Paper: "Older people and online social interactions: an empirical investigation"

The "Older people being online" - research conducted by Open University mirrors very much my research findings during my requirements collections phase (before I decided to build the Teletalker as a tool to demonstrate the benefits of online connectivity to older people www.teletalker.org).

Their initial findings are: "

• that older people need an incentive to get and stay online;
• that relatives and trainers need to structure their help and use repetitive strategies to aid retention; 
• that social networking is a step further than most older people take while email, Skype, and closed mailing lists or forums related to their interests are the most common applications for social interactions."

Read the full paper here.

I find particularly interesting their reflections on the research process, which shows that the research had become an act of collaboration between older people and researchers rather than a directional investigation. In my view it's not easily possible to research older people empirically without getting involved in some way. 

Now, I'm wondering whether this would be true for researching any age group (which most likely is because it involves human beings). 

Older people as inexperienced user

Last week (7th March 13) I took part at Open University's workshop: Older People and Online Social Interactions - Examining Usability, Accessibility and Online Safety aspects.
It was a very interesting and useful workshop where Shailey Minocha and team presented the results of their current research into older people and social online interaction. The workshop consisted of a mix of people either designers or people working in accessibility, representing organisations working with older people, researching older people and older people themselves. We were asked to input with our feedback on their research results such as feedback on personas and guidelines they had created.
One interesting aspect for me was the feedback at the end of the day. One woman said that she didn't feel old and that she felt patronised by the way issues were discussed. She pointed out that many of the problems occur due to inexperience of using the web or the computer and that this hasn't got anything to do with age. I completely agree with her. Many of the issues that we experience when using online technology (e.g. password management) are the same tricky / confusing / dangerous / risky for anyone of any age, but particularly disconcerting for someone who is inexperienced. It doesn't matter whether they are young or old.
But watching this BBC video just now makes me think again about the difference between an inexperienced young person and an inexperienced older person. In this video they keep on mentioning how the older person is used to the analog world where you, for example, press the button harder if it didn't work the first time.

An inexperienced (with online technology) young person hasn't got necessarily pre-conceptions on how they think the technology works. Younger people are known to learn more through trial and error. They try things out and see what happens. Younger people are better connected through groups. Either in school / circle of friends / hobbies. In those groups they can discuss their experiences.

An inexperienced (with online technology) older person has got life experience in using other technologies. Learning strategies of older people are usually by applying existing knowledge, to read instructions and to work things out by understanding them first. They might have pre-conceived ideas from previous technologies on how things might work. They are more cautious in trying things out. And here comes the greatest difference I think, older people are less well connected to groups where they could easily discuss experiences or ask questions about their computer use. Note: I use the term older people, meaning people starting from the age of 65 years plus. Many people in their 60s and 70s are still very active and likely well connected to groups / family members. But with the group of 80+ year old the social connections and activities reduce to due various reasons such as health issues, mobility problems, peers dying.

So I wonder how much having previous knowledge of using technology actually hinders a person (of any age) to understand the new technology? Or is it the lost connection to groups, which stops people from trying things out and sharing their experiences?