Too Old For Technology? How The Elderly Of Lisbon Use And Perceive ICT

Authors

  • Bárbara Barbosa Neves Centre for Public Administration and Policies (CAPP). Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL), Portugal.
  • Fausto Amaro Centre for Public Administration and Policies (CAPP). Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL), Portugal.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/joci.v8i1.3061

Keywords:

Elderly, Aging, ICT, Ageism, Digital Divide, Mobile phones, Computers, Internet, Portugal, “faux users”

Abstract

The elderly have traditionally been an excluded group in the deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Even though their use of ICT is increasing, there is still a significant age-based digital divide. To empower elderly people’s usage of ICT we need to look at their patterns of usage and perceptions. To understand how Portugal’s elderly (65 and above) use and perceive mobile phones, computers and the Internet, we surveyed a random stratified sample of 500 individuals over 64 years of age, living in Lisbon. Of those surveyed, 72% owned a mobile phone, 13% used computers, and 10% used the Internet. The quantitative data was followed-up by ten qualitative (semi-structured) interviews. The implications of the results are discussed herein.

 

Keywords: Elderly, Aging, ICT, Ageism, Digital Divide, Mobile phones, Computers, Internet, Portugal, “faux users”

Author Biographies

Bárbara Barbosa Neves, Centre for Public Administration and Policies (CAPP). Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL), Portugal.

Bárbara Barbosa Neves is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Administration and Policies (CAPP), of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL), Portugal.

Bárbara is also a doctoral candidate in Sociology at Technical University of Lisbon and Netlab, University of Toronto.

Bárbara is currently a Visiting Scholar at IMK, University of Oslo, Norway.

Fausto Amaro, Centre for Public Administration and Policies (CAPP). Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL), Portugal.

Fausto Amaro is a Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL). Fausto is also a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Public Administration and Policies (CAPP).

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Published

2012-03-08

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2012): Special Issue: Community Informatics and Older Persons

Section

Research Articles