Older people’s competence to use mobile phones: An exploratory study in a South African context

Overcoming challenges in smart phone use among older adults in Saudi Arabia

“…There were also low levels of interest and negative attitudes towards mobile phones among this group because of their perceived complexity, and a tendency to use them for very limited purposes such as making calls to family and friends. The study also revealed an increased sense of dependency among these older mobile phone users, who often needed to turn to their children or grandchildren for assistance in using their phones (Leburu, 2015). Based on discourse analysis of qualitative data from a sample of seniors, Turner, Turner & Walle (2007) also identified a range of factors affecting seniors' willingness to use new information and communications technologies, including anxiety, a reported lack of time for learning new skills and the absence of a clear purpose for adopting the technology.…”

“…The challenges in technology use that are often experienced by older users have been demonstrated in a number of empirical studies conducted with seniors around the world. In research with 68 individuals aged over 60 who were attending day care centers in South Africa, for example, Leburu (2015) found that physical and mental health problems including reduced mobility, failing eyesight and memory problems were preventing the participants from using mobile phones as much as they would like to. Charness & Holley (2004) observe that dexterity and other physical challenges often affect the ability of older people to perform tasks such as typing, while Häikiö, Isomursu, Matinmikko, Wallin, Ailisto, & Huomo, (2007) have noted that older users often have shaky handwriting that cannot be easily interpreted by the handwriting recognition software installed on some smart phones.…”

“…The study revealed that, overall, participants were only using a few functions of their phones, and were experiencing difficulties in areas such as menu navigation, text input and understanding error messages. One of the main findings of Leburu's (2015) qualitative research with older mobile phone users in South Africa was the lack of ability to use many features of mobile phones, which were perceived to be too complex. For some, this even included basic features such as making calls.…”

“…A number of studies have revealed the ways in which low levels of smart phone usage among older adults result from multiple and often interacting factors. For example, the findings of Leburu's (2015) qualitative research with seniors in South Africa revealed that many of the research participants faced difficulties in using their phones, resulting from the cognitive and physical effects of ageing. There were also low levels of interest and negative attitudes towards mobile phones among this group because of their perceived complexity, and a tendency to use them for very limited purposes such as making calls to family and friends.…”

“…Previous researchers have found that discovered that a lack of confidence or anxiety about using new technology frequently contributes to the low levels of usage of smart phones among seniors (e.g. Pan & Jordan-Marsh, 2010), and that there is a widespread perception among older users that these are difficult to use (Leburu, 2015;Lee, 2007). Perceived ease of use (PEOU) was one of the other key intervening variables in the TAM (Davis, 1989).…”