1. Older and fearing new technologies? The relationship between older adults' technophobia and subjective age.
- Author
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Sun, Erhong and Ye, Xuchun
- Subjects
PHOBIAS ,FEAR ,PARANOIA ,RESEARCH funding ,PRIVACY ,AGE distribution ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,ANXIETY ,TECHNOLOGY ,ANALYSIS of variance ,MEDICAL ethics - Abstract
This article aimed to identify different technophobia subgroups of older adults and examine the associations between these distinct subgroups and the subjective age. A sample of 728 retired older adults over the age of 55 was recruited in China. Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify technophobia subgroups using three indicators: techno-anxiety, techno-paranoia and privacy concerns. Analysis of Variance was applied to determine whether a relationship exists between the identified technophobic subgroups and subjective ages (Feel-age, Look-age, Do-age and Interests-age). Four technophobia types were identified: 'low-technophobia' (24.59%), 'high-privacy concerns' (26.48%), 'medium-technophobia' (28.38%), and 'high-technophobia' (20.55%). Privacy concerns play a major role in the profiles of older adults who belong to the profiles of 'high-privacy concerns' and 'high-technophobia' (47.03%). A series of ANOVAs showed that older adults in the 'low-technophobia' were more likely to be younger subjective ages of the feel-age and interest-age. The majority of Chinese older adults do not suffer from high levels of technophobia, but do concerns about privacy issues. It also pointed out the younger subjective age might have a protective effect on older adults with technophobia. Future technophobia interventions should better focus on breaking the age stereotype of technology on older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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