I Never Imagined Grandma Could Do So Well with Technology

Abstract

Older adults' technology learning is a long-term process, during which family members often play significant roles. Although much research has emphasized how family support is important, little research has dove into the evolution of family dynamics when older adults are learning to use new technology. Drawing on the results from a qualitative study that performed semi-structured interviews with 20 older adults and 18 younger adults in China, we unpack how family members were involved in technology learning over time. Our findings suggest that younger family members play transformative roles throughout older adults' learning stages, i.e., as influencers, supporters, protectors, and monitors. Younger family members' roles co-evolve with not only older adults' changing needs but also their perceptions of older adults' learning abilities and online behaviors. They may struggle to adjust their teaching strategies to accommodate older adults' needs and abilities during the process. They may also worry about older adults' online benefits and safety as many older adults become far more active online than anticipated. Challenges while teaching and tensions regarding protection may thus emerge during the support process. With these findings, we suggest that older adults' technology learning should be treated as a collaborative activity with family members rather than an activity they pursue alone. We also highlight older adults' technology learning as a recurrent, dynamic, and evolving process, and call attention to the unique culture of "xiaoshun" in China that acts as a buffer to the burdens and tensions found with family support.

Study Motivation

Intuitively, family members are important to support sources for older adults’ technology learning and use. However, family support is often challenging due to difficulties in teaching, disagreements regarding technology use, etc. To uncover the opportunities and challenges in family collaboration, we dived into the family dynamics during older adults' technology learning.

Results

The work uncovered a typical family support pattern, which highlights the challenges and tensions in family support that received little attention. More specifically, we identified older adults’ three technological learning processes in three stages (Figure 1): adoption, onboarding, and maintenance. At the same time, the young generation's family members mainly play four roles in this process: "influencer", "supporter", "protector" and "monitor". Although these identities are diverse, they do not contradict each other and emphasize the different concerns of the young generation during the period of supporting the elderly to learn new technologies.

Our results also reveal the influence of Chinese culture on the support patterns among family members. Under the influence of China's "filial piety" culture, the elderly in China did not show excessive concern and were more willing to seek support from the younger generation in the process of learning technology products. This is not only because they regard the younger generation as experts in science and technology, but also because they think it is a manifestation of filial piety. At the same time, young family members in China often regard it as their responsibility to help the elderly learn technology products and protect their safety. Therefore, many of them will often pay attention to the daily use of science and technology products by the elderly and offer help on their own initiative. In addition, the shaping of the family support model is also affected by the socio-economic background.

Takeaways:

Let’s envision older adults’ technology use as a collaborative activity with family members!
Younger people tend to show unfamiliarity with older adults’ learning abilities and digital literacy. They may struggle to evolve teaching strategies and tend to be impatient during the support process.
Older adults may be far more capable of technology use than many younger people assumed. Out of a desire for protection, younger adults may start to check and even control older adults’ technology use when they find older adults are far more active online than they expected.
A special cultural context of “Xiao/XiaoShun” (usually translated into “filial piety” in English) has shaped a unique family support pattern in China and possibly similar cultures practicing filial piety (e.g., Latin America, Asia). The findings challenge the Western model emphasizing older adults’ strong preferences toward independent learning of technology.

"I Never Imagined Grandma Could Do So Well with Technology": Evolving Roles of Younger Family Members in Older Adults' Technology Learning and Use.

Abstract

Study Motivation

Results

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