Investigation Of Smartphone Adoption Of The Elderly In Beijing

With the deepening of digitalization and the development of population aging,the acceptance and adoption of technology by the elderly in the information age has received widespread attention from people of different sectors,including politics,academia,business and so on.Meanwhile,smartphones have also become an important medium for information dissemination,exerting subtle influence on people’s cognitions and shaping their habits at every moment.In this context,this study targets at exploring the acceptance and adoption of smartphones by the elderly and clarifying the influencing mechanism,so as to help the elderly accept and adopt information and communication technologies,bridge the "digital divide",and contribute to achieving a harmonious coexistence and mutual promotion between technological development and population aging.This study adopts the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology(UTAUT)model proposed by Venkatesh et al.in 2003.This model integrates several previous successful technology adoption models and has demonstrated its validity in empirical studies in various cultural contexts,without any rigid requirement for the voluntariness of technology use and the level of technical mastery.Therefore,this model is applicable to studying the elderly in Beijing.In addition,the existing literature has emphasized the effect of perceived risk on technology adoption.And thus,in conjunction with perceived risk theory,this study expands the UTAUT model by adding perceived risk as a latent construct to predict smartphone use among the elderly.This study employs the questionnaire investigation method.A stratified sampling is conducted among people aged 60 years old and above in 16 administrative districts of Beijing according to the city’s population distribution of the elderly.A total of 477 valid questionnaires are collected,among which nearly 95%of the respondents have reported that they are currently using smartphones and more than half of them have been using smartphones for more than ten years.This study has used the structural equation modeling(SEM)to conduct statistical analysis,and has found that the expanded UTAUT model proposed in this paper has a good model fit and has good explanatory and predictive power on smartphone adoption among the elderly in Beijing(R2=69%).This study has indicated that performance expectation,effort expectation and social influence have a positive effect on the behavioral intention of smartphones among the elderly in Beijing,facilitating conditions and behavioral intention have a positive effect on the actual use of smartphones among the elderly in Beijing,and perceived risk has a negative effect on both behavioral intention and actual use.Among them,social influence has the strongest effect on behavioral intention,and behavioral intention has the strongest effect on actual use.These findings are consistent with previous studies in general,but the effects of performance expectation on behavioral intention and perceived risk on actual use are much lower than what was shown in previous studies.Compared with other studies on technology adoption,the effects of performance expectation,social influence,and perceived risk show certain Chinese characteristics,demonstrating the recognition of Chinese technology development by the elderly,the emphasis on interpersonal relationships in China,and the Chinese culture of "face".In addition to theoretical innovations,this study puts forward specific suggestions to smartphone marketers,programmers,families,community and society based on the factors that influence older adults’ technology adoption,with the aim of enhancing their willingness to use smartphones and improving their user experience.Also,this study stresses that family,community and society need to share the responsibility to help the elderly cross the "digital divide".It is necessary that the three parties work in concerted efforts to not only improve their technological competence,but also pay attention to the media literacy education,which can enhance their ability to recognize the risk of technology use and the ability to distinguish real information from fake one.In this way,the elderly may truly enjoy the convenience of life brought by information and communication technology.