EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

Kyle Boyd; Chris Nugent; Mark Donnelly; R Sterritt; Raymond Bond; Lorraine Lavery-Bowen

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14424-5_3

EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

Department of Employment and Learning (DEL)

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Online Social Networking has become one of the biggest successes of the Internet. Facebook is the most popular service with over 1.23 billion users. Online Social Networks have the potential to combat feelings of social isolation amongst the aging population. Nevertheless, many older people do not use online social networks given the barriers resulting from a lack of understanding and perceived usefulness. This paper presents the findings from a ten week training course were participants were trained in the use of Facebook and EasiSocial, a newly introduced web application which displays Facebook in a manner which is more suitable for older people. An evaluation study was undertaken of both applications in an effort to gain insight into the reasons why older people (50–80 years old) do not use social media. Findings demonstrated that EasiSocial was statistically easier to learn and easier to use than Facebook and therefore potentially helpful to increase the adoption of Social Media technologies.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer
Pages	21-28
Number of pages	7
Volume	8456
ISBN (Print)	978-3-319-14423-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14424-5_3
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 1 Jan 2015
Event	Smart Homes and Health Telematics - Denver Duration: 1 Jan 2015 → …

Conference

Conference	Smart Homes and Health Telematics
Period	1/01/15 → …

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Social isolation
Technology adoption
Web 2.0
Social media
Online social networks
Facebook

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-14424-5_3

Cite this

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title = "EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People",

abstract = "Online Social Networking has become one of the biggest successes of the Internet. Facebook is the most popular service with over 1.23 billion users. Online Social Networks have the potential to combat feelings of social isolation amongst the aging population. Nevertheless, many older people do not use online social networks given the barriers resulting from a lack of understanding and perceived usefulness. This paper presents the findings from a ten week training course were participants were trained in the use of Facebook and EasiSocial, a newly introduced web application which displays Facebook in a manner which is more suitable for older people. An evaluation study was undertaken of both applications in an effort to gain insight into the reasons why older people (50–80 years old) do not use social media. Findings demonstrated that EasiSocial was statistically easier to learn and easier to use than Facebook and therefore potentially helpful to increase the adoption of Social Media technologies.",

keywords = "Social isolation, Technology adoption, Web 2.0, Social media, Online social networks, Facebook",

author = "Kyle Boyd and Chris Nugent and Mark Donnelly and R Sterritt and Raymond Bond and Lorraine Lavery-Bowen",

year = "2015",

month = jan,

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doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-14424-5\_3",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-3-319-14423-8",

volume = "8456",

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booktitle = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science",

publisher = "Springer",

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note = "Smart Homes and Health Telematics ; Conference date: 01-01-2015",

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TY - GEN

T1 - EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

AU - Boyd, Kyle

AU - Nugent, Chris

AU - Donnelly, Mark

AU - Sterritt, R

AU - Bond, Raymond

AU - Lavery-Bowen, Lorraine

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - Online Social Networking has become one of the biggest successes of the Internet. Facebook is the most popular service with over 1.23 billion users. Online Social Networks have the potential to combat feelings of social isolation amongst the aging population. Nevertheless, many older people do not use online social networks given the barriers resulting from a lack of understanding and perceived usefulness. This paper presents the findings from a ten week training course were participants were trained in the use of Facebook and EasiSocial, a newly introduced web application which displays Facebook in a manner which is more suitable for older people. An evaluation study was undertaken of both applications in an effort to gain insight into the reasons why older people (50–80 years old) do not use social media. Findings demonstrated that EasiSocial was statistically easier to learn and easier to use than Facebook and therefore potentially helpful to increase the adoption of Social Media technologies.

AB - Online Social Networking has become one of the biggest successes of the Internet. Facebook is the most popular service with over 1.23 billion users. Online Social Networks have the potential to combat feelings of social isolation amongst the aging population. Nevertheless, many older people do not use online social networks given the barriers resulting from a lack of understanding and perceived usefulness. This paper presents the findings from a ten week training course were participants were trained in the use of Facebook and EasiSocial, a newly introduced web application which displays Facebook in a manner which is more suitable for older people. An evaluation study was undertaken of both applications in an effort to gain insight into the reasons why older people (50–80 years old) do not use social media. Findings demonstrated that EasiSocial was statistically easier to learn and easier to use than Facebook and therefore potentially helpful to increase the adoption of Social Media technologies.

KW - Social isolation

KW - Technology adoption

KW - Web 2.0

KW - Social media

KW - Online social networks

KW - Facebook

UR - http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-14424-5_3

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-14424-5_3

DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-14424-5_3

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-3-319-14423-8

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SP - 21

EP - 28

BT - Lecture Notes in Computer Science

PB - Springer

T2 - Smart Homes and Health Telematics

Y2 - 1 January 2015

ER -

EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

Abstract

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

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Kyle Boyd

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EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

Abstract

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Profiles

Kyle Boyd

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