Connecting with the elderly online

ABSTRACT

Increasing numbers of older adults above the age of 60 are using new media
such as the Internet and smart phones primarily for information seeking and
remaining in touch with their family and friends via email. Other studies have
examined how older adults navigate and attempt to use these devices for biomedical
and technological competency purposes – e.g. medical health information seeking and
the design of web pages for older adults. This study attempted to find out more about
the motivations of the Singaporean elderly in their use of the Internet and social
media from a socioemotional perspective.

Based on the socioemotional selectivity theory, where goals related to
obtaining emotional meaning from life are most important, the direction of this
research was to first establish the socioemotional goals that were important for older
adults and whether Internet use and that of social media has had any impact on
helping them achieve those goals (selective optimization with compensation model),
resulting in an improved sense of socioemotional and/or physical well-being. Hence,
by identifying the roles and social and psychological impact of using the Internet and
social media in addressing their needs, this study used the narratives of the elderly
participants to understand those needs and their lifeworlds.

A qualitative method of obtaining data through focus group and individual
interviews was used to understand the circumstances and milieu in which these
elderly resided to provide an authentic and more detailed picture of their environment
– their lifeworlds. The interpretive phenomenological analysis approach surfaced
recurring themes from the narratives of the participants in their use of the Internet as
they pursued their desire for continual learning and personal interests. This suggests
an improved self-definition and feelings of empowerment for themselves. Being
connected to others online also helped to satisfy the needs for companionship and
friendship, thus reducing feelings of isolation and loneliness.

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The socioemotional and psychological impact of using the Internet and social
media were found to be mostly positive and meaningful for the older Singaporeans.
This research, in particular, focused on the social and psychological aspects of
Internet and social media usage as recounted by the elderly participants, augmenting
existing knowledge of the intangible, socioemotional needs of the increasingly
greying population of Singapore, and how the Internet and social media could have a
part to play in mitigating the mortal consequences of loneliness.

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INTRODUCTION

There was a great surge in the number of births following the Second World
War as a result of families postponing having children during the difficult times of
war. Coupled with increased wealth and introduction of mechanised home appliances
to assist with house chores in the early 1960s, families began to have more children,
leading to the large number of children born between 1946 and 1964, known as the
‘baby boom generation’ (MCYS, 2006). These baby boomers would now be in their
60s and older. The population census conducted in Singapore in 2010 indicated that
nine percent of all adults in Singapore were over 65-years of age. Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong said in a speech in 2011 that this percentage will hit 20% by 2030. In the
same address, PM Lee said that ‘we are going to have a silver tsunami coming and we
need a national effort to plan ahead to be ready for it’ (Lee, 2011).

According to the report, ‘An Uncertain Age: Reimagining long-term care in
the 21st Century’ (2013) by KPMG International, commissioned by the Lien

Foundation, Singapore ‘has one of the fastest ageing populations in the world’
(KPMG, 2013), having ‘to cope with 870,000 elderly people in 2030, and the median
age of Singapore’s resident population rising from 39 years to 49 in 2030 and 55 in
2050’ (KPMG, 2013). Further, a Paper issued by the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) in 2012 posits that ‘life expectancy is 78 years in developed countries and
68 years in developing regions between 2010-2015’, which is slightly lower than
Singapore’s average life expectancy of 83.2 years for females and 78.4 years for
males (Dept of Statistics, 2009).

With a rapidly ageing population, government bodies and researchers have
conducted surveys on the needs and state of older adults in Singapore. For example,
the National Survey of Senior Citizens completed in 2005 by the Ministry of
Community Development, Youth and Sports, was undertaken to ‘map the financial,
physical and social health of senior citizens in Singapore’ (MCYS, 2005). The main
objectives of the survey were to determine the socio-economic profile, living

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arrangements, the family, financial and care support systems of senior citizens in
Singapore; their health, physical, mental and functional status; the types of problems
they face and how they are coping; their awareness and use of existing services for
senior citizens; their employment status and their attitude towards employment and
retirement issues; their social health and contributions to family and society
(involvement in leisure, grandparenting, volunteering and community activities), and
the extent of active ageing in Singapore.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) conducted a
survey of infocomm usage of households and individuals in Singapore in 2009 (IDA,
2010) which found about 83% of all households had at least one computer in their

homes and 81% of these had access to the Internet. Of the total sample, 14% of the
households had adults above 60 years who used the computer and only 13% accessed
the Internet. Of the 13% who accessed the Internet, 70% went online at least once a
day and the top two primary Internet activities were to communicate with others and
to search for information. The two most commonly cited reasons for not using the
Internet were: a lack of knowledge (51%) and a lack of interest (47%) (IDA, 2010).
However, this survey did not include the number of elderly who had smartphones
with access to the Internet.

There are many benefits for the elderly in using the Internet. As life
expectancy increases and we are living longer, the Internet is a good tool for
communication and to obtain information, especially health information. A survey
conducted by the Pew Research Center found that more than 70% of the American
population has used the Internet to search for health information (Pew Research
Center, 2011). Out of a sample size of 2,252 people for the same survey, 14% who
used the Internet were more than 65 years old (Pew Research Center, 2011). This
might be particularly pertinent to the elderly in Singapore in terms of the number of
older persons using the Internet as a means of obtaining information about their health
and well-being.

Not every elderly who has access to the Internet or a smartphone may know
how to make best use of the technology. In a study conducted by Lim and Tan (2003),
they found that elderly members of wired households with computers, Internet
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connections and mobile phones suffer from social exclusion within their households
as a result of their ignorance of these new technologies (Lim and Tan, 2003). This
suggests a divide which stems not from their lack of access to new ICTs but from
social exclusion arising from their ignorance of new technologies (Lim and Tan,

2003).

Being connected with their friends and families online might also help the
elderly combat loneliness and depression and hence improve their well-being
(Shapira, Barak, and Gal, 2007). A recent study by Chan et al (Tan, 2014), reported in
The Straits Times on 5 January 2014, showed that loneliness significantly increases
the risk of early death among Singapore’s elderly and it did not matter whether they
were living alone or with their families. The longitudinal study tracked 5,000
Singaporeans aged 60 and above for two years and found that those who said they
were lonely in 2009 were more likely to have died by the end of 2011 (Tan, 2014). It
was also mentioned in the report that more men than women said they were lonely
(Tan, 2014).

What does it mean for older adults who access the Internet to communicate
with others and to search for the information they want? Why would they choose the
Internet as a means and medium for them to do so? How does accessing the Internet
and social media meet their needs for communication and self-improvement? These
questions became the two core foci for this study and research to understand the
circumstances and motivations behind why older adults in Singapore would choose
the Internet and social media as their vehicle for communication and information.

By examining the role and impact that the use of the Internet and social media
has had on the elderly, this study is important as it situated the lifeworlds of the
elderly against their use of the Internet and social media. This research, in particular,
focused on the social and psychological aspects of Internet and social media usage,
and serves to plug the gap in our knowledge of the intangible, socioemotional needs
of the increasingly greying population of Singapore, and how the Internet and social
media could have a part to play in keeping more elderly connected and hopefully
stave off loneliness.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature reviewed for this thesis is presented in three parts: (3.1) research
that explored the experiences of older adults in the use of the Internet, in particular
task maintenance, and the digital divide between those who are able to use the
Internet proficiently and others who faced some difficulty; (3.2) relationship
maintenance based on the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory and Selective
Optimisation with Compensation model that examined the need to remain connected,
and focusing on those relationships that brought greater affective returns by spending
more time and effort on them. These two theories form the theoretical framework for
understanding the motivations and narratives of the elderly participants interviewed
for this thesis. The last section, (3.3) describes how people obtained a more positive
self-definition and sense of empowerment from the use of the Internet and social
media, in terms of their quality of life.

3.1

Task Maintenance
Cody, Dunn, Hoppin, and Wendt (1999) used the term ‘silver surfers’ to

describe a ‘burgeoning group of confident and competent older users of information
communication technologies (ICT)’ (Selwyn, Gorard, & Furlong, 2003, pp. 3) and
their ability to make use of this new technology to bridge the generation gap. Some
scholars believe that the intergenerational quality of the Internet can improve the
situation and quality of life as it pervaded every aspect of life and had the potential for
assisting with many of the problems associated with ageing (Bernard & Phillips,
2000).

In the study conducted by Selwyn, Gorard, and Furlong (2003) in the United
Kingdom and Wales, researchers found that using ICT is ‘not about having or not
having access to technologies, rather it is the scope and intensity of the relationships
that people develop with technologies and the nature of what they do with them that is
important’ (Selwyn et al., 2003). Data from the study showed that the influences
behind older people’s (non)use of ICT are multifaceted and historical, and they
moved through different levels of complexity of technology depending on their

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circumstances and context. Interestingly, there was a non-enduring influence of the
workplace in enrolling people into the information age for the rest of their lives. The
study found that the forced or coerced use of technology at work was often not
translated into later use when they got older and they became resistant to the use of
computers. The majority of the participants of that study found little or no use for ICT
in their everyday lives (Selwyn et al., 2003) when they were older.
Erik Erikson’s (1959) life-span developmental approach described various
developmental tasks that all individuals have to accomplish throughout their lives. For
example, in middle age, a lot of time and energy are placed on career advancement
and people have limited time or motivation for taking care of the other things like
household chores or furthering their education. Hence, domestic help is employed for
household chores or to care for young children. Baltes and Baltes (1990) expands on
this approach with the Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC) model
which acknowledges that ‘at all stages of the life span, there are things that we are
good at and things that we are not so good at’ (Baltes and Baltes, 1990). More
importantly, it posits that ‘at all ages, we resign ourselves to dependence on certain
fronts, in order to gain independence on other fronts’ (Harwood, 2007). What this
means is that we will select particular areas of our lives, optimise our performance in

those areas and compensate in other areas where we lack ability or motivation. The
SOC model presents a more optimistic view of old age as a time when we continue to
do what we have done all our lives - focus our energies on the things that are
important to us and look for help with the things that we do not have the time or
ability to do ourselves. This leads to the first research question:

RQ 1: What is the role of the Internet and social media in the task
management of older adults?

Using the SOC model, how did the Internet and social media compensate and
help in those areas where the older adult would not have the ability to do so? For
instance, for those seniors who did not have the opportunity to complete their
secondary education, how did access to the Internet afford them the ability to learn
about the things they were interested in, in spite of language barriers? Or did it
exacerbate the digital divide between those who were literate in the English Language
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and was able to navigate the Internet on their own, and those who were not and
required help? How did this translate into feelings of empowerment and
independence? How important would this be to them?

Being able to use the computer and the Internet to gather information and
perform tasks like communicating with friends and family or make travel and holiday
transactions has enabled many older people to gain confidence in the adoption of new
technologies and provided possibilities of re-establishing old ties and relationships.
Another salient use of the Internet for older adults was also the sourcing of
biomedical information for health-related issues for ageing adults. For example, there
are many websites now catering specifically to older adults like www.c3a.org.sg,
www.rsvp.org.sg, ageuk.org.uk, or seniorsforliving.com that provides information or

weblinks on health and tips for general well-being. Entertainment websites offering
videos, music, games and other leisure activities are gaining popularity as older adults
seek to find avenues to pursue personal interests, relief boredom and pass time.

3.2

Digital Divide between older and younger generations

According to a study on the phenomenon of a digital divide between different
age groups of users that was conducted by Lim and Tan (2003) of families in
Singapore, the study noted that some elderly members of wired households with
computers, Internet connections and mobile phones suffer from social exclusion
within their households as a result of their ignorance of these new technologies.
Responses from some of the elderly participants interviewed for this study affirmed
the presence of a digital divide between themselves and the younger generation in
their families. However, this divide is slowly closing as more and more of the elderly
learn how to use the Internet and social media through the ownership and use of their
smartphones and also by attending ICT courses organized by grassroots associations.

The biggest disparity was between the Net-generation, conversant with
personal computers and the Internet, and the older generation, more accustomed to an
industrialized society (Kim and Kim, 2001). The digital divide could be categorized
into three levels:

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(i)

Access to information devices and information (media accessibility);

(ii)

Ability to utilize information resources (information mobilization); and

(iii)

The eagerness to use information devices and information resources
(information consciousness) (Kim and Kim, 2001).

As Kim and Kim (2001) explained, the ‘Internet was not only entertaining and
informative but also expensive and complicated. For the latter reasons, class and
regional differences manifested themselves clearly in the use of the new medium,
resulting in social gaps in information distribution’. Furthermore, ‘the more
information flows throughout the entire society, the wider the gap becomes between
information haves and information have-nots, leading to a digital divide of differing
aspects of an information-based society’. In their view, the core issue of the digital
divide has moved from who has better access to information media to who makes the
right use of the acquired information (Kim and Kim, 2001). Is this still relevant today
when more and more elderly own a smartphone and/or have access to the Internet?

ICTs provide communication links between households and amongst
individual household members (Lim and Tan, 2003) and the convergence of family
dynamics and technologies has been described by Venkatesh (1996) and Venkatest,
Kruse et al., (2003) as the interaction of the ‘social space’ where family behaviour
occurs and the ‘technological space’ in which household technologies are embedded
and used.

While the Internet may not have improved family relationships directly,
researchers Lenhart, Rainie and Lewis (2001), found that it has contributed to family

activities through the facilitation of planning of activities via email. The negative
influences of computer technology include the risk of isolation of certain family
members as they get addicted to computers and neglect responsibilities and contacts
with others in the family (Hughes and Hans, 2001).

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Haddon (2000) observed that ‘amongst single parents and the young elderly in
particular, the telephone helps them to stay connected with friends and relations,
thereby preventing them from becoming victims of social exclusion’.

DiMaggio and Hargittai (2001) wrote that ‘at first, access to the new
technology is restricted to an elite and the distinction is between the haves and havenots. However, as penetration increases, the gap in access between the rich and poor,
urban and rural dwellers, old and young, the well-educated and unschooled is
reduced. As access diffuses to parts of the public who were initially excluded,
dimensions related to the quality of use become important bases by which the benefits
of the technology are stratified’.

While the older generation’s ignorance of new technologies can be attributed
to their lower levels of education and a general lack of exposure, it can also be blamed
on their apathy and the deep-rooted fears they exhibit towards new technologies (Lim
and Tan, 2003). Some of these fears originated from negative experiences and the net
result of such technophobia is an increased reliance on their children or grandchildren
for instruction on the latest technologies (Lim and Tan, 2003).

3.3

Relationship Maintenance

The literature showed that there was a need for older adults to remain
connected and in touch with family, friends and the self, and adults began to be more
selective in the types of relationships and friendships as they aged. The
socioemotional selectivity theory posited that over time, goals related to obtaining
emotional meaning from life became more important and thus shaped the way in
which people selected which relationships to focus on as they aged. But what brought
or created emotional meaning for the elderly?

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‘As people age, their personal meaning perspectives evolve to become more
inclusive and integrative of their experiences’ (Moore, Metcalf & Schow, 2006).
Moore, Metcalf and Schow (2006) conducted a qualitative study to find out how 11
seniors between the ages of 66 and 92 derived meaning in their lives. The study found
six key themes:

1) Philosophy for living
2) Sense of self
3) Connecting with others
4) Spirituality and faith in God
5) Living through adversity
6) Embracing life

Of these six themes, the sense of self and connecting with others presented
possibilities and opportunities for the use of the Internet and social media as conduits
which older Singaporeans could tap on to derive greater meaning in their lives.

3.4

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST)

According to the Socioemotional Selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1991),
individuals are guided by the same essential set of socioemotional goals throughout
life, such as seeking novelty, feeling needed and expanding one’s horizons. The
socioemotional selectivity theory, or SST, proposed by Carstensen (1991) posited that
reduced rates of interaction in the later part of adult life were viewed as the result of
lifelong selection processes by which people strategically and adaptively cultivated
their social networks to maximize social and emotional gains and to minimize any
social and emotional risks (Carstensen, 1991). Strong emotional connections in late
life were also found to predict happiness and adjustments in old age (Antonucci &
Jackson, 1987). These theories have helped the researcher in understanding why some
of the elderly participants prefer to spend their time and effort in keeping in touch
with friends whom they have known for a long time, or with family who are overseas,
instead of trying to acquaint themselves with as many new contacts (new social
relationships) and friends as possible.

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Social interaction requires energy expenditure and risks the experience of
negative emotions and threats to one’s concept of self (Carstensen, 1992). There are
many functions and purposes to social interaction and gathering information is one of
them. Seeking information is more important in childhood, adolescence and younger
adulthood as the individual learns about the workings of the world (Lansford,
Sherman & Antonucci, 1998). However, such information or knowledge diminishes
in importance as the individual became more well-versed about the world around him
and of life’s many situations (Lansford, Sherman & Antonucci, 1998). Thus, with age
and experience, the information obtained through social interactions is less and less
likely to be valuable (Carstensen, 1992). Over the course of many years, emotional

intimacy with family and close friends – having shared innumerable joys and sorrows
together – may increase (Carstensen, 1992). At the same time, interaction with
unfamiliar social partners becomes less likely to yield returns enough to warrant the
required energy expenditure. Therefore, the potential risks and gains from social
interaction change over a person’s life cycle (Carstensen, 1992), suggesting why the
elderly may prefer to connect online only with those whom they know rather than find
different people to chat with.

Fredrickson and Carstensen (1990) conducted two studies to determine how
individuals organized social partners in terms of affect anticipated in the interaction
and how anticipated social endings influence partner selection. In the first study on
the categorization of social partners, results showed that the level of anticipated affect
was most important to older people, especially for those with infirmities, as they gave
more importance to the affect anticipated from the other person in the interaction than
to possibilities for future contact or information seeking. These findings were
parlayed into the theory of socioemotional selectivity which posited that if the
conservation of one’s emotion is a primary goal, then, the anticipation of a positive
experience in a potential interaction was a necessary precursor to choosing optimal
social partners (Fredrickson & Carstensen, 1990).

The second study tested the hypothesis that when social endings were salient,
(for example death, or a single graduate facing the job market) individuals recognized
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that they did not have limitless time in which to develop new social relationships and
selected familiarity over novel, new partners (Fredrickson & Carstensen, 1990).
Overall, older people chose familiar partners most frequently; yet when social endings
were salient, younger people patterned the preferences of the elderly (Fredrickson &
Carstensen, 1990). These results reiterate that social partner selectivity functions to

conserve emotion resources in the face of limited future opportunities (Fredrickson &
Carstensen, 1990).

A longitudinal study over a time span of 34 years from early through to
middle adulthood was conducted by Carstensen in 1992 to explore two hypothesis:
(1) The frequency of social contacts with acquaintances would be highest in young
adulthood and decline gradually, but such reductions would not be evident in
relationships with significant others. Instead, reductions in interactions would be
selective – acquaintance relationships would diminish but significant relationships
would be maintained or even increased. (2) Emotional intimacy would increase in
significant relationships throughout adulthood even when physical interactions were
reduced because of the increased emphasis on affective returns and the quality of
social contacts that came with age (Carstensen, 1992). Findings from the investigation
validated the two hypotheses and further suggested that low rates of interaction in old
age were simply a continuation of a narrowing of the range of social partners begun in
early adulthood (Carstensen, 1992).

Carstensen (2006) conducted a series of studies examining the impact of time
and/or goal constraints on preference for familiar social partners and the findings
again suggested that social endings or other forms of goal constraints increased the
desire for emotional comfort and time constraints led to an increased emphasis on
emotionally meaningful aspects of relationships. According to an American Internet
tracking firm Experian Hitwise (Rosenbloom, 2011), people who were 55 years and
older were visiting American dating sites more than any other age group – an increase
of 39% in the last three years. The article quoted an example of a couple who met
online and married ten months later. The groom was 75 and the bride 65 and this was

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the third marriage for both of them. The bride remarked, ‘At our age, you don’t have
much time to waste.’

Intergenerational Relationships

Intergenerational relationships between grandparents and grandchildren are
becoming increasingly salient in our families today where one or both parents work.
Some grandparents may take on the role as primary caregivers when the
grandchildren are young and this relationship usually translated into continued
communication and/or interaction between these two generations. The mode of
communication depends on how receptive the older adult is towards information
communication technologies (ICT) since the younger generation these days would
more likely adopt ICT as their primary mode of communication with family and
friends. A grandparent may use social media tools like Facebook and/or Skype to stay
in touch with their grandchildren or extended family who live overseas.

Harwood (2000) examined the types of communication media used in the
intergenerational relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren and
found that the frequency of telephone communication seemed to be associated with
more satisfying grandparenting relationships among college students (more so than
face-to-face or written communications) in America. Another study by Holladay and
Seipke (2003) also showed that communication via email is relatively frequent in the
grandparent-grandchild relationship.

There are four main themes in the way grandparents describe their
relationships with their grandchildren (Harwood & Lin, 2000) and the first is the
sense of affiliation and the expression of love. The ability to express their affection
and communicate it to their grandchildren and receive the same in return is key to
maintaining a quality relationship. Grandparents express considerable pride in their
grandchildren’s

accomplishments

and

frequently

recount

and

share

these

accomplishments with their friends and contacts outside the family. A third theme that
emerges is that of distance, either geographically or because of the generational gap.

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Finally, the fourth theme that runs through the grandparent and grandchild
relationship is the way both parties describe an exchange that occurs between them.

However, relationships between the older adults and their children may be
more tenuous. A key tension or dialectic that encompasses many of the issues of
parent-child relationships is that of autonomy vis-à-vis connectedness (Baxter &
Dindia, 1990). Young children seek autonomy while also seeking connectedness and
these tensions do not disappear even after the children enter adulthood. For instance,
young adults who are buying their house for the first time may resolutely insist on

doing everything on their own, but would call their parents for advice or financial
help if things do not go according to plan. At certain points, it is also common for
adult children to begin to question their parents’ competence and attempt to take
control of financial and personal matters in their parents’ lives. Ironically, this
sometimes happen at the same time as they are asking their parents for help with
things like caring for their grandchildren. Such tensions illustrate the complexity of
parent-child relationships and demonstrate that it may gain complexity as we age
(Fingerman, Chen, Hay, Cichy & Lefkowitz, 2006).

Social networking sites like Facebook is an example of such complexities.
Adults (children) post information and photographs of the things happening in their
lives and if their parents (older adults) have access to the information as their
‘friends’, they may begin to probe or express interest about the information which
may be deemed intrusive by their children. This could result in a dilemma about how
much information the children would choose to grant access to their parents. The
children may sometimes not ‘add’ their parents or other elders in the family as
‘friends’ if they want to keep the information on their Facebook accounts private from
their parents.

Moreover, the proliferation of cell phones within one generation (for instance,
the grandchildren) affects the connection between generations, even when the phone
is not owned by the grandparent. In a research conducted by Kim and Crow (2012),
one participant (a grandmother) loved the camera function in the cell phone even
though she had not used it herself. This was because she received numerous pictures
of her children and grandchildren taken by the camera of the cell phone and sent to
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her via email. Even if one generation rejects the actual device, for example, the
handphone, the interoperability of software between platforms means that the

practices associated with one technology (camera on the handphone) may be
incorporated into the habits one has with another device (viewing via email on the
desktop computer) (Kim and Crow, 2012).

Those who wanted a higher degree of involvement in their families, texting
had become a skill – a new language – they were required to learn (Kim and Crow,
2012). Many learned to text because of their desire to communicate with their
grandchildren not only with this media, but also on their (grandchildren’s) terms.

Friendships

Older adults tend to have fewer friendships, choosing to focus on the most
rewarding relationships and shedding peripheral acquaintances (Carstensen, 1992)
and one very important reason why friendships are particularly important in old age is
the fact that they are voluntary and non-obligatory (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1995).
Friends are better able in connecting older people with society since a number of
activities involve having to ‘get out’ and do something together at a public space.

If there is a discernible relationship between the need to connect with others
and how this motivated older adults to use social media, this could be a significant
boost to the role of social media as a medium for which to enhance the psychological
and socioemotional well-being, and quality of life for the elderly. Hence, the second
research question is:

RQ 2: What role does the Internet and social media play in the
relationship maintenance of older adults?

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3.5

Social and Psychological Impact of using the Internet and social media
Besides using the Internet for email and information gathering, the

convenience and relative affordability of Internet-based communication tools like chat
rooms, Skype and social networking sites have enabled the social needs of older
adults to be met easily and directly. Shapira et al. (2007) found that involvement in
various online social and political activism can lead to feelings of self-worth; and
obtaining health and medical information that is perceived to be important to adults
can promote self-confidence and help reduce anxiety. Chen and Persson (2002)
noticed that Internet use among older people tended to be associated with a greater
sense of well-being. Karavidas, Lim and Katsikas (2005) also found a positive
relationship between older people’s use and knowledge of computers and the Internet
and their general self-efficacy and life satisfaction, suggesting a correlation between
the ability to use the Internet and self-empowerment.
In fact, Shapira et al. (2007) argued in their study that ‘computer and Internet
use not only prevented the (psychological) deterioration but enhanced the
psychological factors important to the quality of life of older people.’ (Shapira et al.,
2007) This was because the reasons for the improvement in the sense of well-being
were related to the psychological processes associated with experiences of personal
empowerment, enhanced interpersonal communication, learning and overcoming
personal and physical difficulties related to mobility. It is worth noting the four key
factors cited by the subjects in their research:

(i)

Learning of an innovative field – using computers and the Internet at an
old age and receiving cheerful feedback from those around them made the
subjects feel proud of themselves;

(ii)

Social benefits of using online communication – they experienced the
social benefits of enhanced interpersonal communication;

(iii)

Experiencing involvement and action – browsing the Internet contributed
to feelings of being ‘in’ and updated, which elevated a personal sense of
belonging

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(iv)

Positive feelings stimulated by using the Internet – participants reported an
emergence of positive feelings while surfing the Internet, an elevated selfimage and experiences of motivation and enthusiasm.

The participants in the study felt a general sense of personal empowerment as a
process of personal growth, resulting from developing skills and abilities along with a
more positive self-definition (Shapira et al., 2007).

Studies conducted by Fredrickson and Carstensen (1990) and Carstensen
(2006) suggest that relationships that bring the most affective returns (especially from
familiar partners) are not affected even when interactions are reduced. Hence, what
does this portend in the use of social media by the elderly in terms of connecting with
others like family, friends and acquaintances online? Are there differences between
physical and virtual interactions for the older adults? How do they derive meaning

from these virtual connections and does this have any impact on their socioemotional
well-being? Besides these important questions, this research also sought to explore
how older adults define a good quality of life and again, whether this has any impact
on their socioemotional well-being. Therefore, the final research question is:
RQ 3: What are the social and psychological implications of the Internet
and social media for the maintenance of a good quality of life for older adults?

‘One cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s
morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the
evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.’ (Jung,
1953).

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METHODOLOGY

A qualitative mode of inquiry was adopted for this study as a means for the
researcher-interviewer to obtain a more holistic understanding of the reasons and
motivations behind why older Singaporeans use smartphones and other devices to
access the Internet through the participants’ narratives. Qualitative research attempts
to capture a holistic, situated perspective of the phenomenon under study and aims to
give voice to the participants (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003; Marshall & Rossman, 1999;
Merriam, 1998). This helps to understand not just one version of reality, but multiple
realities (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Bryman (2004) argued that one of the defining
characteristics of qualitative research was to see through the eyes of the participants.

Moreover, unlike quantitative research, which is more suited to gathering data
related to pre-determined dimensions and their indicators, qualitative research, with
its limited structure and flexibility, is best suited to a deeper appreciation of hitherto

less understood phenomena. Qualitative research can help to generate richer and more
meaningful data and tease out fine nuances of social phenomena that might be
important to the participants but may not be readily obvious to researchers who were
relatively unfamiliar with the social setting (Bryman, 2004; Mason, 1996). In this
study, it was important that the elderly participants be given the opportunity to narrate
their life circumstances and realities so that the researcher-interviewer could better
recognize their socioemotional needs and what the social and psychological
implications were from the use of the Internet and social media, which are the two
areas of foci for this study.

4.1

Interview Protocol and Procedure
This study was conducted using focus groups and one-to-one interviews of 30

older adults above 60 years - 16 males and 14 females, over a period of nine months.
The median age of the participants was 67.5 years. Participants were mostly members
of senior groups like an information technology (IT) classes for seniors from the
Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), Good Life Centre (Marine

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Parade), People’s Association, Association of Muslim Professionals, and contacts
from church. These were the organisations that responded to the researcher’s request
for participation in the research. The researcher-interviewer approached RSVP
Singapore to participate in the study but the organization did not follow-through on its
initial agreement to participate.

Interviews conducted with the seniors from CDAC were done in Mandarin

and while they navigated the websites using hanyu pinyin (romanised phonetics of
Chinese characters), not all of them completed secondary education. This proved to
be a challenge for some of the participants who had to learn basic English in order to
assign the correct letter of the alphabet to the phonetic sound of each Chinese
character when typing in the link for the website.

The request to conduct interviews for the purpose of this research was sent via
email to the person-in-charge of the IT classes for seniors from CDAC; person-incharge of Good Life Centre; person-in-charge of the Senior Cyber Guides programme
from People’s Association; senior executives from the Association of Muslim
Professionals and personal contacts from church and former colleagues. After
obtaining permission and contact details of potential participants from the persons-incharge, invitations to participate in the research were sent to every potential
participant via email and this was followed-up with telephone calls by the researcherinterviewer to confirm their interest and participation. It took some time and effort to
persuade the seniors to participate in the research as many of them said they were
mere beginners in the use of the Internet and would not be able to provide useful
answers.

The interviews were conducted at a time and venue most convenient to the
participants and Mandarin was used with those participants who were not conversant
in English. Interviews with the Malay, Indian and Ceylonese participants were done
in English. All interviews were done by the researcher-interviewer and all, save one,
were recorded on a voice recorder. The audio recordings were then transcribed into
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Microsoft Word documents by a graduate student from the Department of
Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. The interview
that did not have an audio recording had notations written on the question sheet
directly by the researcher-interviewer. This was due to an oversight by the researcherinterviewer of not bringing the voice recorder that day. The audio recordings were
then transcribed into Microsoft Word documents by a graduate from the Department
of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore.

No. of participants

Median Age

Achieved post-secondary education

Male

16

70

14

Female

14

65

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Table 1: Median age and education level of participants

Fourteen female participants were interviewed by the researcher-interviewer
and the median age for the female participants was 65 years old. 11 out of the 14
female participants had post-secondary education while all but one of the 16 male
participants received post-secondary education. Only one male participant stopped
school after his Primary Six education but two of the female participants had to

discontinue their education after Primary Six due to financial difficulties at home.
This provided the context for understanding the circumstances the not-as-well
educated female participants faced when learning how to use the computer and the
Internet.

Three of the 14 female interviews were conducted in English and the
remaining ten were in Chinese. The interviews in Chinese were translated into
English by a graduate of the Communications and New Media degree programme,
National University of Singapore.

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There were three focus groups of mixed genders, each group consisting of not
more than three participants, and four single-sex focus groups – two all male and two
all female – a total of seven focus groups and 15 participants altogether. There were
eight indepth, individual interviews with male participants and seven indepth,
individual interviews with female participants – a total of 15 participants. 30
participants were interviewed in all – 16 males and 14 females.

The focus groups that were facilitated by the researcher-interviewer had a set
of questions, but the sessions were guided by the questions rather than dictated by it.
The participants also introduced some issues that the researcher-interviewer had not
thought of as it related directly to their lives. In this relationship, the participants were
the experiential experts on the subject and were therefore afforded the maximum
opportunity to narrate their own stories.

Focus group interviews use a method that can help people explore and clarify
their views and are more appropriate for open-ended questions (Kitzinger, 1995) like
the ones used for this research. Although group norms may potentially silence

dissenting opinions (Kitzinger, 1995), the researcher-interviewer noted that most of
the participants in the focus groups did not rebut each other’s comments but attempted
to wait for each other to finish speaking before they added their own views to the
question.

Participants were given the time to talk about their anecdotal experiences and
perceptions on the impact of the Internet and social media even if the question was on
a different topic. Each individual interview took between 45 to 60 minutes and the
focus group sessions took about 75 to 90 minutes on average. This excluded the time
given to the participants to fill in the Participant Information Sheet (PIS) before the
interview started.

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A token of appreciation in the form of a shopping voucher was given to every
participant in recognition of the time and effort spent in participating in the research.
A document, indicating their approval and permission for the researcher-interviewer
and the National University of Singapore to use the information obtained, was signed
by all the participants.

There were instances where the researcher-interviewer had to disqualify a few
participants’ inputs as they were not 60 years old at the point of interview but had told
the researcher-interview otherwise (over the telephone) when they agreed to
participate. Nonetheless, tokens of appreciation were given to them for their presence
and time.

Male participants were numbered B1, B2, B3 etc, and the female participants
numbered A1, A2, A3 etc. accordingly for confidentiality. All data will be kept for a
period of five years, from November 2013.

4.2

Demographic Profile
60 was used as the minimum age in the selection of potential participants for

the study. This number was decided upon after considering age markers used by
government agencies for defining the age at which Singaporeans are considered
‘elderly’. For instance, NTUC Club has a community called U Live for ‘active agers’
who are 55 years old and above (NTUC Club, 2013); the Retirement Age Act from
the Ministry of Manpower states that the official age for retirement in Singapore is 62
years old (MOM, 2013), and a Paper issued by the Ministry of Social and Family
Development called ‘State of the Elderly in Singapore – 2008/2009’ states the age of
an elderly as 65 years old (MSF, 2009). Hence, by using a simple average of the three
official ages - 55, 62 and 65, the median of 60 years old was adopted as the minimum
cut-off age for shortlisting participants for this study. The average age of the male
participants was 70 years old while that of the female participants was 65.

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4.3

Interview/Focus Group Questions
Participants filled in a ‘Participation Information Sheet’ that sought to

establish socio-economic status (SES) information such as level of education attained,
marital status, number of children, type of housing, profession before retirement, and
last drawn salary. All the participants for this study were married: there was one
divorcee and three widows. The information sheet and interview questions are

appended with this report. Note that the questions for the focus group and individual
interviews were identical.

The information sheet included questions about their perceived level of
proficiency or familiarity in using the smartphones and computer. Participants were
asked to rate, on a scale of one to seven (with one being least proficient and seven
being the most proficient), their perceived proficiency in using their smartphones and
the Internet. The information allowed the researcher-interviewer to understand better
the environment in which each participant used the smartphone and/or the Internet.

About 20 participants needed some form of assistance with calculating how
much time they spent on the Internet in a week and which applications they used more
of that required the Internet. For example, searching for information; sending emails,
or Skype with family and friends.

The questions for the interview guide were framed using the theories of
Socioemotional Selectivity (SST) and Selective Optimization with Compensation
(SOC).

The first set of questions looked into socioemotional goals that were

important for older adults in terms of relationship management. Here, questions
examined which goals were related to obtaining the greatest amount of affective
returns and emotional intimacy, and how the elderly made use of areas of
competency, such as the use of technology and social media, to compensate for areas
they lacked. The next set of questions touched on whether Internet use has had any
impact on helping them achieve those goals and if they resulted in an improved sense

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of socioemotional and/or physical well-being, such as, a perceived improvement in
the sense of self.

4.4

Data Analysis - Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) or

Phenomenology

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA, or Phenomenology) was
adopted to enable this researcher-interviewer to understand and delve into the
‘lifeworlds’ of the participants through analysis of the data.

In phenomenology, reality is comprehended through embodied experience.
Through close examination of individual experiences, phenomenological analysts
seek to capture the meaning and common features, or essences, of an experience or
event. The truth of the event, as an abstract entity, is subjective and knowable only
through embodied perception; we create meaning through the experience of moving
through space and across time (Starks & Trinidad, 2007). It involves the use of thick
description and close analysis of lived experience to understand how meaning is
created through embodied perception (Sokolowski, 2000; Stewart & Mickunas,
1974).

A typical IPA study generates an intensive and detailed analysis of the
accounts produced by a comparatively small number of participants (Larkin, Watts &
Clifton, 2006). Larkin, Watts and Clifton (2006) noted that these verbatim accounts
are generally captured via semi-structured interviews, focus groups, or diaries, and the
analysis then proceeds such that patterns of meaning are developed, and then reported
in a thematic form.

At the heart of this perspective lies a clearly declared phenomenological
emphasis on the experiential claims and concerns of the persons taking part in the
study (Larkin et al, 2006), which are based on the philosophical thoughts of

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