Privacy Perceptions of Older Adults when Using Social Media Technologies

Background

It is believed that technology usage and adoption amongst older adults will continue to grow, as the majority of baby boomers have already used computers (Harkin and Huber 2004), and are also likely to have more exposure and experience with information technologies. However previous studies indicate that the older the individual, the less likely they are to have interest and experience in using computers (Brosnan, 1998; Billipp, 2001; Czaja and Lee, 2001). Moreover, it has been found that older adults are likely to experience fear and anxiety when interacting with computers (Ellis and Allaire 1999). However it is envisioned that the future older generations may not experience the same level of anxiety and fear that current older generations experience as many baby boomers already have experience with technologies before their retirement. For example, many of them have already used computers and email due to the prevalence of technologies in today’s environment, and those below the retirement age and still working are likely to be influenced by the use of new technologies in their workplace (Harkin and Huber, 2004). Recently it has been found that half of adults aged 65 and older are now online, and one in three of these online users are on social networking sites such as Facebook (Zickuhr and Madden, 2012).