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Elderly adults have comprised the fastest growing population adopting the Internet and computer technology over the past decade. However, how their experiences can shed light on elderly learning theory has not been examined much in the literature.
This study investigated the factors and reasons associated with Internet adoption and withdrawal among older adults in Taiwan, and if any gender differences exist in this context.
Data on participants aged 50 years and older from the nationally representative “Digital Opportunity Survey on Individuals and Households in Taiwan,” who did not use the Internet in 2005 but adopted it in 2007 (n=1548), and those who reported using Internet in 2011 but then withdrew (n=1575), were analyzed. Factors and reasons associated with Internet adoption and withdrawal were examined using both quantitative and qualitative data.
Education level independently predicted Internet adoption behavior. With regard to the reasons for adoption, 66% (62/94) of participants indicated they started using the Internet to meet certain “needs”; for example, “keeping up with the world” (40.4%, 38/94) was listed as the most critical reason, followed by “job needs” (25.5%, 24/94). Older adults with a positive attitude toward the Internet with regard to increasing employment opportunities (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.0-3.9,
Our findings that the need to keep up with the world associated with Internet adoption, and gender differences in reasons behind Internet withdrawal, such that women reported more health and anthropic factors or accidental barriers than man, may provide a new perspective that help health educators understand strategies that encourage older adults to keep learning, an important component of active aging.
Demographic statistics indicate that 8.1% of the global population were older adults in 1960, and this number grew to 10% in 2000, with estimates suggesting that 21.4% of the population will be senior citizens in 2050 [
Internet use can bring many benefits, such as increasing the happiness and decreasing the loneliness of older adults in a retirement community [
Many studies have been conducted on why older people may choose to avoid the Internet, such as the webpage design not being suitable for older people and the perception of not being able to learn new things because of insufficient cognitive capability, vision, or motor function [
Gender differences may also exist in Internet adoption and withdrawal among middle-aged and older adults. Previous studies indicated that website attributes [
In Taiwan, there is little data on older adults’ Internet use, with no nationwide surveys. As a result, there is no solid reference material for Internet adoption and withdrawal among middle-aged and older adults in Taiwan. In addition, because older adults are the fastest growing population in adopting the Internet and computer technology during the past decade [
Data were derived from an on-going survey, the Individual & Household Digital Opportunity Survey, approved by the National Development Council in its Research on Constructing the Index System of Digital Opportunity Development in Taiwan. It covers home phone users and interviews native Taiwan citizens aged 12 years or older residing in ordinary households, and it has been carried out every year since 2002. Computer-assisted telephone interviews were adopted in this survey using a random stratified sampling procedure.
Each year’s survey mainly covers information on Internet access, information literacy, information application, digital opportunity, and digital exclusion. Each year’s survey is designed as a cross-sectional study of that year. However, only one follow-up survey was conducted, with the first and second surveys taking place in 2005 and 2007. Those participants who did not use the Internet in 2005 were asked again in 2007 whether they had done so. As a result, we used the data in 2007 for the issue of Internet adoption. In addition, only the 2011 survey asked a question about Internet withdrawal; therefore, the 2011 survey was selected to examine the issue of Internet withdrawal. A total of 1548 valid participants aged 50 years and older in 2007 (success rate: 72.4%) and 1575 adults in 2011 (success rate: 69.4%) were analyzed in this study.
Age (range 51-94 years), gender, living area (northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan and outer islands), economic status (with an income of Taiwanese new dollar [NT$] NT$30,000 or less, between NT$30,000 and NT$90,000, and NT$90,000 or more per month), and educational background (elementary school or lower, high school, college or higher) were recorded.
In this study, those who did not use the Internet in 2005 were asked in 2007 whether they now did. Those who answered “yes” were defined as Internet adopters, whereas those who answered “no” were defined as Internet nonadopters. For Internet withdrawal, the definition was based on the Internet use experience in 2011 and whether the person had used the Internet in the last month. Those who had previous experience of Internet use and had used it in the last month were defined as Internet nonwithdrawers, whereas those who had previous experience of Internet use but had not used it for a month were defined as Internet withdrawers. The reasons for Internet adoption and withdrawal were obtained from an open-ended question. Participants were asked: “Why did you start to use the Internet?” in 2007 and “Why don’t you use the Internet anymore?” in 2011.
Opinions on Internet use were divided into three dimensions of “perceived helpfulness,” “perceived fun,” and “perceived interpersonal interaction.” The question for perceived helpfulness was “Is Internet use in your opinion helpful to your life?” and the choices were 1=very helpful, 2=somewhat helpful, and 3=not helpful. The question for perceived fun was “Do you feel that Internet use gives you more fun, less fun, or no effect at all?” and the choices were 1=less fun, 2=no effect, and 3=more fun. The question for perceived interpersonal interaction was “Does the Internet allow you to interact with your friends and relatives more frequently, less frequently, or have no effect at all?” and the choices were 1=more frequently, 2=less frequently, and 3=no effect.
“Digital opportunity” referred to whether the respondents felt any change or opportunities created from starting to use the Internet in their daily lives (eg, opportunities for employment and learning, or changes in their circle of friends or income). The study participants were asked if they had noticed any of the following changes: “Has your circle of friends / employment opportunity / learning opportunity / income / access to useful information / recreation and entertainment / government information increased because of your Internet use?” and “Is it possible for you to connect with others who share the same views in politics or policies?” (eight questions in total). The choices were 1=yes and 2=no.
“Information literacy” referred to the basic capabilities that are required for Internet use (eg, becoming a member of specific website; downloading and uploading files, video clips, or photos). The study participants were asked, “Have you applied for user accounts and passwords and become a member of specific website?” and “Do you know how to download and upload files, video clips, or photos?” The choices were 1=yes and 2=no. They were also asked, “Are you familiar with any kind of word processing program (eg, Word, Notepad, or Writer) for document editing?” and the choices were 1=very familiar, 2=somewhat familiar, 3=not very familiar, and 4=no idea whatsoever. The distribution of information literacy was determined based on these categories.
To examine the sociodemographic characteristics, opinions for Internet use, digital opportunity, and information literacy between participants with and without Internet adoption or withdrawal,
The distribution of demographic characteristics and opinions about Internet use, digital opportunity, and information literacy of the participants with and without Internet adoption or withdrawal is presented in
Sociodemographic characteristics, opinions on Internet use, digital opportunity, and information literacy between participants who did and did not adopt the Internet or withdraw from the Internet.
Item by Internet adoption or withdrawal | Yes (adopted/withdrew) | No (did not adopt/withdraw) | |||
Age (years), mean (SD) | 58.4 (6.0) | 65.2 (9.6) | <.001 | ||
Gender (male), n (%) | 54 (52.4) | 681 (47.1) | .30 | ||
<.001 | |||||
Elementary school or below | 14 (13.6) | 1043 (72.2) | |||
High school | 66 (64.1) | 333 (23.1) | |||
College or above | 23 (22.3) | 69 (4.8) | |||
<.001 | |||||
<30,000 | 43 (41.3) | 986 (68.2) | |||
30,000~90,000 | 45 (44.0) | 384 (26.6) | |||
>90,000 | 15 (14.7) | 75 (5.2) | |||
Perceived helpfulness | 85 (85.9) | — | — | ||
Perceived fun | 62 (60.2) | — | — | ||
Perceived more interpersonal interaction | 21 (20.4) | — | — | ||
Age (years), mean (SD) | 59.6 (7.1) | 57.6 (5.6) | <.001 | ||
Gender (male), n (%) | 139 (47.4) | 705 (55.0) | .02 | ||
<.001 | |||||
Elementary school or below | 40 (13.7) | 58 (4.5) | |||
High school | 173 (58.9) | 524 (40.9) | |||
College or above | 80 (27.4) | 700 (54.6) | |||
<.001 | |||||
<30,000 | 82 (27.9) | 146 (11.4) | |||
30,000~90,000 | 152 (52.1) | 563 (43.9) | |||
>90,000 | 59 (20.0) | 573 (44.7) | |||
Larger circle of friends | 72 (24.6) | 459 (35.8) | .001 | ||
More job opportunities | 35 (12.0) | 237 (18.5) | .009 | ||
More learning opportunities | 123 (41.8) | 948 (73.9) | <.001 | ||
Increased income | 16 (5.5) | 142 (11.1) | .004 | ||
More information of life | 120 (41.0) | 997 (77.8) | <.001 | ||
Enriched recreation and entertainment | 114 (39.0) | 914 (71.3) | <.001 | ||
More government information | 90 (30.7) | 761 (59.4) | <.001 | ||
Ability to connect with others with the same political/policy views | 14 (4.6) | 213 (16.6) | <.001 | ||
Know how to apply for a user account and password | 52 (17.8) | 705 (55.0) | <.001 | ||
Know how to use a word processing program | 135 (46.1) | 885 (69.0) | <.001 | ||
Know how to upload and download files | 99 (33.8) | 883 (68.9) | <.001 |
The analysis of Internet withdrawal shows that the factors of age, gender, educational background, family income per month, digital opportunity, and information literacy were significantly different between those who withdrew or did not, whereas where they lived did not. For the withdrawers, most were female (154/293, 52.6%) and 72.6% of them (213/293) had a high school or lower diploma. Approximately 80% of the withdrawers (234/293) had a family income per month of NT$ 90,000 or less. The top three digital opportunities that the nonwithdrawers had were Internet use helps with the “improved learning opportunity” (123/293, 41.8%), followed by “more access to useful information” (120/293, 41.0%), then “enriched recreation and entertainment” (114/293, 39.0%). In addition, less than 50% of the withdrawers (135/293, 46.1%) selected “know how to use a word processing program (eg, Word or Notepad) for document editing” for their information literacy, whereas the percentage was greater than 50% for nonwithdrawers in all three categories of information literacy.
The results of the logistic regression analysis evaluating the independent effects of the demographic characteristics, opinions on Internet use, digital opportunity, and information literacy of the study participants on Internet adoption and withdrawal are presented in
Factors predicting Internet adoption and withdrawal among middle-aged and older adults by logistic regression.
Factor | Adoption (yes/no) | Withdrawal (yes/no) | |||
OR (95% CI) | OR (95% CI) | ||||
Age | 0.9 (0.9-0.9) | .001 | 1.1 (1.0-1.1) | .003 | |
Gender (male/female) | 0.8 (0.4-1.3) | .28 | 0.7 (0.4-1.0) | .07 | |
High/elementary school or below | 10.0 (4.9-20.4) | <.001 | 0.9 (0.4-2.0) | .89 | |
College or above/elementary school or below | 19.4 (7.9-47.1) | <.001 | 0.5 (0.2-1.1) | .10 | |
30,000-90,000/<30,000 | 0.9 (0.5-1.7) | .85 | 0.8 (0.5-1.4) | .39 | |
>90,000/<30,000 | 1.0 (0.4-2.4) | .10 | 0.4 (0.2-0.8) | .008 | |
larger circle of friends | — | — | 1.4 (0.9-2.3) | .19 | |
More job opportunities | — | — | 2.0 (1.0-3.9) | .04 | |
More learning opportunities | — | — | 0.8 (0.5-1.3) | .31 | |
Increased income | — | — | 0.5 (0.2-1.4) | .17 | |
More life information | — | — | 0.5 (0.3-0.9) | .01 | |
Enriched recreation and entertainment | — | — | 0.6 (0.4-0.9) | .02 | |
More government information | — | — | 0.8 (0.5-1.2) | .28 | |
Ability to connect with others who have the same political/policy views | — | — | 0.6 (0.3-1.4) | .24 | |
Know how to apply for a user account and password | — | — | 0.4 (0.2-0.6) | <.001 | |
Know how to use a word processing program | — | — | 1.2 (0.8-1.9) | .43 | |
Know how to upload and download files | — | — | 0.6 (0.4-0.9) | .03 |
Reasons for Internet adoption and withdrawal for middle-aged and older adults.
Type and item | n (%) | ||||
Job needs | 24 (25.5) | ||||
Keep up with the world | 38 (40.4) | ||||
Look for data and information | 9 (9.6) | ||||
Stock market | 6 (6.4) | ||||
Interested in learning | 4 (4.3) | ||||
Online ticket purchase | 2 (2.1) | ||||
Read news | 2 (2.1) | ||||
Play games and have fun | 4 (4.3) | ||||
Kill some time | 4 (4.3) | ||||
Watch TV online | 1 (1.1) | ||||
I am old and my eyes or body has deteriorated | 48 (16.5) | ||||
I forgot how it works; it does not work well for me | 13 (4.5) | ||||
I do not have the time | 128 (44.0) | ||||
It has no use for me | 53 (18.2) | ||||
Nothing worth watching/reading | 12 (4.1) | ||||
The computer is out of order | 10 (3.4) | ||||
I do not have a computer or Internet access at home | 8 (2.8) | ||||
Internet access is too expensive | 1 (0.3) | ||||
Internet connection is poor | 1 (0.3) | ||||
Stop for home renovation | 1 (0.3) | ||||
Others need the computer at home | 8 (2.8) | ||||
Travel to a foreign country or stay somewhere else for a period of time | 3 (1.0) | ||||
Family accident | 2 (0.7) | ||||
Internet access is canceled so that kids will not use it too much | 2 (0.7) | ||||
Retirement | 1 (0.3) |
aThe sample size of Internet withdrawers was 293 adults and there were two with missing data; therefore, the final sample size of Internet withdrawers was 291 older adults.
The results of the analysis for the reasons for Internet withdrawal among the middle-aged and older adults by gender are shown in
Reasons for Internet withdrawal among middle-aged and older men (n=138) and women (n=150).
Reason for Internet withdrawal | Men, n (%) | Women, n (%) | ||||||
I am old and my eyes or body has deteriorated | 16 (11.6) | 32 (21.3) | .003 | |||||
I forgot how it works; it does not work well for me | 6 (4.4) | 7 (4.7) | .52 | |||||
I do not have the time | 61 (44.2) | 67 (44.7) | .11 | |||||
It has no use for me | 32 (23.2) | 21 (14.0) | .44 | |||||
Nothing worth watching/reading | 7 (5.1) | 5 (3.3) | .82 | |||||
The computer is out of order | 6 (4.4) | 4 (2.7) | .75 | |||||
I do not have a computer or Internet access at home | 5 (3.6) | 3 (2.0) | .67 | |||||
Internet access is too expensive | 1 (0.7) | 0 (0.0) | .37 | |||||
Internet connection is poor | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.7) | .27 | |||||
Stop for home renovation | 1 (0.7) | 0 (0.0) | .37 | |||||
Others need the computer at home | 1 (0.7) | 7 (4.7) | .02 | |||||
Travel to a foreign country or stay at somewhere else for a period of time | 0 (0.0) | 3 (2.0) | .06 | |||||
Family accident | 2 (1.5) | 0 (0.0) | .20 | |||||
Health barriers | 22 (16.0) | 39 (26.0) | .004 | |||||
Psychological barriers | 100 (72.5) | 93 (62.0) | .41 | |||||
Equipment or environmental barriers | 12 (8.7) | 7 (4.7) | .53 | |||||
Anthropic factor or accidental barriers | 4 (2.9) | 11 (7.3) | .02 |
This study is the first to use nationally representative data for older adults in Taiwan to examine the issues of Internet adoption and withdrawal. The results showed that both the respondents who adopted the Internet and with greater probability of continued use had the characteristics of higher proportion in men, younger and with higher education. In addition, the most important reasons for Internet adoption were associated with “needs,” especially keeping up with the world and job needs. Furthermore, although psychological barriers were the most important factor of Internet withdrawal for both men and women, women were more likely to be affected by health and anthropic factors or accidental barriers in this regard.
A number of factors associated with older adults’ technology adoption have been documented in the literature [
Many of the existing studies focused on how deteriorating health conditions can hinder older adults’ use of technology or learning efforts. Recent international studies also indicated that people tend to withdraw from the Internet due to health-related factors (eg, age-related changes in visual acuity, color perception and susceptibility to glare, and hearing problems) and some psychological barriers (eg, computer anxiety, online problems, and privacy issues) [
Gender differences in Internet use have been documented in a number of studies, although in this study using Taiwanese data, men and women were not different in Internet adoption. However, they were different in Internet withdrawal, with men less likely to withdraw from Internet use than women were. In addition, for both men and women, the most common response for the reason for Internet withdrawal was for “psychological barriers” (eg, no time available, no meaningful use, or nothing worth reading/watching) followed by “health barriers” (eg, eyes or body deteriorating with Internet use). Although “psychological barriers” were the most important factor for Internet withdrawal among both men and women, women were more likely than men were to be affected by health and anthropic factors or accidental barriers. We suggest that in addition to focusing on health barriers, such as relearning to overcome cognitive declines, it is also important to work to reduce anthropic factors or accidental barriers, possibly by providing more resources, to encourage women to use new technology or take more learning opportunities.
This study has some limitations. First, this work was based on a cross-sectional survey and it may not be possible to draw any conclusions on the causal relationship between Internet user types and social engagement. Second, due to our data structure we only investigated Internet adoption and withdrawal behavior during 2007 and 2011. Given the rapidly changing nature of the Internet and technology adoption by older adults, we acknowledge that the dynamics of adoption and withdrawal may change over time. However, although the next generation of older adults will have extensive Internet experience, different problems and solutions may arise with regard to adoption and withdrawal behaviors due to the nature of the human learning process. Moreover, the rapid pace of technological change means that “future older generations” are likely to confront an array of technologies they little understand and generally find inaccessible. According to Hanson [
A critical role of technology as an important health promotion strategy for older adults in low- and middle-income countries has been proposed [
This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (MST103-2314-B-006-038-MY3).
None declared.