Keywords

1 Introduction: Ageing Societies and Mediatization

Modern societies undergo a fundamental transformation that can be characterized by two developments: On the one hand, there is the global trend of aging populations with a higher number of individuals reaching increasingly higher ages, and with continuously decreasing numbers of younger individuals at the same time. On the other hand, due to dynamic technological innovations and intensified diffusion of information and communications technology (ICT), nearly all areas of modern life are increasingly affected by media und technologies [1–3].

There is evidence that those two trends are strongly interconnected. For instance, innovations in the field of medical technology and engineering have been playing a substantial role for life expectancy, particularly among individuals in their later stages of life. Furthermore, the societal and economic importance of older persons as consumers and recipients of medial and technological devices is growing.

Following Baltes [4] these cultural-historical developments can be integrated into his concept of an “incomplete architecture of the human ontogenesis”: With higher age and with age-associated vulnerability and declining abilities and resources, culture-based resources are required at increasing levels. However, because of age-related losses in biological plasticity, the efficiency of culture is reduced in advanced age. Gerontechnological devices and services represent an application of these assumptions, as technology in general can be incorporated to the umbrella of “culture”. (Mobile) information and communication technology hold the potential, especially for older individuals, to facilitate everyday activities and foster independence, for instance in the domains of information, communication, participation, autonomy, mobility, education and health. But, referring to the assumption of reduced efficiency, technological innovations also imply environmental pressure [5], and autonomy or participation in the later years could also be impeded by devices that are difficult to manipulate [6, 7]. This is particularly the case for older generations and inexperienced individuals, who consider the access to the digital world itself as a major challenge and may face various barriers related to new ICT devices.

At this point, an interaction of barriers related to the environment, to the technological device and to the person can be assumed. In Germany, for instance, learning opportunities for older people living in rural and structurally underdeveloped regions are scarce and, moreover, there is often a lack of fast broadband or WLAN connection [8]. Additionally to the environmental perspective, many devices lack usability or intuitive design and have a short half-life. Due to a highly dynamic innovation process, acquired knowledge is rapidly becoming outdated. Further hindrances, located at the intersection of the person and the device, may be imposed by unnecessary use of jargon or complicated language and uncertainty regarding privacy issues. Person-related aspects with relevance for technology ownership, use and performance include socio-demographic variables (age, sex, education, and income), personality, health and cognitive abilities, but also attitudes towards and experience with technology, self-efficacy and obsolescence [9, 10].

Therefore, both society and the aging individual are challenged to make use of the potentials of technological innovations. According to the commission of the “5th report on ageing” of the German Federal Government lifelong learning is both a right and a duty [11].

2 Cohort Effects in Internet Diffusion

In order to better understand the background of the current study, the German diffusion rates regarding the internet are shortly summarized. In 2014, 79% of persons aged 14+ were using the internet, representing the largest community in Europe with 55 million internet users. With respect to persons aged 60+, the diffusion rate is 45%, with 9 million users [12]. A decade ago in 2004, the general diffusion rate among 14+ was 55% and among 60+ 15%, and in 1998, only 10% and 1% respectively. However, this huge development reached a phase of stagnation in the last years. In a European comparison, Germany only reaches a rank 11, far behind Iceland or Scandinavian countries [13]. Furthermore, when comparing older age groups, large differences emerge as well. Own analyses reveal a diffusion rate of 65% in the group of persons aged 60–69, but only 35% among persons aged 70–79 and 15% among those aged 80–89 years (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Internet diffusion in Germany 2002–2014

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The growth rates in Fig. 1 are mostly due to younger internet users that are growing into the age segment, which is supported by cohort analyses indicating relatively low or stagnating increases in diffusion rates for those born 1949 and earlier.

Alongside age, other socio-demographic factors such as sex, education and income are related to technology and internet use, with a cumulative effect in older ages (sometimes labeled as “singularization” and “feminization” of old age). For instance, among men aged 60+ with high socio-economic status living in a multi-person household in western Germany, the internet diffusion rate is 88%. For comparison, among women in the same age group with low socio-economic status living in a single-person household in eastern Germany, the corresponding rate is 6%, and those differences between groups have been found to have increased since 2002 (own analysis based on data of the (N) Onliner-Atlas).

Rogers’ diffusion theory [14] can be drawn on to explain those differences, stating that technological innovation are adopted first by groups with high social status, financial liquidity, advanced education and social forwardness (“innovators” and “early adopters”). Later on, when the larger group of “early majority” has decided to adopt a technology and the earlier groups have reached a point of saturation, the “late majority” and especially the “laggards” – who tend to be older and more skeptical – are (slowly) starting to catch up.

Studies are needed to better characterize those special older individuals among the typically late adopting older age groups, as they may serve as opinion leaders that are influential in spreading positive information about the internet and modern ICT.

3 Attitudes and Subjective Beliefs Relevant for ICT Use

Besides socio-demographic factors such as age, education or sex, psychological constructs in the area of attitudes, convictions, or beliefs have been found to be associated with technology use [15–17] and performance with technology-based tasks [12, 18]. Especially self-efficacy, i.e., the belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals [17], seems to be related to positive evaluations of technology [20], and plays a more substantial role in explaining involvement in new technologies than demographics [21, 22]. Furthermore, there are first indications that a construct named “obsolescence”, defined as gradual loss of social integration and perceived lack of competence to deal with the demands of modern society, is related to technology use [23]: Findings indicate a mediation effect of obsolescence regarding the relationship of technological experience and loneliness. Furthermore, persons with higher feelings of obsolescence (for instance: “being antiquated”) revealed a higher numbers of errors and needed more time for tasks with technologies such as a mobile phone or an eBook reader and reported more concerns regarding usability issues [10]. Typically, feelings of obsolescence increase with age [24].

With respect to our intention to focus on those older “frontrunners”, who belong to the early adopting individuals within the older age groups, specific self-efficacy beliefs are more promising than global or general attitudes towards technology in order to explore relations with technology competence and usage patterns. As self-efficacy can be improved by mastery or vicarious experience [19], self-efficacy might also imply a starting point for interventions.

Furthermore, very few studies address the concept of obsolescence, which might help to understand differences in competence and breadth of modern ICT use, even among this special group.

4 Aim of Current Project and Research Questions

Summarizing existing research gaps, there is the need for studies addressing psychological factors, environmental-structural issues and technology specific aspects for the adoption and successful handling of ICT in older adults, and further, a need to link those concepts to internationally renowned theories such as Roger’s diffusion theory [14] or Bandura’s social learning theory [19]. Therefore, our study combines media research and behavioral gerontology approaches.

The study builds on the German initiative “Senior Technology Experts – Transfer of ICT knowledge from older adults to older adults” launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Within this initiative, 18 regional projects in ten federal states of Germany received funding in order to promote and facilitate the use of modern ICT (i.e. tablet, smartphone, and laptop) and Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) applications among older adults. Target groups also included novice users with little access to technology such as persons with a migration background, women, inhabitants of rural areas, or even blind persons. The projects offered low-threshold educational programs such as courses in small groups, information meetings, consultations or home visits.

Project FUTA (Factors for the Use of New Information and Communication Technologies in Old Age) has the aim to gather data on resources and barriers that explain variance in usage patterns and perceived competence in managing mobile ICT and AAL applications among two groups of older individuals that differ in terms of technology experience: (a) so called “senior technology experts” and (b) novice users with limited prior technology experience or knowledge.

As the data collection with respect to AAL and among novice users is still ongoing, the current paper is focused on 12 projects on mobile ICT and on the group (a) of “senior technology experts”. These older frontrunners are empowered – to some extent even trained – to explain the use of modern ICT to novices. In this initial paper, we aim to better understand usage patterns and associations among those senior experts, as they are meant to serve as successful role-models for novices later on. Furthermore, we aim to overcome the lack of differentiation with regard to psychological variables.

Research questions are as follows:

  1. (1)

    How can the biographical development of ICT adoption help to better characterize the senior technology experts?

  2. (2)

    How is the relationship of specific psychological constructs (obsolescence and two measures of self-efficacy) and breadth of ICT use and competence?

As modern ICT are increasingly becoming an integral part of daily life among older adults, but relatively little is known about the characteristics of older “frontrunners”, we thereby aim to contribute to this upcoming area of research. The study of those “early adopters” might be the key to better understand the process of diffusion among older users, as they may serve as opinion leaders and role models for non-users of the same age-group.

5 Method

We used data from the online-questionnaire of the FUTA project that was carried out between October 2014 and January 2015. A convenience sample was drawn from all participants within the initiative “Senior Technology Experts”. The study collected information on individuals’ attitudes towards new technology, media use, and social and economic circumstances. In total, 108 participants, all representing senior technology experts who provided courses or information sessions with mobile ICT (laptop, tablet and smartphone), completed the whole online questionnaire (mean overall time = 43.11, SD = 14.06). A prior feasibility study has estimated that over the period of the whole initiative (October 2013 until September 2014) about 240 experts were engaged in one of twelve projects dealing with mobile technology. That implies a response rate of 45%.

Out of the full range of assessed constructs, we have selected seven concepts for the current paper: Internet self-efficacy, Web 2.0 self-efficacy, obsolescence, breadth of web use, digital media setting, computer/laptop competence, and smartphone/tablet competence. In addition, demographic variables concerning age, sex, education, partner status, and income were included.

To measure the digital media setting in one’s household, participants completed a list of 11 digital devices (computer, smartphone, laptop, tablet, smart-tv, dvd-player, cd-player, mp3-player, automobile GPS, digital camera, e-book-reader) to indicate the degree of mediatization. Additionally, data were collected on the utilization of 17 online applications to indicate the breadth of web use [12]. The breadth of web use index included widely used applications like E-Mail to applications that are more difficult to use like social networks. For each item, respondents indicated the frequency of use (daily, weekly, rarely, never). All answers of either “daily” or “weekly” were added up which resulted in a breadth of web use index ranging from 0 to 17.

For the assessment of specific psychological constructs, we used a three-item internet self-efficacy scale from Schenk and Scheiko (2011) [25], which is a short version from Eastin and LaRose [26] with eight items (for example: “I feel confident to use blogs and make own contributions”). Participants responded on a scale from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (definitely true). Three items were averaged to form an index of internet self-efficacy (Cronbach’s α = .84). The same metric was applied for the three items measuring Web 2.0 self-efficacy that was also adopted from Schenk and Scheiko [25]. Three of the originally five items were selected (for example: “I feel confident trouble shooting Internet problems”). The internal consistency of the scale was good (Cronbach’s α = .82). Obsolescence was a five item measure (Cronbach’s α = .82) developed by Brandstädter and Wentura [24]. It measures problems of orientation and alienation in the rapid change of modern societies (“More and more, I have the feeling that I have been passed over by the times”) and was originally part of a lager assessment of the “Future Time Perspectives and Future Meaning Scale”. Obsolescence consists of five Likert-type items rated from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (definitely true). In addition, respondents were asked to rate their device-specific media competence: “How would you estimate your abilities/ skills in dealing with the following devices?” These self-rated competence scores for computer, laptop, smartphone, and tablet were rated on a scale ranging scale from 1 (no competence) to 5 (a lot) and summarized for computer/ laptop and smartphone/ tablet.

Differences in characteristics between persons aged 51 to 69 and persons aged 70 to 81 were tested using one-way ANOVA for normally distributed variables, the Kruskal-Wallis tests for skewed variables, and Pearson Chi2 tests for categorical variables. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were calculated using pairwise deletion. The data were analyzed using STATA 10.1 software (StataCorp LP, Texas, USA).

6 Results

Table 1 provides information on descriptive statistics and group comparisons for all variables used in this study. Sample age range from 51 to 81 years with an average of 68.37 years (SD = 6.51). They are highly educated (61.76% university degree), predominantly male (67.59%), and revealed high levels of self-rated computer competence (67.59%). As may be expected, high interest in technology and a wide breadth of online applications and well equipped digital media devices was observed.

Table 1. Descriptive sample data
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We found clear differences among media utilization and personality-related characteristics when we classified our sample in two age groups (51 to 69 years, n = 58; 70 to 81 years, n = 50). The older age group appears to be even more selective in terms of higher education levels (p < .05), a higher rate of university degrees, a tendency to larger incomes and a higher proportion of men. The majority of all participants had longstanding experience with the internet of over ten years. Compared to the younger age group, older participants showed lower values in both competence measures and self-efficacy scores. The breadth of internet usage as well as the number of digital media devices was significantly below the values of the younger experts.

In the last decade, senior technology experts have continuously shown higher diffusion rates compared to the whole German population regarding all ICTs (Fig. 2). For instance, 67.60% of the experts used tablets in 2014 compared to 26.00% in the general population (14 – 99 years).

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Trends in diffusion of ICT: Comparison of “Senior Technology Experts” (STE) and representative population data of Germany

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As shown before, age did correlate significantly with all media-related measurements but history of internet usage. In Table 2, a wide variety of digital devices and usage of online applications was accompanied with higher self-efficacy scores. Those who scored high on web 2.0 self-efficacy also showed the widest spectrum of internet applications (r = .57; p < .001). Contrary association were found between obsolescence and breadth of internet use (r = .24; p < .05). Sex was only associated with a later start using the internet and a tendency for lower self-rated computer/laptop competence. Beside demographic variables, the three person-related factors internet/web2.0 self-efficacy and obsolescence explained a significant part (δ adj. R2 = .19) of the variation of the number of used internet applications.

Table 2. Relationship of socio-demographic and psychological variables with media-related measures
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7 Discussion

In order to better understand patterns of ICT use in older technology experts, this paper addresses associations between psychological variables, competence ratings and differentiated measures of usage characteristics. Findings demonstrate the special role of the senior technology experts with regard to their high social-economic and media psychological resources. Despite the trend of feminization in old age, a marked male predominance among the senior experts was expected and found, which is related to low acceptance and diffusion rates among women (see Sect. 2). In the framework of Rogers’ diffusion theory [14], these senior frontrunners belong to the innovators and early adopters, not only with respect to the older population but also in comparison to the general adoption across all age groups. Alongside early adoption, a wide spectrum of application use and high competence was found. Following Schubert and Büser [27], this can be framed as “media-related capital” that can be used to enhance participation and autonomy in everyday life.

As higher scores in self-efficacy measures and low perceived obsolescence were related to a wider breadth of use and explained a substantial proportion of variance in regression analyses, our study points to the vital role of those psychological constructs. With respect to obsolescence, an increase with age was theoretically derived [24] and found between the two age groups. Especially the link between feelings of obsolescence and competence in smartphones and tablets, but not in computers, is remarkable and might indicate the sensitivity of this construct to technological and societal chance. Going further, according to Kaspar, obsolescence was found to mediate the impact of low technological competence on loneliness [23].

Associations between self-efficacy measures and competence as well as breadth of use were even stronger, which can be partly due to the technology-specific framing of items in contrast to the general wording of obsolescence which does not explicitly address technology but a gradual loss of social integration as well as a perceived lack of competence to cope with modern society. As earlier studies also found a relationship of self-efficacy and usage patterns [15, 21, 22], our results replicate those findings among older technology experts.

Several limitations should be noted for this study. First, the study population was based on a convenience sample. For this paper 12 projects on mobile ICT affiliated to the German initiative were contacted several times to ensure high diffusion of the online questionnaire, but as the response rate was about 45% a selection bias cannot be ruled out. Second, our cross-sectional findings should not be interpreted in terms of causality. For instance, further longitudinal studies are needed to determine if higher feelings of obsolescence and lower self-efficacy are consequence or cause of low competence and low adoption. Furthermore, as our sample population is highly specific in terms of socio-demographic variables, findings are not generalizable to the wider population.

Nevertheless, our study is the first to explore both psychological constructs and differentiated measures of usage and modern ICT adoption among older expert users of modern ICT. Ongoing longitudinal analyses concerning these experts, as well as a comparison with their inexperienced counterparts within the German initiative, will further explore processes and patterns of ICT use and relationships with psychological variables. In terms of “successful aging” in a technology-driven world, those frontrunners are meant to serve as role-models for inexperienced novices within the initiative. As self-efficacy can be improved by mastery or vicarious experience [19, 28] this is a means to help older users to achieve success by providing challenging yet attainable tasks and by exposure to the expert role model who belongs to the same age group and conquers the challenge of modern ICT successfully. First hints of small-scale or case studies [29] indicate that self-efficacy might be a starting point for interventions in the context of older adults and ICT.

Furthermore, in the ongoing project FUTA, we aim to explore factors facilitating and hindering the use of new technologies of older adults, for instance usability issues and the role of social support. In addition, our quantitative findings will be enriched and complemented with qualitative data generated in focus groups.