MOTIVATIONS BEHIND SOCIAL MEDIA USE BY ELDERLY PEOPLE
(A2019-8588)

AUTHORS

EDA ?ENCEYLAN, Boğaziçi University; Aysegul Toker, Bogazici University

KEYWORDS

Social; Media; Elderly

ABSTRACT

The present research aims to define and categorize the motivations shaping the social media attitude of elderly group, and understand the impact of social media use on this specific demographic segment’s perceived psychological well-being. We not only offer fresh insights regarding their approach towards using social technologies through qualitative data analysis, but also explore the impact of social technology use with a conceptual framework. Having identified three motivations Social Interaction, Social Influence, and Social Surveillance, we define a new construct called Reduced Perceived Obsolescence, and investigate the relationship between social media attitude of older adults and their level of perceived obsolescence with data collected from the designed survey instrument. The constructs presented in our conceptual model serve as a basis to further explore motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of social media attitude of the elderly.