Circumspect Users: Older Adults as Critical Adopters and Resistors of Technology
Abstract
While HCI research has often addressed the needs of older adults, they are often framed as being sceptical of digital technologies. We argue that while many older adults are circumspect users of digital technology, they bring rich and critical perspectives on the role of technology in society that are grounded in lived experiences across their life courses. We report on 20 technology life story interviews conducted with retirees over the age of 60. Our analysis shows how experiences of technology across their life courses significantly undermined participants’ sense of competency, independence, resilience, agency and control. Dissonances between what our participants valued and the perceived values of technology have led them to become critical adopters of technology, and resist its intrusion into certain aspects of their lives. We discuss how the critical perspectives of older adults and the value dissonances they experience are valuable for designing future digital technologies.
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Reminders and alarms run the risk of becoming too persistent by requiring the user to keep snoozing or asking it to stop, leading to a drop in engagement levels over time resulting from alarm fatigue.
“Reminders and alarms also run the risk of becoming too persistent by requiring the user to keep snoozing or asking it to stop [38], leading to a drop in engagement levels over time resulting from alarm fatigue [32].”
From A Collaborative Approach to Support Medication Management in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Conversational Assistants (CAs) (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
Some older adults, particularly those with a relatively recent diagnosis of MCI, report feeling distressed by a lack of control over their ability to maintain a schedule, and this fear of losing control and independence contributes to hesitation to adopt newer technologies.
“Some older adults, particularly those with a relatively recent diagnosis of MCI, report feeling distressed by a lack of control over their ability to maintain a schedule.This fear of losing control and independence also becomes a contributing factor in their hesitation to adopt newer technologies [32].”
From A Collaborative Approach to Support Medication Management in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Conversational Assistants (CAs) (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
Adequate personalization helped navigate initial hesitation to adoption of new technologies by older adults and resulted in faster acceptance during the study.
“Adequate personalization also helped in navigating the initial hesitation to adoption of new technologies by older adults [32], and provided a compensatory support system that resulted in faster acceptance of it during the course of the study.”
From A Collaborative Approach to Support Medication Management in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Conversational Assistants (CAs) (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
Sustaining long-term engagement beyond study duration is a critical issue that leads to failure of most interventions deployed for older adults.
“As identifed in [32,38], sustaining long-term engagement beyond study duration is a critical issue that leads to the failure of most interventions deployed for older adults.”
From A Collaborative Approach to Support Medication Management in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Conversational Assistants (CAs) (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
Our study highlights the value of incorporating a life-course perspective in understanding access, an orientation that emphasizes individuals' life transitions, trajectories, and future prospects, as well as how socioeconomic, cultural, historical, and institutional conditions shape these pathways.
“Our study highlights the value of incorporating a life-course perspective in understanding access, an orientation that emphasizes individuals' life transitions, trajectories, and future prospects, as well as how socioeconomic, cultural, historical, and institutional conditions shape these pathways [6].”
From Access in the Shadow of Ableism: An Autoethnography of a Blind Student's Higher Education Experience in China (2026) · cites this paper as [6]
Cites
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) · Qualitative Research in Psychology · doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa · Cited by 194,414 · see citing works
Friedman, B. (1996) · Interactions · doi:10.1145/242485.242493 · Cited by 966 · cited 1× · see citing works
“This literature relates to the tradition of value-sensitive design [31], where values are broadly understood as "what is ultimately important in life" [34].”
BackgroundThe wisdom of older technology (non)users
Knowles, B., & Hanson, V. L. (2018) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/3179995 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
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Algorithmic harms and digital ageism in the use of surveillance technologies in nursing homes
Berridge, C., & Grigorovich, A. (2022) · Frontiers in Sociology · doi:10.3389/fsoc.2022.957246 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Mathur, N., Dhodapkar, K., Zubatiy, T., Li, J., Jones, B., & Mynatt, E. (2022) · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility · doi:10.1145/3517428.3544830 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Tang, X., & Zhang, W. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3790464 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Our findings not only highlight the unique challenges and opportunities shaping educational accessibility in China but also invite critical reflections on the concept of access itself.”
- Authors
- Barros Pena, B., Clarke, R. E., Holmquist, L. E., & Vines, J.
- Affiliations
- School of Design Northumbria University, United Kingdom
- Newcastle University (GB)
- Northumbria University (GB)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2021-05-06
- Pages
- 1-14
- OpenAlex
- W3161626818
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 23.05
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (acceptedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (1947353)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Keywords
- older adults, technology adoption, resistance to technology, critique of technology, value dissonance, life course, retirees, digital technology use, agency and control, independence, resilience, digital technology design
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