Morrison Benjamin A, Nicholson James, Wood Becca, Briggs Pam
Psychology and Communication Technology Lab, Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 13;13:1100521. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1100521. eCollection 2022.
The digital response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its effects on the lives of older adults has been well-documented, but less is known about how they experienced the post-lockdown re-emergence into a relatively contactless digital society.
We report the findings from a qualitative survey ( = 93) and subsequent interviews ( = 9) with older adults aged 50+, where they describe their struggles with some of the newly implemented digital interactions. These struggles cover a range of settings but include using contactless payments, QR codes and apps to facilitate transactions in cafes, bars, and restaurants.
A thematic analysis of our data revealed the intrinsic (e.g. digital literacy) and extrinsic (e.g. malfunctioning technology) factors that limited social inclusion for these participants, and that sometimes even led to moments of public humiliation.
Our findings shed light on some of the motivational factors that underpin the age-related digital divide, whilst also highlighting the role of self-directed agism in limiting motivations to learn new digital routines.
对冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行的数字应对及其对老年人生活的影响已有详尽记录，但对于他们如何经历封锁后重新融入一个相对无接触的数字社会，人们了解较少。
我们报告了一项针对50岁及以上老年人的定性调查（n = 93）及后续访谈（n = 9）的结果，他们描述了在一些新实施的数字交互中所面临的困难。这些困难涵盖多种场景，包括在咖啡馆、酒吧和餐馆使用非接触式支付、二维码和应用程序来进行交易。
对我们数据的主题分析揭示了限制这些参与者社会包容度的内在因素（如数字素养）和外在因素（如技术故障），这些因素有时甚至导致当众出丑的时刻。
我们的研究结果揭示了一些支撑与年龄相关的数字鸿沟的动机因素，同时也凸显了自我导向的年龄歧视在限制学习新数字常规的动机方面所起的作用。
