.9), doing offline computer tasks (1.6), sending and receiving email (1.5), and listening to music (1.5). In addition, although older adults have been viewed as “digital immigrants,” 71 percent of them regularly sent and received an average of 214 text messages per month, or about seven per day. They may not reach the teen ranks with their reported 3,417 texts per month, but the data still show that older adults are using newer technologies that were thought to be only the province of digital natives.23

Other research confirms and expands on the idea that older adults are using technology regularly. A recent Pew Research Center report compared seniors with all other American adults and found that many older adults have “relatively substantial technology assets, and also a positive view toward the benefits of online platforms.”24 In comparing a similar nationwide study done just a year earlier, Pew found that 59 percent of seniors report that they go online, representing a 6 percent increase in just one year. Strikingly, 71 percent of Internet-using seniors go online daily while another 11 percent go online three to five times a week. Another study found that older adults attempted to multitask with two or more forms of media for more than 90 minutes a day.25

Despite the increase in use, there are emerging data on the beliefs and attitudes of older adults toward technology that suggest hesitancy in adoption. The study from Dr. Rosen’s lab that queried five generations about their comfort in using technology to reveal that baby boomers demonstrated more anxiety than any other generation. That anxiety appeared to be a combination of negative attitudes about the value of technology but also about their confidence in understanding and using technology.26 Other studies have confirmed the role that anxiety plays in older adult technology use.27

However, it would appear that this anxiety can be overcome with exposure. A review of more than 150 studies involving computerized cognitive training with older adults concluded that “despite common misperceptions [that] older adults do not enjoy learning to use new technology, perceptions of the computerized training programs were positive for the older adults who completed computerized training.

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