Staying connected is vital to maintaining good relationships, yet feelings of disconnection or isolation from family or close friends are common due to distance, time differences, or busy lives. Older adults are at greater risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness due to risk factors such as living alone, loss of a spouse, and health problems and disability (Grenade & Boldy, 2008). Communication technologies appear to offer a means of overcoming some of this social isolation. However, people 65 years and over are also Australia’s least digitally included age group (Thomas, et al., 2020). The Digital Wellbeing Lab collaborating with Inclusee, a not-for-profit charity that connects older Australians and First Nations people with trained volunteers through digital programs to learn how current technologies are being used to connect older adults over distances.
We are interested in learning about the different stages of engagement in an online service, including enablers and barriers to participation, to see what factors influence attendance and social participation. We also want to know how the social connection from engaging in the online service fits within older adults’ social lives and what improvements in existing technologies or novel technologies might improve older adults’ social connection. Over the next several months we will be observing the online activities Inclusee provides, which cover gardening, theatre, book appreciation, gaming, travel, and more. Additionally, we will be conducting interviews with both participants and facilitators. The research will directly contribute to the improved practices of existing service providers by enabling them to address identified barriers to participation and connection, as well as to our understanding of how to make simple, concrete improvements to the connective technologies that older adults use, want to use, or are yet to consider using.
- Grenade, L & Boldy, D 2008, ‘Social isolation and loneliness among older people: Issues and future challenges in community and residential settings’, Australian Health Review, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 468-78.
- Thomas, J, Barraket, J, Wilson, CK, Holcombe-James, I, Kennedy, J, Rennie, E, Ewing, S & MacDonald, T 2020, Measuring Australia’s Digital Divide: The Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2020, RMIT and Swinburne University of Technology, for Telstra, Melbourne
