Figuring out what’s true and what’s not in the online world is a problem for every age group, but may be particularly so for older people. A recent study concluded that in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, people over 65 were the most likely of any age group to visit fake news domains and share those links on Facebook. The age-related conclusion from the Princeton/NYU study was the “most robust, . . . even when holding other characteristics—including education, ideology, and partisanship—constant.”
So what’s going on with older people? Why are they falling for, or at least engaging with, misinformation online? And can they be taught to be more discerning consumers of online news?
The Princeton/NYU researchers suggested two possible explanations for their results: (1) older adults “lack the level of digital media literacy necessary to reliably determine the trustworthiness of news encountered online”; and (2) “a general effect of aging on memory.” This last hypothesis refers to research showing that older adults may be more likely than younger ones to believe information if it is repeated often enough, creating an “illusions of truth” effect, even if the repetition is made in order to correct the first false statement.
While these explanations may be part of the story, in fact it’s much more nuanced. Older Americans have vastly improved their digital savviness in the last two decades but there is a wide range of skill levels within these populations. And most programs teaching digital literacy to combat fake news are aimed at students and their teachers. Higher level programming for people well past their school years is much harder to find.
Meanwhile, if the problem lies with declining memory, then it would seem to be almost unsolvable, short of stopping cognitive aging. Cognitive issues, though, can be offset by older adults’ life experience and improved decision-making abilities. Research and experience show that older adults can and are eager to learn new technology, as long as they see a need for it and are taught in ways that build confidence rather than exacerbating the stereotypes of technological incompetence.
1. The Digital Divide Within Older Populations
Taking the digital literacy hypothesis first, there’s no doubt that many older Americans are behind the curve: most Baby Boomers (1945-1964) were in their teens to early ‘30s when the first IBM personal computers and Apple Macintoshes came on the market, and the pre-Boomer “Silent Generation” was well into adulthood. These generations – “digital immigrants” rather than “digital natives” – have had to build their digital know-how from scratch. But for decades now, AARP, libraries, retirement communities and others have offered workshops, classes and tutoring to help older adults learn the basics of technology. The results of these efforts to bridge the initial “digital divide” are impressive:
- Two-thirds of adults 65 and over now use the Internet;
- The percentage of people age 65+ using at least one social media site grew from 7 percent in 2010 to 37 percent in 2018;
- Older adults are the fastest growing group of Facebook users, with the use rate among those 65+ increasing from 18 to 32 percent from 2011 to 2018;
- Smartphone ownership among 65+ adults increased from 18 to 42 percent from 2013 to 2017;
- Roughly ¾ of Internet users 65 and over go online every day.
Analysis: While this article is not about innovation in technology, it tells a lot about how older adults mange innovation in technology and gives quantitative date to better understand what they understand and still need to learn with technology, specifically phones and computers. It was interesting to learn that there is a divide amongst the older population – what people do and do not know about technology varies greatly per person. This is understandable even when thinking about my own grandparents, one can use a smartphone with ease, and the other refuses to touch one. The bread and butter of this article for me was learning that older adults will learn tech when they have a purpose and that many want to learn how to detect fraud. I wonder what can be done to simultaneously teach the older population how to use technology and detect fraud because many seem to think that technology creates more opportunity for fraud, and I do not blame them.
Citation:
Admin. (2019, May 31). Older adults and technology: Moving beyond the stereotypes. Stanford Center on Longevity. https://longevity.stanford.edu/older-adults-and-technology-moving-beyond-the-stereotypes/
