Profiles of technology engagement and older adults’ endorsement or resistance of stereotypes about technology and aging: A mixed method investigation

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Stereotypes about older adults and technology paint older adults as slow, disengaged, and unable to effectively use technology. Yet, older adults constitute a large and burgeoning user base of both traditional and emerging technologies. How do older adult adjudicate using technology themselves with the perceptions that technology “isn’t for them?” In this mixed method study, we qualitatively examine how older adults ( N = 28) address aging stereotypes and the ways in which they engage with technology and quantitatively examine differences in their communication about stereotypes based on their engagement with technology. Results revealed a two-fold perception of older adults and technology. On the one hand, older adults affirmed stereotypes through direct endorsement or by suggesting that aging stereotypes were true for other older adults, but untrue for themselves (potentially as a way of psychologically distancing themselves from older adulthood). On the other hand, older adults also resisted aging stereotypes by focusing on the technology capabilities of older adults. Both perspectives aligned with assumed differences between technology engagement (i.e., low, moderate, high use) profiles. Those in the low and moderate engagement profiles more frequently endorsed stereotypes directly, while participants in the high engagement profile attributed aging stereotypes to others but not to themselves.