Understanding Confidence of Older Adults for Embracing Mobile Technologies

Confidence helps sustain people to use their mobile technology devices in daily life. However, there is little research that discusses how to build confidence among older adult users either when starting to use technology or broadening their existing technology use. To understand older adults’ confidence in technology use, we conducted an exploratory study over six months with ten participants in a residential care setting. We investigated the relationship between confidence, experience, and personal interests to use technology in their embracing of technology. Our findings show that confidence can be gained from positive experiences of use and that confidence helps with subsequent technology engagement. Positive experiences encourage further and broader experimentation with their own devices. Activities using technology to support personal interests provide great motivation for participants to expand the use of their mobile technology devices. We provide insights on a facilitation process that is based on open exploration and mutual learning to build confidence of users in residential care settings.