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Contact: Jon Meerdink ([email protected])

ANN ARBOR — Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an inseparable part of the modern world, so much so that it can sometimes fade into the background of everyday life.

But for older adults, it can be more than just a mundane piece of existence; it can be a lifeline to friends and family, one that may provide key mental health benefits. 

According to “Information and communication technology use among social ties of varying strength: Who benefits and how?,” use of ICT by older adults was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for those adults, especially as they use it to communicate with people with whom they have weaker social ties.

In the study, Jess Francis-Levin, a research investigator in the Life Course Development Program at the Institute for Social Research’s (ISR) Survey Research Center (SRC) led a team of researchers who examined participants age 65 or older who used ICT. Leveraging data from the Detroit-based Social Relations Study, which was led by by ISR’s Toni Antonucci, the researchers studied the use of ICT and its effect on social ties, specifically how it connected older adults to people and support resources, examining different levels of social relationships ranging from strong or close ties to “outer circle” or weak ties.

“There has been a lot of research in the past on the importance of weak ties in aging,” said Francis-Levin. “These weak ties are folks who are in your social circle, maybe not your very close ties, but people that you see and you interact with and maybe not as often as you do with your close ties.”

The researchers found that when older adults used ICT — including mobile phones, social media, and email — to communicate with people with whom they had moderate or weak social ties, there was an associated reduction in depressive symptoms that didn’t exist with closer ties. Researchers also noted moderating effects based on the frequency of conversation — occasional communication with these ties were associated with lower depressive symptoms.

Researchers thought this may be because closer ties often involve people being in physically closer proximity, such family members who the older adults in the study see regularly or may even live with.

“But when you start to talk about these more distant ties, as we get further from those people who are your everyday or closest interactors, then ICTs play a more prominent role,” said Francis-Levin. “You may be communicating with someone who lives across the country. When I talk to them, I’m talking to them online or on the phone and it’s wonderful — we’re catching up and touching base and it kind of rejuvenates me a little bit.”

Francis-Levin notes that this study runs counter to some assumptions about certain populations. It can be easy to dismiss the interactions older adults may have with technology, but that may be a mistake; just because an individual may not have grown up with a technology doesn’t mean it can’t be an important part of their lives — and it’s important to remember that when designing these crucial technologies.

“Younger folks may have had these things in their classrooms, so they may not necessarily remember the learning curve,” she said. “But if you’re in, say, your sixties the first time you have you interact with a computer, then you’re much more aware of the difficulty of learning, and a lot of times we just don’t gear our design of technology or instructions on how to use technology for an older adult.” 

But ICT remains an important and growing part of older adults’ lives, one that can improve quality of life and offer real benefits. 

“As we’re designing and developing new technologies, older adults should factor in and, if possible, be included in the design process and user experience process, because they do use these technologies and can truly benefit from them in a way that other age groups may not as readily,” said Francis-Levin.
The full paper “Information and communication technology use among social ties of varying strength: Who benefits and how?” is available via The Gerontologist.