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Introduction
Common Technology Usage Between the Older People
The rapid increase in the digital gap is something which is not new and a proof to this can be clearly seen from the following statistics. However, when it comes to using technology, the older generation has never been so keen to use it. One of the main reasons could be the “complex” nature of the new inventions by man, never the less it is some thing which the older generation has some what been forced to adapt.
The commonly used technology amongst old people.
Radios, hand phones and televisions are quite popular within this age group; this is perhaps, largely because it is both a necessity and a luxury to them at the same time. Radio and television, however, are not new inventions and therefore it can be assumed that this technology is more popular amongst the older generation. As far as the new changes in the operation systems to this technology is concerned, old people are least bothered about it (manual radios are preferred to the digital ones, mainly because of its simplicity). Newer hand phones, although very complex to use, have become a necessity for anyone anywhere, this is something which the older generation has to forcefully adapt(most of them only know how to attend a call and dial numbers with least knowledge about the various fancy functions their cell phones can perform e.g. infra-red, blue-tooth, music, camera etc.)
It can be said that illiteracy and the rapidly developing technology are two main reasons of the digital divide. Besides this, the cost of affording such gadgets can also be one of the main factors besides the aforementioned.
Comparison Between the Educated and Uneducated Elderly
When it comes to technology, there might be a difference on the adoption of the technology between the educated old people and the uneducated old people. For the educated old people, they do not have big problems when it comes to learning of new technologies such as computer, internet, handphones, digital cameras and/or other devices. There are a few reasons why they are able to keep themselves up to date with these technologies. For example, work requirement, technologies play a big part in their communication with external parties. This group is mainly from the Professionals, Managers, Executives and Businessmen (PMEBs). Another example is their interest in technologies, as reading is not a problem for them; they can easily read up and understand the usages. Therefore, for them, being able to use a high technology item can also be a new form of entertainment.
60 – 70 yrs old
71 – 80 yrs old
≥81 yrs old
Technologies
Computers
Handphones
Radio
Television
Table XXX
However, looking at the uneducated or less-educated old people, the first and most important problem is illiteracy. Having difficulties in understanding the functions make them less interested to find out more about it. For instance, table XXX shows that older people do not own many types of technologies. At least 4 out of 10 of the older people own only a handphone, and the key usage is for talking.
If we were to compare the two groups on the adoption of technology, it is obvious that the educated old people can easily get hold of the technology usage based on their own effort. On the other hand, the uneducated or less educated old people will have to rely on others to teach them on the usage. Nevertheless, either way, both groups are still able to experience and explore the advantages of technology.
Ethnicity, Age and Gender Differences
Ethnicity
From the survey results and our personal observations, there is no effect showing that ethnicity has influenced the reason people use technology. However, the team has discussed and analyzed that ethnicity may play as a factor if we are evaluating the affordability of different ethnic groups when buying technology.
Taken from ÐSing Stats website, we tabulated the table of ÐResidents working persons aged 15 years old and over by the monthly income from work, ethnic group and sex. The table above showed that the Chinese are earning higher monthly income than the Malays and the Indians. It can be derived that Chinese will be more affluent when it comes to the purchasing of advance technology and more Ðinformation technology savvy than the other ethnic groups.
Refering to the analysis above, different ethnicity are being exposed to different levels of information technology. Such allegations can be related to the employment opportunities open to different ethnic groups in Singapore. For example, in Singapore, employers are seeking for people that are bilingual in both Mandarin and English. Therefore, Malays and Indians without the knowledge of the Chinese Language are on the losing end.
Age vs. Gender
It is obvious that the younger generations of these days are engaging in wide range of activities with technology – from the computer, handphones, radio to television. Statistics have proven that these devices are major players of providing information, news and entertainment. On the other axis, the older generations is receptive to the trend for advance technology and are using the basic modes of technology, which is the radio and television.
Radio is the most common used technology for receiving news and information in the past. The old as one of our teammates have interviewed referred to his use of radio as habitual. Koh Ah Kuan cited:
“From young, my family has not much money to buy televisions like some rich families and the radio is where I listen to songs and know the news. I like the radio because my family used to gather around the radio and everyone will bond together and enjoy the entertainment provided by the radio. Listening to the radio now is not as heart warming but it reminds me of the past.”
The television however, was the second most populated option to choose from when the older respondents were asked of the kinds of technology they engage in. Through interviews, the older informants revealed that