Older people’s attitudes towards emerging technologies: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Public attitudes towards technology have been studied extensively for decades, but older people were not largely involved in early studies. In recent years, with the trend of digitalisation and the rapid growth of the older population around the world, the attitudes of older people towards emerging technologies have attracted the attention of researchers. This article is a systematic review of 83 relevant studies, to summarise the factors that impact older adults’ attitudes towards adopting and using technology. It is found that older people’s attitudes are influenced by their personal characteristics, technology-related factors and the social context of technology adoption. The complex relationship between older people and technology is interpreted by researchers with the framing of older people’s identity, the role of technology, the interaction of the above factors and the opportunity for older adults to act as co-designers.