Seniors and Information Technology: A MIS-Fit?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The elderly continue to remain on the edge of the divide. This separation is well known and is split among many different lines including wealth, education, ethnicity, and age, among others (e.g., gender, country of residence, state of residence, broadband access, etc.). While there has been progress made in shrinking these partitions, many feel there is much more to be done. Our particular interest is in the use of IT by senior citizens, as they comprise one of the fastest-growing segments of society, both in the USA and internationally. Furthermore, this group has significant disposable income (compared to younger generations), available to spend on IT and its related products. Issues such as social interaction, government services, e-commerce activities, healthcare, and education can be enhanced through increased computer usage by our senior citizens. However, the topic in general has been largely ignored in the traditional MIS research realm. A perusal of the top IS journals in the field, over the past five years, shows that scant attention has been paid to this subject. It begs the question of whether we in MIS should care about this group. This paper investigates the current state of IT use by the elderly and reports on what has been done, and remains to be done, to integrate this group of users into the mainstream of modern digital society. BACKGROUND AND IMPETUS FOR THE STUDY There have been few previous studies in the MIS literature, especially in the top-tier journals, pertaining to IT and senior citizens. McMurtrey, McGaughey, and Downey (2008, 2009) lamented the lack of effort among IT vendors in addressing the particular, specific needs of the elderly when it comes to using computers and related peripheral devices. These authors posit that vendors of IT products are perhaps missing out on a goldmine of opportunity. As shown in Figure 1, the median net worth of individuals aged 65 to 69 is higher than any other age group represented (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). A closer inspection shows that, starting with the 55 64 set, each successive collection of older citizens has much more net worth than their younger counterparts. Therefore, from a financial standpoint, seniors have more to spend on IT and its related wares than other groups. This situation motivated the studies by McMurtrey et al. (2008; 2009). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Furthermore, population projections (Figure 2) show that the number of seniors (age 65 and over) will double from the year 2000 to 2030, according to the most recent data available (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005a). It is apparent that, at least in terms of raw numbers, the elderly in the future will be out in large force and have a lot of money to spend. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] Thus it does seem contrary to conventional wisdom that research studies involving the elderly and IT are conspicuously absent from the mainstream MIS literature, at least in the top-tier journals. Management Information Systems, as a field of study, has components in a wide variety of areas including end-user computing, systems analysis and design, the use of database and telecommunication technologies, etc. MIS is related to the business uses of information technology and, at least tangentially, to the use of such tools and techniques in order to make a profit. This latter point drives home why the current study finds the issue of seniors and IT so perplexing: seniors are large in number and have significant money to spend. It would seem that IT vendors would take notice--not to mention MIS researchers and the journals in which they publish. To demonstrate the lack of attention by the top-tier journals in MIS to this topic, we examined the back issues of six top journals in our field and counted how many articles were devoted to the subject. While it is debatable as what outlets would constitute the top six, we utilized existing rankings from the literature (c. …