Mobile Phones and Aging

Day in and day out, I utilize my iPhone for purposes other than communication, such as using it as an organizer, a memo pad, and a calendar, in order to keep up with the fast-paced, busy lifestyle of a college student. I have caught myself recording down people's names and to-do lists the moment I think of them to prevent myself from losing my train of thought. Then, I began to think, "If I use my phone constantly as a memory tool, shouldn't elderlies invest more time in learning how to use a smart phone or does the complexity of the phone actually cause disturbance to their brain?" In the book Technology and Aging, there is an article written by Michael Massimi and Ronald Baecker called "An Empirical Study of Seniors' Perception of Mobile Phones as Memory Aids" which explores the implications of mobile phones as technology that can not only stimulate the minds of seniors, but also facilitate their memory process--stalling memory loss. This article was very interesting, because not only did the authors propose reasons as to why seniors continue to avoid mobile phone usage even though they have recognized these phones as effective memory aids, but also they conduct primary research and experimentation. From the research they conducted, they found that what seniors were looking for were characteristics such as portability, ease of use, proactive alarms, ease of size, etc. On the other hand, their primary concerns against mobile phones were complexity, hardware difficulty of use, etc. This study of technology that is geared towards the needs of the elderly is known as gerontechnology--presented in an article in the Journal of Systems and Software. Sri Kurniawan suggests in an article that to battle the elders' reluctance to use current mobile phones, phone developers should consider engaging the older people in the development of the phones so they can see the benefit it would have on their lives. Older people are more willing to utilize technology that they find is very beneficial to their lifestyle, even it means having to learn the odds and ends of the product. I believe that products such as mobile phones do not have a problem in engaging the younger generations, because the younger generation is always seeking the newest, most innovative product. The more important market share that these companies are lacking are that of older people; by securing this market share it would not only be beneficial to the phone company but also to elderlies as a facilitation towards the prevention of memory loss.

References

Kurniawan, S. (2007). Older people and mobile phones: A multi-method investigation [Electronic version]. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 66 (12), 889-901. Retrieved 31 Jan 2012 from USC Libraries database.

Mihailidis, A., Boger, J., & Kautz, H. (2008). Technology and Aging [Electronic version]. IOS Publishing. Retrieved 31 Jan 2012 from USC Libraries database.

Martin, L., Martin, S., Medrano, C., & Plaza, I. (2011). Mobile applications in an aging society: Status and trends [Electronic version]. Journal of Systems and Software, 84 (11), 1977-1988. Retrieved 31 Jan 2012 from USC Libraries database.