The U.S. population over 65 years of age is increasing. Most older adults prefer to age in place, and technologies, including Internet of things (IoT), Ambient/Active Assisted Living (AAL) robots and other artificial intelligence (AI), can support independent living. However, a top-down design process creates mismatches between technologies and older adults’ needs. A user-centered design approach was used to identify older adults’ perspectives regarding AAL and AI technologies and gauge interest in participating in a co-design process. A survey was used to obtain demographic characteristics and assess privacy perspectives. A convenience sample of 31 retirement community residents participated in one of two 90-min focus group sessions. The semi-structured group interview solicited barriers and facilitators to technology adoption, privacy attitudes, and interest in project co-design participation to inform technology development. Focus group sessions were audiotaped and professionally transcribed. Transcripts were reviewed and coded to identify themes and patterns. Descriptive statistics were applied to the quantitative data. Identified barriers to technology use included low technology literacy, including lack of familiarity with terminology, and physical challenges, which can make adoption difficult. Facilitators included an eagerness to learn, interest in co-design, and a desire to understand and control their data. Most participants identified as privacy pragmatics and fundamentalists, indicating that privacy is important to older adults. At the same time, they also reported a willingness to contribute to the design of technologies that would facilitate aging independently. There is a need to increase technology literacy of older adults along with aging literacy of technologists.
BACKGROUND Emotions are central to recognizing, responding, and recovering from an exposure to misinformation in social media. However, older adults are highly susceptible to misinformation in social media, due to the emotions involved with several key factors related to aging. OBJECTIVE Research is needed to speculate about the unknown unknown ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) associated with technologies that help older adults to recognize, respond, and recover from an exposure to misinformation in social media. Designing for older adult use of social media is challenging, because they exhibit different patterns of use and have limited access to digital literacy training. Additionally, there is a risk that some system designs might further disenfranchise already vulnerable populations. METHODS The paper presents research on a design fiction-based approach to speculate about the ELSIs related to a fictitious application called the “Digital News Navigator” (DN2) service. The DN2 was applied as a probe to reflect on potential unintended consequences of system design, reviewing a broad range of academic literature. To guide future research, the Digital Health Checklist for Researchers (DHC-R) was applied to contribute specific considerations related to ELSIs. RESULTS Together, the Author Statement and Discussion sections draw attention to how features of the fictitious DN2 service raise concerns about access and usability, privacy, risks & benefits, and data management. Our analysis also demonstrates how the design fiction method might be combined with frameworks for ethical thinking to generate insights about not-yet-possible technologies. CONCLUSIONS There are potential ELSIs associated with system designs intended to assist older adults as they are exposed to misinformation through social media. Design fiction and the DHC-R offer a structured approach for identifying and speculating about these risks.
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