Aging & Social Change: Thirteenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Technostress, defined as technology-induced stress, experienced by many disadvantaged groups including older people. Despite being a quite common phenomenon, little research has been conducted addressing technostress in old age and Türkiye is no exception. In order to address this gap, this study aims to highlight the socio-relational factors that affect technostress levels among older people in Türkiye. The responses of a nationwide representative sample of 512 people, who are 55 and over, were withdrawn from the dataset of the project titled “Digital Inequalities and Technostress in Türkiye: Understanding the Socio-Demographic Factors (Project No: 122K021)”, funded by the Scientific and Technological Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK). Initially, exploratory data analysis was conducted, which was, later, followed by Chi-squared tests to explore the relationship between technostress and socio-relational variables. The results of the analysis showed that older people (55+) who are female, having lower educational attainment and experiencing disability/chronic illness have a higher likelihood of experiencing technostress. Relatively affluent households were also found to report higher technostress. In particular, having no access to a laptop/pc or a smartphone and having lower digital skills exacerbated technostress levels among older people, vice a versa. The evidence also suggests that access does not necessarily predict usage. In conclusion, technostress is an element of digital inequality among older people and new policies to strengthen the digital revolution should consider different fragmentations within the whole older population.

Presenters

Burcu Ozdemir Ocakli
Associate Professor, Social Work, Ankara University, Turkey

Emine Özmete
Prof.Emine Özmete,PhD. Dean of Faculty of Health Sciences, Head of Center on Ageing Stdudies Implemantation and Research, Ankara University, Social Work, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

Deniz Mat Artun
PhD Candidate, Management, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

Alev özer Torgalöz
İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi

Betul Yalcin
Managing Director, Atlas Data Analysis and Consultancy, United Kingdom