Content uploaded by Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol on Apr 17, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
Abstract
This paper analyzes how older people, living in Spain, use smartphones and smartphone applications.
Using a mixed methods approach, we compare quantitative results obtained by tracking mobile app usage
amongst different generational samples with qualitative, focus-group discussions with active smartphone
users. A sample of Spanish smartphone users were tracked during one month in the winter of 2014 (238 in-
dividuals, aged 20 to 76 years-old). This was followed by three focus group sessions conducted in the spring
of 2015, with 24 individuals aged 55 to 81. As we learned, WhatsApp is currently the most popular applica-
tion used by people of all ages, including older adults. Smartphones increasingly are playing a central role
in the life of older participants, although the frequency of app access is negatively correlated with age. On
the other hand, as our data indicates, older adults also use a number of different types of apps that are dis-
tinct from that of younger users. Older participants access personal information manager apps (calendar, ad-
dress book and notes) more often than other age groups. And comparatively, older participants use the
smartphone less often in stable locations (home, office, relatives’ home) with Wifi than somewhere else and
with mobile data. As we argue, differences in age seem to reflect the evolution in personal interests and com-
munication patterns that change as we grow older. Our study captures new trends in smartphone usage
amongst this cohort. It also indicates how a combination of methods may help to assess the validity of the
log and qualitative data. We highlight the relevance of conducting careful generational studies in smartphone
use and some of the potentials and limitations of making predictive studies of ICT use as we change through-
out the life course. Finally, we assert the value of the inclusion of older representatives within research, which
ultimately may influence public decisions and the design of new technologies.
Keywords: smartphones; ageing; apps; use patterns; elders; focus groups; log data.
Introduction
Older adults are often portrayed as less avid users of information and communication tech-
nologies (ICT), as uninterested in ICTs, or of not being capable to use them properly. These
discourses find some support if one examines the existing available data (Eurostat, 2015).
Yet, this statistical picture is changing and one must also question how this data was collect-
ed and what it may include or include. For example, older adults show the highest growth rate
for mobile ICT adoption in developed contexts (Deloitte, 2014). An increasing amount of ev-
idence examines older individuals as active users of social network sites (SNS) such as Face-
Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations
vol. 18, no 1(37)/ April 2016, 27-47
ISSN: 1454-8100/ E-ISSN: 2344-5440
Andrea ROSALES*
Mireia FERNÁNDEZ-ARDÈVOL**
Beyond WhatsApp: Older people and smartphones
*Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, arosalescl@uoc.edu
** Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, mfernandezar@uoc.edu
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 27
book (Choudrie & Vyas, 2014; Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015; Nef,
Ganea, Müri, & Mosimann, 2013), their use of virtual spaces for maintaining both weak and
strong ties (Hage & Noseleit, 2015; Khvorostianov, Elias, & Nimrod, 2012) or for develop-
ing personal interests (Nimrod, 2014). Closer to home, the pervasive use of instant messag-
ing (IM), notably WhatsApp in Spain (CIS, 2016), challenges an array of age stereotypes as
demonstrated by a casual observation in the city of Barcelona where people of any age – old-
er people included – are seen busily using their smartphones while on public transport. Such
stereotypes of the participation of older people in the world of ICTs are often built on em-
bedded prejudices that run contrary to available empirical evidence. More recent studies ad-
dress this stereotypical portrait of ICT use in the case of older people (Loos, 2011) and can
assist us to understand how research may be contributing to the perpetuation of an age-based
digital divide (Lagacé, Charmarkeh, Tanguay, & Annick, 2015).
Digital media use, as a part of the overall landscape of mediated communication, is wide-
ly studied with respect to children and youth, but is underdeveloped with respect to older
people (Colombo & Fortunati, 2011; Mihailidis, 2014; Silverstone & Haddon, 1996). Teenagers
and young people often constitute reference points for ICT studies because it is assumed that
they help identify the main trends of adoption and use (Castells, Fernández Ardèvol, Linchuan
Qiu, & Sey, 2006; Ito et al., 2010). Contributions that take the older population into account
are scarce in comparison, although there is a growing interest in how older adults engage
with Internet and ICTs in general (Colombo & Fortunati, 2011; Loos, Haddon, & Mante-Mei-
jer, 2012; Prendergast & Garattini, 2015) and in mobile communication in particular (Co-
munello, Mulargia, Belotti, & Fernández-Ardèvol, 2015; Fernández-Ardèvol, 2016; Nguyen,
Irizarry, Garrett, & Downing, 2015; Pang, Vu, Zhang, & Foo, 2015; Petrovèiè, Fortunati, Ve-
hovar, Kavèiè, & Dolnièar, 2015). There appear to be (non-explicit) normativities that per-
sistently frame the ideal patterns of use and adoption as those belonging to youth, although
this is changing.
Ageing and age are socially constructed phenomena and are ongoing processes. Ageing
in particular, and phases in the life course in general, shape and are shaped by broader rela-
tions of power as Calasannti & King have argued in a recent paper (2015). Being old often
has negative connotations (Garattini & Prendergast, 2015) because of prevailing age-related
norms that often portraying older people as limited individuals who are objects of others’ ac-
tions (Jolanki, 2009). Such norms limit the perceived agency of older people in different
ways. Yet as Ling has argued in 2008, intimate personal network can act either as a support-
ive mechanism or a limiting one (Ling, 2008). This set of conditions and context affects ICT
adoption in particular and perceptions of digital technologies in general (Buccoliero & Bel-
lio, 2014). As other research indicates, personal values and interests change over the lifetime
(B. L. Neugarten, 1996) and personal communication patterns and the use of media evolve
as we grow old, as Ling, Bertel, & Sundsoy (2012) have demonstrated in analyzing differ-
ences in SMS use between different age groups. Stereotypes surrounding ICT use may con-
tribute significantly to digital inequalities, as they deploy implicit modes of operation that may
shape social behaviors (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995), including ICT skills (Lagacé et al., 2015)
Studies that track online individual behavior have multiplied recently, and older people
have started to be included in such analyses (Azuddin, Malik, Abdullah, & Mahmud, 2014;
Pang et al., 2015). Tracking online activities offers new ways of achieving an accurate un-
derstanding of users’ behaviors (Gonçalves & Ramasco, 2009) that partially correlates with
reported use (Boase & Ling, 2013). However, these analyses tend to be ahistorical ((Up-
28 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 28
richard, 2012), static or focused on very short-term observations (Thomas et al., 2013). De-
spite the obvious necessity to question the assumptions involved in the huge capacities that
big data bring to research(boyd & Crawford, 2012), few approaches try to understand the
meaning behind the existing databases, databases that reflect online activity in terms of indi-
viduals’ everyday life perspectives (DeLyser & Sui, 2013). In this regard, a key contribution
to our understanding of data is to compare and confront the results obtained with log-tracked
data with the opinions and perceptions of different groups, such as older people.
The goal of this paper is to understand the ways that older people appropriate smartphones
from a perspective that challenges ageist stereotypes. To do so, we create a dialogue between
the results of a generational log data study and the reported experiences of older smartphone
users. We first tracked the activity of 238 smartphone users aged between 18 and 76 years old
for one month. We then gathered reported experiences, related to the results of the first part of
the study, in three focus groups with 25 individuals aged between 55 and 81 years old. Our
analysis is oriented in two inter-related directions: the specific uses (what?) by older adults of
smartphones and the routines established by our older participants (where?). We explore the
specificities of smartphone use among older people, to better articulate the relevancy that the
smartphone, and smartphone applications (or apps) have for older individuals. The (new) per-
spective that log data brings to the study of digital devices allows for an increase in our over-
all knowledge on the current use of smartphones while our focus group research adds nuance
to these issues. With this in mind we look more closely at current research on smartphones.
Studying smartphone use
Smartphones have specific affordances and capabilities, different from computers or tablets.
The comparison of use patterns among136 smartphone users and 160 laptop users in the US,
including the analysis of log data gathered in 2009, shows that use sessions tend to be short-
er and more distributed through the day in smartphones than in laptops (Oulasvirta, Ratten-
bury, Ma, & Raita, 2012). One study, undertaken in Flanders, Belgium, analyzed news
consumption on mobile devices –smartphones and tablet computers combined interviews, di-
aries, and automated data logs of 30 participants tracked during one week (Van Damme, Cour-
tois, Verbrugge, & Marez, 2015). Researchers found that news media are consumed on different
screens, such as computers, laptops, television, or mobile devices. The authors also identi-
fied a noticeable shift towards news consumption on mobile devices, which is considered an
individual activity. Interestingly, the consumption of news on mobile devices is mostly non-
mobile, as the consultation of news when at home exceeded that during the rest of the day.
Indeed, the mobile phone tends to be used most (from stable locations, such as the home,
work, or school (Castells et al., 2006) than on the go. This is, perhaps, a reflection of the so-
cial dynamics that articulate everyday life (Giddens, 1987 ch. 6). For instance, the Spanish
population, aged 10 years old and over, spend most of the day at home (16:34 hours on av-
erage), while the second most common place for people to be is their place of work or school
(2:45 hours). In addition, people spend one hour a day on the street or in open spaces, and
1:08 hours on transportation.
Mobile phones constitute important everyday life tools that allow for permanent connec-
tion (Katz & Aakhus, 2002). Permanent connection means being able to reach others at any
moment, however this does not mean that individuals spend the whole day on their smart-
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 29
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 29
phones. The consultation period on the device tend to be short. What one finds are brief us-
age sessions repeated over time, which represent an important part of smartphone use and con-
stitute one of its particular characteristics. Ørmen & Thorhauge (2015) term these
‘microroutines’, which are embedded into everyday life patterns. In the US, the 6-month
tracking of 25 users demonstrated that smartphones are in the idle state most of the time
(Shye, Scholbrock, Memik, & Dinda, 2010).
The design and goals of log data studies are diverse. In Finland, 20 smartphone users were
tracked during four weeks and interviewed to determine their social networking patterns
through a specific social network aggregator service, LinkedUI (Cui & Honkala, 2011). The
authors also observed that people form habits of checking their mobile devices at frequent
intervals. In South Korea, a national panel of 1646 users provided by a marketing research
company, were tracked during one month in 2011 to measure usage concentration of smart-
phone apps (Jung, Kim, & Chan-Olmsted, 2014). While panelists’ time was concentrated on
a few apps, the array of game apps used was diverse. That is, most people used the same few
apps but in the case of games the market was much more segmented. In addition, there seems
to be the conjoint use of apps, as a study in the USA showed. Based on data traffic and the
time access of apps collected from a set of 600.000 unique subscribers, gathered evidence sug-
gests that, for instance, weather and news apps are used together (Xu et al., 2011). Finally,
according to Barkhuus & Polichar (Barkhuus & Polichar, 2011), individuals use their smart-
phones in highly individual manners to suit their needs and lifestyle. For example many peo-
ple use mobile devices during parallel activities of personal interest, such as streaming music
while cycling or playing games while watching TV (Lord et al., 2015).
Smartphone logs to predict smartphone use
An array of studies have attempted to make predictions on different aspects of smartphone
use (Ørmen & Thorhauge, 2015). In 2004, the MIT Human Dynamics Laboratory conduct-
ed a pioneer study that gave rise to the reality mining dataset (Eagle & Pentland, 2006) by
tracking 100 smartphones to ”extract patterns that predict future human behavior”.1Within
the project, a classification of daily routines based on mobile phone data, which then encour-
aged researchers to make predictive statements on the routines in an individual’s everyday
life (Eagle & Pentland, 2009). Similarly, Nokia Research Center conducted the Lausanne da-
ta collection campaign in 2009-2010 (Kiukkonen, Blom, Dousse, Gatica-Perez, & Laurila,
2010). They analyzed smartphone log data together with self-reported information. This mixed
method was used to determine personality traits of mobile phone users that could feed ma-
chine learning methods (Chittaranjan, Jan, & Gatica-Perez, 2011).
A lack of generational perspective
Most papers analyzing smartphone use do not collect or report the age of participants, do
not include older people, or do not report the nuances of smartphone use depending on age
differences. Among this rising number of studies that track smartphone use, almost none fo-
cus on older people or make generational comparisons. One possible exception is a study on
30 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 30
the excessive dependence on smartphones comparing ‘digital natives’ and ‘non natives’, where
(non) nativity was based on the participant’s age (Ahn & Jung, 2014). The majority of research
analyzes youth and adults together (Cui & Honkala, 2011; Eagle & Pentland, 2009; Oulasvir-
ta et al., 2012; Van Damme et al., 2015). There are also studies that look at a specific age group,
such as youth (Lee et al., 2014; Mihailidis, 2014; Pan, Chen, & Rau, 2013; Raento, Oulasvir-
ta, & Eagle, 2009) or adults (Barkhuus & Polichar, 2011; Kiukkonen et al., 2010). Jung et al.
(Jung et al., 2014) analyze a sample of individuals grouped by age from 10 years old to 50
years old and over, ignoring nuances for each generation. In Chittaranjan, Jan, & Gatica-
Perez (Chittaranjan et al., 2011), the sample ranges from 19 to 63 years old with no specific
analysis of the age dimension. Finally, some studies do not even mention the age of partici-
pants in the case study (Böhmer, Hecht, Schöning, Krüger, & Bauer, 2011), either because
authors do not consider it relevant for the topic of the study, or because it was not possible
to access that information (Lord et al., 2015; Shye et al., 2010; Xu et al., 2011). Given this
context, one of our goals is to contribute to a reflection on the current shortage of data on old-
er individuals in the study of smartphone by providing specific empirical evidence and by dis-
cussing its interpretation. The research question we have is: What are the specificities, if any,
in the use of smartphones by older adults?
Method
To answer this question, we have used a mixed methods approach. First, we tracked
users’ smartphone activity in a sample of 283 adults during a period of one month. Second,
we conducted three focus groups with older adults to have insight into the way they used
their smartphones.
Research based on the log data generated by smartphones have proliferated since the mid
2000s. Smartphones open the door, as do other on line digital media, to automated log data
which allow non-intrusive records of mundane everyday life activities and make possible
“augmented longitudinal, process, and context-sensitive investigations” (Raento et al., 2009).
Log data are used to obtain “real use” data not only in the field of the social sciences, but al-
so in computing sciences in general (Shye et al., 2010) and in human computer interaction in
particular (Cui & Honkala, 2011). However, “the log data per se cannot provide the most im-
portant insights, namely the context and purpose of use” (Ørmen & Thorhauge, 2015) and it
is necessary to keep in mind that not all data gathered on the device corresponds to the ac-
tivity of the user (Raento et al., 2009). Thus, a mixed methods approach (Creswell, 2003) is
used to complement the quantitative data from smartphone logs, with qualitative data from
focus groups. In what follows we detail these two very different yet related studies, one us-
ing mobile app tracking and one based on focus groups. Some details of the tracking are nec-
essary for an appropriate interpretation of results.
Mobile app tracking
As we are researchers who live and work in the context of Spain, we have used a market
research panel that focuses on the Spanish population to track the online activities of a set of
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 31
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 31
panelists on their smartphones (from now on in this paper we will refer to them as panelists).
The panelists are active internet users, already registered in the panel when we started the study.
They installed an app on their device(s) to become part of the tracked panel and received
non-economic rewards for participating in the activities of the panel-mainly surveys and track-
ing. The dataset corresponds to one month of activity between 17 November and 16 Decem-
ber 2014. The software registers every time each user accesses an app, the date and time of
the access, the active length of the session, and the type of connection (Wi-Fi or mobile da-
ta). For example if a panelist opens a fitness app (i.e. Endomondo) to track their running, the
software counts one access when they activate it, and then logs the length of the session un-
til the panelist moves onto another app or their phone returns to the idle mode.
The sample within our study corresponds to 171.360 hours of smartphone activities. It
belongs to a wider log data collection which, in the same period, the tracked the activity of
455 panelists either on their computers or on their mobile devices. The selected sample re-
sembles the characteristics of the Spanish population who are active Internet users (INE,
2014). The oldest panelist was only 76, which is a reflection of (online) market research in-
terests, which do not consider older people as a prominent target (Sawchuk & Crow, 2011).
After filtering, the final sample of smartphone users was 238 panelists, which gave us access
to 242 devices, as four panelists participated with two smartphones. With 122 women (51,2%)
and 116 men (48,7%), age ranges from 20 to 76 years old: 36 panelists (15,1% of the sam-
ple) can be classified as young individuals – 20-24 years old; 94 (39,5%) as young adults –
25-39 years old; 91 (38,2%) as adults – 40-59 years old; and 17 (7,1%) as older individuals
– 60-76 years old.
Focus groups
25 participants—15 men and 10 women, aged 55 to 81, participated in the focus groups
(from now on in this paper we will refer to them as participants). When using quotations from
participants we will indicate their sex and age to guard their privacy. Participants were involved
in one two-hour session, divided in three groups of 8, 8 and 9 participants. All had different
levels of experience with smartphones, from four months to three years of use. All of them
are involved in a self-learning group on smartphones, showing their interest in the use of their
smartphones. Participants meet weekly at Àgora, a highly participatory, lifelong-learning
community, to share their knowledge about smartphones, to express their doubts and con-
cerns, and to learn new things from their others. Àgora is committed to strengthening the so-
cial inclusion of older people and immigrants in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) by providing
them with free courses on a wide range of areas, such as Internet and languages (Sanchez Aro-
ca, 1999).
Three researchers, two of them the authors of the paper, conducted the focus groups. To
answer the research question, the outline of the conversations included four issues: a) partic-
ipants’ history with smartphones, b) What do they use them for? c) Where do they use them?
and d) When do they use them? Focus groups were voice recorded for further transcription.
The authors listened to the audios, read the transcriptions, and discussed the more prominent
topics in order to make a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
32 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 32
Description of the data set
As we discovered, our participating panelists accessed 2247 different apps on their smart-
phones during the tracked month. We used OpenRefine to identify different versions of the same
app and group them under the same label, e.g. “Facebook” and “Facebook for HTC” were la-
beled as Facebook.2 In this paper we focus on the number of accesses, the time and day of ac-
cess, and the type of connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data) used when the app was accessed.
For analytical purposes we have categorized the mobile apps in the sample. To optimize
the research effort, we have reduced the number of apps to be categorized by applying three
non-exclusive criteria to select the most used apps, namely the number of users, the number
of access and the mean time of use during the tracked month. In each case we have included
the top 300 apps. In terms of users, the app in the 300th position had 4 users while the top app
had 233 (WhatsApp); in terms of accesses, the 300th app had 88 accesses while the top app
had 188.911 accesses (WhatsApp); and in terms of average length of session, the app in the
300th position accounted a mean time of 2:57 minutes of access and the app in the 1st posi-
tion accounted 60 minutes (Clean). The resulting set of apps represented 30% of the accessed
apps (675 out of 2.247) and accounted for 97% of accesses among the sample, and for 98%
of the time spent by the 238 panelists in their tracked devices.
Table 1 collates our classification of mutually exclusive categories. The 675 apps were cat-
egorized using an iterative and open form of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Three
researchers participated in the three-iteration process that used the name of the app and its
description. For those apps related to more than one category we chose the most relevant cat-
egory to allow for a univocal taxonomy. While previous studies have used adaptations of the
app store taxonomy (Böhmer et al., 2011; Carrascal & Church, 2015; Xu et al., 2011) we cre-
ated an app taxonomy taking into account both the multimodal mass media and the interac-
tive, horizontal networks of communication built around the Internet and wireless
communication provided in the context of “mass self-communication” (Castells, 2009, p. 4).
For the analysis we focused on a selection of categories deemed relevant to the topic of
our study, a generational comparison of online activities. We did not include System and Mar-
ket research tools in our further analysis, as they mostly constitute activities the mobile de-
vice does by itself, or are not the users’ intended activity. For instance, launchers (part of the
system category) are accessed every time the user accesses the device, but usually the pur-
pose is to open another app. In addition, we excluded eBooks and Health & Fitness categories
due to their limited number of users.
Results
Given this data, we can now discuss how smartphone use is different – or not – for older
participants and why particular smartphone apps are relevant to the participants in the three
focus groups. We contrast most significant results of the generational tracking study, mainly
in terms of app access with the experiences reported in the focus groups, in terms of specif-
ic uses (what?) and routines (where?) participants use their smartphones in order to better
understand this data.
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 33
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 33
Table 1. Categories of mobile apps and their description, by alphabetical order. Num ber
of users and number of apps in each category
34 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Category Users Apps
Bank 72 9
Financial corporations’ apps.
Browsers & Searchers 208 10
Internet browsers and search engines.
Device Management 220 52
Tools for management, improvement, and optimization of the smartphone (antivirus, app managers, battery savers
and cleaning systems, amongst others).
eBooks 34 8
Apps to read and/or download eBooks.
Email 187 10
Apps to manage email, such as Gmail, email (for Android), or Yahoo.
File Management 206 20
Tools for managing files inside the smartphone or with other devices, such as Gallery or Dropbox.
Games 145 171
Games and gambling apps.
Health & Fitness 31 9
Tools to manage data related with health & fitness, such as sport trackers and calorie counters.
IM, Voice & Video Calls 237 20
Apps for instant messaging, phone calls, video calls, SMS or MMS.
Market Research Tools 9140
Apps to participate in surveys and market studies.
Mass Media On Demand 167 34
Mainstream audiovisual contents on demand, with the exception of appsincluded in the Radio & TV category.
Media Creator Tools 175 27
Tools for media creation including the camera, voice recorders and apps to edit pictures.
Personal Information Managers 205 28
Tools to manage personal information, namely calendars, contacts, notes, etc.
Personal Interest Content 125 43
Apps with personal interest contents including catalogues, loyalty programs and scoreboards.
Personal Tools 220 88
Utility tools of general interest including bar codes scanner, tools to download media, flashlights, GPS, educational
apps, maps and dictionaries.
Press & Weather 116 23
Mainstream press and weather apps.
Productivity Tools
Tools for professional performance, including Office Mobile or Polaris Office.
Radio & TV 68 12
Mainstream radio and TV channel apps.
Shopping 78 24
Apps mainly devoted to sales.
Social Network Sites (SNS) 225 25
It includes general and specialized social networks sites as well as social curator systems.
System 37 219
Launchers.
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 34
Older panelists accessed less often their smartphones than the rest. However,
it is a central part of their lives.
Our panelists access their smartphones 100 times a day on average (outliers excluded).
While the number of accesses per day are negatively correlated with age; that is, the older
you are the less times you access your phone (r = -.148, p < .05, n=234, see Figure 1). How-
ever, the focus group participants demonstrat how embedded smartphones are in the every-
day lives of all of the panelists, and the central role they play, as comments from two of our
oldest participants illustrate: “Except for [cooking] fried eggs, I use it [the smartphone] for
everything” (Woman, 70). “I almost don’t use the computer now; I do everything in my smart-
phone” (Man, 78). Indeed this type of response is made by panelists who were initially re-
luctant to have a smartphone, or relayed a strong discourse against mobile phones overuse,
e.g. “The smartphone was a gift from my husband (Aged 60) who was tired of me not having
WhatsApp” (Woman, 60). She complains about his excessive smartphone use “Does it only
happen to me, that you are talking with somebody and then he gets distracted by his What-
sApp and you end up talking with nobody?” (same Woman, 60). So, while she is both a re-
luctant adopter, and is critical of the smartphone, she has become an active user who accepts
its centrality within her everyday routines and rituals: “You see, I have no problem if you
show me the picture of your grand children during a dinner with more friends” (same Woman,
60). The smartphone is also expressed as a central part of the everyday life of participants who
report turning off their device when they are at home (Man, 69). Even these participants pre-
fer to have it at hand and admit that they check it from time to time (Man, 75), or keep the
smartphone close to them so they could use it whenever it was needed (Woman, 81).
Figure 1. Mean accesses a day by age break. N=234 (4 outliers excluded).
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 35
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 35
Communicating and socializing via WhatsApp: what the panelists do on smartphones
According to the generational tracking, the three most accessed app categories are IM &
Calls (35,2 accesses per day on average for the whole panel sample, and 23,7 for the older
age group), SNS (10,9 and 9,0) and Browsers (9,8 and 5,8) - see Figure 2. WhatsApp is the
most accessed app (as discussed above), with an average of 26,4 accesses per day (16,9 among
the older panelists). This could be due, in part, because in Spain where this study took place,
it is common to have to pay extra for each text message, while having a small mobile data
package is cheaper. In this sense, WhatsApp is seen as a cheap communication service.
Figure 3 shows which app categories are comparatively more popular among the four age
cohorts. It gathers the age distribution of active users in each app category, measured in terms
of average accesses per user. We are able to identify statistically significant differences for
some categories of apps. On one side, there are three categories that show negative correla-
tion with age, meaning that accesses decrease with age: IM & calls, SNS and Mass media on
demand (r =- .243, p < .001; r = -.138, p < .05; and r =- .155, p < .05 respectively). On the oth-
er side, two apps categories show an increase of use with age: Press & Weather and Personal
Information Manager ( r = .189, p < .01; r = .112, p < .1 respectively). In addition, we observe
another app category that is comparatively more popular among panelists between 60-76 years
of age compared to young adults and adults (ANOVA test, p < .05 in both cases).
Figure 2. Mean accesses day by category. All panelists and Older panelists compared.
36 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 36
Figure 3. Age distribution of active tracked panelists by app category, in terms of mean ac-
cesses by individuals. (Active panelists are those with one or more access to a given category.)
*Statistically significant differences among age groups.
Communicating and socializing within the budget: what is relevant,
according to focus group participants
WhatsApp is a very relevant app, as it is always associated to a flat rate bill, it has no lim-
itations and is cheaper than phone calls or text messages (SMS): “I use WhatsApp extensive-
ly, as I have a limited number of phone calls a month” (Man, 55). Indeed, participants report
that they tend to restrict heavy media consumption when using their mobile data plan in or-
der to control their budget. Otherwise they do not care about the use of other services with
mobile data if they are not that heavy in terms of data consumption. “I don’t watch YouTube
videos, because it consumes my data plan, unless I have Access to a Wi-Fi connection. If I
have Wi-Fi I watch YouTube videos” (Man, 68). Thus, the combined use of traditional voice
calls, with text messages and video calls, is influenced by flat rates and the relevance of each
communication interest. In fact, phone calls are mostly used to access close personal net-
works, which includes relatives and friends. “I have a family group in WhatsApp, but I pre-
fer to call my daughter when I want to talk with her” (Woman, 70).
In addition to being restricted to contacting those who are in a close personal network, voice
calls are used for urgent or relevant issues that require an immediate answer. “A WhatsApp is
not an important call” (Man, 55), while “[a] phone call urges more” (Woman, 76). Finally,
Skype and other video call systems are mostly used to talk with close relatives living abroad:
I use Skype to talk with my daughter who lives in Morocco, while my grandchild [who lives in the same city]
calls me through Hangout, I did not know Hangout, or how it works, but they manage to call me (Woman, 77).
WhatsApp is used to keep in touch either with close or extended personal networks, help-
ing to maintain and reinforce both strong and weak ties. WhatsApp groups play a role in these
dynamics. In this sense, groups with family, friends or peers are common, and they can be
either local or transnational. Groups allow participants to be in touch with relatives who are
far from distance; “We have a family group, and this way my son in Australia is up to date
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 37
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 37
on the family issues, and I do not have to update him” (Woman, 70). Finally, it is also wide-
ly used for social entertainment:
I think it is a tool to bring joy to people [A woman interrupts to say “Yes, I know it”] to break monoto-
ny. Whenever I receive a nice WhatsApp, I forward it immediately, I want others to enjoy it. I do not want
to be the only one who can enjoy it (Woman, 81).
I have a lot of fun with WhatsApp (Woman, 76).
Personal and social concerns over time
Despite its pervasiveness, IM is not exempt from personal concerns or social controver-
sy. Participants report controlling their own access to WhatsApp. Participants speak of situ-
ations in which others either had limited face-to-face interaction because of the immediacy
of WhatsApp or that WhatsApp had become a distraction from more relevant things: “You
cannot be all the day in WhatsApp” (Woman, 76). “I’m in two groups and I receive too many
messages, my wife asks me every time if it’s from our daughters, I have to check it to confirm
that it’s not them” (Man, 72).
As our data indicates, WhatsApp is both one of the main motivations for our participants
to get a smartphone and, at the same time, is the most polemic app. Yet, even highly reluc-
tant smartphone users admit that they end up using it:
I was initially reluctant to have a smartphone (…) I only use the smartphone when needed, and to check
all the rubbish people send through WhatsApp. (Man, 69 – ironic comment)
You know, I am anti WhatsApp but I see no problem to see somebody else’s grandchildren pictures in
the smartphone. (Woman, 60)
While participants described their experiences and enthusiasm for WhatsApp, they did
not have the same experience or opinions about Facebook. Most of participants report using
this Social Networking Software on their smartphones but only a few of them had experiences
to share during focus groups. One woman reports that Facebook allows her to “get back in
touch with old friends from Colombia” (Woman, 69). Another male participant is dissatisfied
with the use of his image on Facebook “I have seen pictures of myself in Facebook, and I
don’t agree with it” (Man, 78). Other participants did not report using other SNS in their
smartphones, even though some of them use Moovit – a public transportation SNS. They do
not use the social features of this app or Endomondo.
This disparity between the number of accesses of these apps and the short-lived enthusi-
asm that the participants in our focus group had for these particular apps could be because
the tracking of panelists and the focus group selection involved a different cohort of individ-
uals. However, in the focus groups, participants expressed an ambivalence that is worth not-
ing. While they have and may use the Facebook app on their smartphones, they are not
necessarily enthusiastic about its presence on their phones or in their lives.. It is possible that
for these participants, Facebook’s novelty has passed, it is already integrated in the everyday
routine, and other tools are more central. In a discussion of the novelty-factor of WhatsApp,
one participant reports “In the beginning you laugh a lot, then you get used to that and you
can’t be hooked all day” (Man, 55).
A similar ambivalence for the use of particular apps on the smartphone surfaces in dis-
cussions of email, an app that all of the participants have on their smartphones. On the one
38 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 38
hand, participants appreciate the possibility of receiving and reading emails at any time; on
the other hand, most of them wait to answer emails at home as the computer’s keyboard and
the screen are more comfortable. While some report their efforts in dealing with uninterest-
ing emails, such as junk mail, others report using email to send “interesting” contents to their
friends, such as PowerPoint presentations with pictures or jokes (Man, 76a). Another partic-
ipant uses his Gmail account on the smartphone as Gmail is used by his inner circle. This tac-
tic allows him to automatically avoid receiving irrelevant or uninteresting emails on the device
(Man, 76b). Finally, another participant reports using her smartphone to filter uninteresting
emails before moving to the computer to go further with the interesting ones (Man, 64).
Calendar, Weather and Games. Other smartphone uses
The tracking study indicates that Personal Information Management apps are used more
frequently as we age. Similarly, focus group participants report the extensive use of notes
and calendars as memory aids. Some participants use reminders on the smartphone. The man-
agement of doctor’s appointments by those following a strictly controlled medical program
surface in the focus groups as do other uses of notes and calendars as a part of daily or week-
ly routines: “I use the calendar to remember medications, and doctor appointments with
notes” (Man, 55). “I do the shopping list [in the smartphone” (Woman, 77). The specific
app used to remember things is a personal choice for the execution of everyday activities.
Amongst participants who rely on mobile apps, some prefer the calendar to remember an ap-
pointment while others prefer notes: “I don’t use the calendar, I use notes to remember ap-
pointments and other things” (Man, 69). Finally, others reported that they prefer to use a
paper-based calendar, or – for medical appointments – to rely on the doctor to call you the
day before (Woman, 76). Some describe the use of such apps as a challenge they want to ad-
dress, even if they do not need reminders or they are not going to use them for relevant things.
In other words, we find that Personal Information Management tools are important to some
older participants as they assist them in remembering dates, tasks and other items “to-do” ,
while for others, these tools symbolize the fun of learning something new, even when “tra-
ditional” systems are positively evaluated. As one participant put it: “I don’t use the calen-
dar, I trust this [putting his forefinger in his head]” (Man, 73).
While Device Management apps are not particularly relevant for older panelists, partici-
pants in our focus groups report the frequent use of these apps. These apps are particularly
important for those possessing phones with limited storage space or battery issues. The use
of these apps is mainly pushed to the user by notification systems. The cleaning systems, par-
ticularly Clean Master, were appropriated by participants who identify it by way of the broom
metaphor, the icon that identifies the app: “I use the broom every day” (Woman, 81). “I use
it when there is a notification about it” (Man, 55). The use of this app is influenced by the
learning community to which these participants belong, as they had discussed this topic to-
gether shortly before the focus groups. Although participants rarely report using browsers di-
rectly, some of them use the phone to search and their use of apps related to their personal
interests, such as recipes, poetry, history: any topic inciting curiosity.
I use it for inquires while reading, I like Spanish history so I see videos in the smartphone. Then, I like
poetry and in the smartphone you can see the meter in a verse. (Man, 78)
I use it to follow the football match abroad (…), and I use the app Seient Lliure [to manage his football
season ticket]. (Man, 76b)
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 39
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 39
I check the movie listings. (Woman, 70)
In line with the tracking study, where News & Weather apps are more popular as age in-
creases, weather apps are popular among participants. One participant, who is very reluctant
to have a smartphone, uses a weather widget in his device (Man, 69). Yet, few participants
read the news on their smartphones: “In the morning I read the newspaper, Sports, and El
Periódico” (Man, 76b). “I use it to read the headlines in ‘El País’ and other newspapers”
(Woman, 70).
Finally, games on the smartphone are not that popular among the participants, although
those who do play games are quite active. Instead of playing games on the smartphone, most
participants play games on the computer, or the tablet because of the bigger screen. Partici-
pants describe how playing games on different devices are a part of their routine: “I play
Rummikub on the tablet; whenever I can’t play I log in the app [at least] to obtain the daily
credits” (Woman, 77). Beyond the mere fun of the activity, games on the phone are useful in
alleviating boring situations and periods of waiting: “You can spend half an hour in the doc-
tor’s waiting room, and it is a pastime” (Woman, 55). Games are described as a way to build
links with grandchildren: “My grandchild asked me to download a game, War of clash, and
then I was hooked because it is addictive, we also exchange things in the game, with my
grandchild” (Man, 68).
Different routines amongst older participants
In the focus groups we asked participants to reflect on how they use their smartphones and
how they manage their device’s connection. The initial discussion tended to focus on the use
of the smartphone outside the home, in the streets, when some information was needed, such
as getting in touch with somebody or for practical purposes such as looking for an address:
“I use it outside, when looking for a place, and this way I don’t get lost” (Woman, 76).
While this would explain the extended use of Personal Information Management apps,
Media Creator tools, and Health and Fitness apps through mobile data access, this discussion
ignores many of the above-described uses of smartphones, which include entertainment, emo-
tional support, social interaction with an extended social network, expressive uses, or its use
for non-urgent matters connected to daily life. In the focus groups, it was commonplace to
talk about using the phone outside of the home. We needed to prompt further conversation
around other locations of use and whether the use of these locations was habitual or not. For
example, some participants did not take their mobile phones out when going to a social event,
or when going to the cinema, the theatre or other events. In contrast, others turn their phones
on silent when they arrived home. Still others explain using the phone when needed, which
means having it close to them all the time so that they are able to receive notifications. Oth-
ers discuss having the device accessible to check notifications, regardless of whether they are
at home or outside, with Wi-Fi or with mobile data:
I use it more at home, because of WhatsApp, and because of having the family abroad. (Man, 64)
I use it when I need it. (Man, 78a)
I have it always with me. (Man, 76a)
At home I always leave the phone on a table; from time to time I check it, because I can’t hear it. (Man, 75)
40 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 40
This became an important insight into a key difference between difference age groups:
where data is accessed and how it is accessed. Smartphones work with two different types of
internet connection: Wi-Fi and mobile data. Significantly, amongst all panelists with Wi-Fi
and Mobile data connection, Wi-Fi is more commonly used to access apps than mobile data
connection (56,3% of accesses, ahead of 43,6%).3However, older panelists (60 to 76 years
old) rely more on mobile data. This cohort use more mobile data than other age group (50,1%
vs. 43,6%) and use mobile data as much as Wi-Fi (50,1% vs. 49,9%). The question is why.
All participants in our focus groups have a mobile data plan, and all but one participant
has Wi-Fi at home. Those who have it at home always use their Wi-Fi connection when at
home, and most of them use Wi-Fi in places they visit frequently, such as their children’s
house, where they know how to connect and they are sure that it is reliable: “I use Wi-Fi in
my everyday places, where I already have the password and it connects automatically, oth-
erwise I use the mobile data” (Man, 76a). “For the half hour you are going to be in a bar
there is no need (to connect to the bar’s Wi-Fi)” (Man, 69). Joining any and all networks, just
to connect for a short or temporary period of time, is not perceived as a desirable option. Pub-
lic Wi-Fi accesses, however, is relevant when on a trip abroad or for accessing public Wi-Fi
while travelling. However, in Barcelona the use of public WiFi connections are not a com-
mon practice for the following reasons:
I use Wi-Fi at home, in my son’s house, in hotels and abroad in some airports where you can find free
Wi-Fi. (Man, 76b).
I don’t even try to connect to public Wi-Fi accesses, except when I’m on vacations. (Man, 73).
Here [municipality’s open public] Wi-Fi is that slow, I prefer not to use it. (Man, 76b).
In summary, participants use Wi-Fi at home, while visiting familiar locations, or during
longer vacation-style trips. Otherwise, this group of over-seventies report that they prefer to
use their mobile data connection in other places, while commuting, in non-habitual places,
or in habitual places where they do not find it worthwhile to make the effort of accessing the
Wi-Fi because it is for too short a period of time or is likely to be too slow.
Discussion
To return to our main research question: What are the specificities, if any, in the use of
smartphones by older adults? We have discussed how, in this case study, a combination of
qualitative and quantitative data may contribute to a nuanced generational analysis of how
changes in interests throughout the life course influence and impact the communication prac-
tices and use of mobile media technologies, such as smart phones, amongst older users. We
now return to these findings.
Validity of quantitative and qualitative results
Similar to previous results (Böhmer et al., 2011) our data indicates that IM & calls are the
most accessed apps with a lower use among the older panelists (60-76). Even though it is al-
so the most accessed app for all age groups, an easy conclusion would be that for older pan-
elists, IM & Calls is comparatively less important than for younger generations. If we accept
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 41
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 41
this reasoning, we tacitly are assuming a common normativity: the higher the use of a given
technology or service, the better. Yet, discussion groups allow us to understand how impor-
tant WhatsApp is for participants, who describe both (micro) coordination and expressive us-
es. They also explain non-dependent uses of the phone and describe a set of issues around
the inappropriateness of using WhatsApp e.g. at some hours of the day or to send some type
of contents.
We find an important disparity between the number of accesses to some apps, most no-
tably social networking apps, in the tracking and the descriptions by participants in the focus
groups of their sense of the importance of these apps. Consistent with older peoples’ interest
in social networks (Righi, Sayago, & Blat, 2012), it is not surprising that these were the sec-
ond most often accessed app category, in general for all panelists, and more specifically for
older panelists. However, despite their frequency of occurrence in the log data, participants
do not report using them with enthusiasm, have few experiences to share and convey little
explicit interest in learning more about them. Despite the frequency of appearance of social
networking apps, when we probed further, these apps are less important that we initially
thought. Beyond the concerns of older people about social network sites (ibid), it seems that
the social network sites they use are not a novelty anymore. Even though all participants use
them, they do not constitute a topic of conversation. When an ICT becomes a part of every-
day life, there might not be that many new anecdotes to put on the table. Conversely, What-
sApp could be seen as a trending topic with more issues to discuss and resolve, such as
use-norms. Therefore, it seems that conversations might focus primarily on specific ICTs but
not on all of the ICT individuals use in their daily lives.
Beyond age stereotypes, personal interest change throughout the life course
The generational analysis of the data indicates how smartphone use changes throughout
the entire life course and how this might influence the results of studies that do not consider
the age of participants. Similar to previous studies (Nylander, Lundquist, & Brännström,
2009), our data suggest that users make more application accesses at stable locations with Wi-
Fi (56,6% of accesses) than in other places with mobile data (43,6% of accesses), similar to
previous findings by Castells et al., 2006. However, given the slight differences between WiFi
and mobile data accesses, and the time spent by people at a stable location or somewhere else
(Giddens, 1987) it is striking that proportionally, our panelists use the smartphone more out-
side of their stable locations than we anticipated, and that older panelists use mobile data on
the smartphone when they are outside of the home, more than they used a WiFi connection.
In addition to the greater use of mobile data among older panelists than the rest of the
panelists, participants often reported their preference for using alternative devices, such as a
tablet, computer, TV or fixed phone when possible. The screen size of tablets, the comfort of
personal computers, and the ubiquity of smartphones are some of the arguments supporting
a position that encourages a wider ecology of media (Hearn & Foth, 2007) at home. As well,
specific content might be available only on one of the devices. In other words, making less
application accesses on the smartphone does not mean that older adults use ICTs less often,
but that they prioritize ergonomics when choosing the ICTs to be used at home.
42 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 42
Conclusion
The aim of this paper has been to analyze the use of smartphones by older adults by put-
ting quantitative and qualitative data on smartphone usage into conversation: log data that in-
dicates general patterns of usage and focus group data that helps to understand usage patterns
from the perspective of the users’ reported experience. While this approach is not new, the
novelty of our study lies in our addition of an age-related dimension to the research. We high-
light the relevance of generational studies, showing some of the nuances of smartphone use
by different age groups. Without a generational analysis, smartphone use-studies and predic-
tive systems miss the particular interests of older people potentially excluding them from fu-
ture technology developments.
The paper has examined two dimensions of smartphone use, namely specific uses (what)
and routines (where). First, in terms of specific uses we observe that Instant Messaging (IM),
particularly WhatsApp, is one of the most prominent services being used by our older pan-
elists. These older panelists access personal information manager apps (calendar, address
book and notes) more often than other age groups. Second, regarding routines, focus group
participants explain how location shapes their connection decisions – Wi-Fi or mobile data –
and the ways that they try to make the most of their data plan. Older participants’ discourses
highlight the practical uses they make of the mobile phone in public places and the confine-
ment of social network sites, gaming and media consumption to private spheres and, there-
fore, to the use of a Wi-Fi connection.
From a generational perspective, we find differences in smartphone use-patterns in terms
of specific uses and places of use. Such differences seem to reflect the evolution of personal
interests and communication patterns as we grow older (B. L. Neugarten, 1996). Empirical
evidence emerges from the basic analysis of tracked data while the discussion groups bring
insights on these results. In this, the combination of methods helps to assess the validity of
the log data. The dialogue between quantitative results and qualitative discourses we have pro-
posed in this paper clearly enriches the interpretation of tracked data and also the interpreta-
tion of qualitative data. In addition, we adopt a special focus on older people and a generational
approach, that includes generational recruitment and analysis. Empirical evidence on the prac-
tices of older people in this area are in need to contest the stereotypes and ageist attitudes that
are commonplace.
This study is admittedly a historical one (Uprichard, 2012) and it has limitations. Indeed,
both the tracking data and the focus groups include older active users of smartphones, which
does not represent the majority of the older Spanish population. There is a clear auto-selec-
tion bias as a consequence of volunteering to participate in the two studies. However, partic-
ipants in the focus groups means that the sample includes old and new smartphone users,
those who chose to have a smartphone or who were given one as a gift, and users who range
from engaged users to reluctant users with different levels of appropriation and uses of their
smartphones in their everyday life. In addition there are not any panelists aged over 76 or fo-
cus group participants aged over 81, who have contributed to this study. Similarly, the track-
ing sample of older people is too small to perform some statistical tests. As well, these results
might be influenced by the fact that tracked individuals belong to a market research panel,
and that focus group participants take part in an educational group on smartphones. Diverg-
ing from other studies, our case study involves different participants in the tracking and in
the focus groups. While this can be seen as a limitation, we consider the discussion with old-
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 43
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 43
er people and the results of the generational tracking relevant as they provide rich and in-depth
insights for future research.
Acknowledgments
We thank the participants in the focus groups for their invaluable contribution. Lluís Teix-
idó Seix contributed in different stages of data processing, in the construction of the taxonomy
of apps, and gave support during qualitative fieldwork. Daniel Blanche conducted one focus group
and helped in transcriptions. The authors are indebted to all participants who took part in the
studies and acknowledge the support from the ACT Project 895-2013-1018, funded by the So-
cial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which partially funded this project.
Notes
1http://realitycommons.media.mit.edu/realitymining.html (accessed 06/06/2015).
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRefine (last accessed 15/06/2015).
3Average accesses per day ascends to 64,1 (SD=2,9) for Wi-Fi, versus 49,6 (SD=3,3) for mobile data
(t(202) = 3,364, p < ,005).
References
1. Ahn, J., & Jung, Y. (2014). The common sense of dependence on smartphone: A comparison between
digital natives and digital immigrants. New Media & Society, 24, 1–21. doi:10.1177/1461444814554902
2. Azuddin, M., Malik, S. A., Abdullah, L. M., & Mahmud, M. (2014). Older people and their use of mo-
bile devices: Issues, purpose and context. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Infor-
mation and Communication Technology for The Muslim World (ICT4M) (pp. 1–6).
IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICT4M.2014.7020610
3. Barkhuus, L., & Polichar, V. E. (2011). Empowerment through seamfulness: Smart phones in everyday
life. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 15(6), 629–639. doi:10.1007/s00779-010-0342-4
4. Boase, J., & Ling, R. (2013). Measuring Mobile Phone Use: Self-Report Versus Log Data. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(4), 508–519. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12021
5. Böhmer, M., Hecht, B., Schöning, J., Krüger, A., & Bauer, G. (2011). Falling asleep with Angry Birds,
Facebook and Kindle: A large scale study on mobile application usage. In Proceedings of the 13th Inter-
national Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (pp. 47–56). New
York, NY: ACM. doi:10.1145/2037373.2037383
6. Boyd, danah, & Crawford, K. (2012). Critical questions for big data: Provocations for a cultural, tech-
nological, and scholarly phenomenon. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), 662–679.
doi:10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878
7. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychol-
ogy, 3(2), 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
8. Buccoliero, L., & Bellio, E. (2014). The Adoption of ‘Silver’ e-Health Technologies: First Hints on Tech-
nology Acceptance Factors for Elderly in Italy. In G. Cardoso & R. Espanha (Eds.), Observatorio (OBS*)
Journal (Vol. 1, pp. 304–307). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2691195.2691303
9. Calasannti, T., & King, N. (2015). Intersectionality and age. In J. Twigg & W. Martin (Eds.), Routledge
Handbook of Cultural Gerontology (pp. 193–200). London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
44 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 44
10. Carrascal, J. P., & Church, K. (2015). An in-situ study of mobile app & mobile search interactions. In
CHI 2015: Extended abstracts publication of the 33rd annual CHI conference on human factors in com-
puting systems: April 18-23, 2015, Seoul, Republic of Korea (pp. 2739–2748). Nueva York, NY: Asso-
ciation for Computing Machinery. doi:10.1145/2702123.2702486
11. Castells, M. (2009). Communication power. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
12. Castells, M., Fernández Ardèvol, M., Linchuan Qiu, J., & Sey, A. (2006). Mobile communication and
society: A global perspective. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
13. Chittaranjan, G., Jan, B., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2011). Who’s who with big-five: Analyzing and classify-
ing personality traits with smartphones (pp. 29–36). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society.
doi:10.1109/ISWC.2011.29
14. Choudrie, J., & Vyas, A. (2014). Silver surfers adopting and using Facebook? A quantitative study of Hert-
fordshire, UK applied to organizational and social change. Technological Forecasting and Social Change,
89, 293–305. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.08.007
15. CIS. (2016). Barómetro de Febrero 2016. Avance de resultados. Tabulación por variables sociodemográ-
ficas. Estudio no3128. Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS).
16. Colombo, F., & Fortunati, L. (Eds.). (2011). Broadband society and generational changes (Vol. 5). Berlín,
Alemania: Peter Lang Publishers.
17. Comunello, F., Mulargia, S., Belotti, F., & Fernández-Ardèvol, M. (2015). Older people’s attitude towards
mobile communication in everyday life: Digital literacy and domestication processes. In ITAP 2015, Part
I. LNCS 9193 (2-7 August, Los Angeles CA) (pp. 439–450). Berlin, Germany: Springer.
doi:10.1007/978-3-319-20892-3_43
18. Cui, Y., & Honkala, M. (2011). The consumption of integrated social networking services on mobile de-
vices. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (pp.
53–62). New York, NY: ACM. doi:10.1145/2107596.2107602
19. Deloitte. (2014). The smartphone generation gap: over-55? there’s no app for that. Technology Media
& Telecommunications Predictions.
20. DeLyser, D., & Sui, D. (2013). Crossing the qualitative- quantitative divide II: Inventive approaches to
big data, mobile methods, and rhythmanalysis. Progress in Human Geography, 37(2), 293–305.
doi:10.1177/0309132512444063
21. Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015). Social media update 2014.
Washington, DC.
22. Eagle, N., & Pentland, A. (2006). Reality mining: Sensing complex social systems. Personal and Ubiq-
uitous Computing, 10(4), 255–268. doi:10.1007/s00779-005-0046-3
23. Eagle, N., & Pentland, A. S. (2009). Eigenbehaviors: Identifying structure in routine. Behavioral Ecol-
ogy and Sociobiology, 63(7), 1057–1066. doi:10.1007/s00265-009-0739-0
24. Eurostat. (2015). Computers and the internet in households and enterprises (isoc_ci). Eurostat: Your key
to European statistics. Data explorer.
25. Fernández-Ardèvol, M. (2016). An Exploration of Mobile Telephony Non-use among Older People. In
E. Domínguez-Rué & L. Nierling (Eds.), Ageing and Technology. Perspectives from the Social Sciences
(pp. 47–65). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
26. Garattini, C., & Prendergast, D. (2015). Critical reflections on ageing and technology in the twenty-first
century. In D. Prendergast & C. Garattini (Eds.), Aging and the digital life course (pp. 1–15). New York,
NY: Berghahn Books.
27. Giddens, A. (1987). Social theory and modern sociology. CA: Stanford University Press.
28. Gonçalves, B., & Ramasco, J. J. (2009). Towards the Characterization of Individual Users through Web
Analytics. In J. Zhou (Ed.), Complex Sciences. First International Conference, Complex 2009, Shang-
hai, China, February 23-25, 2009, Revised Papers, Part 2 (pp. 2247–2254). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02469-6_102
29. Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereo-
types. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4–27. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.102.1.4
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 45
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 45
30. Hage, E., & Noseleit, F. (2015). Changes and Variations in Online- and Offline Communication Patterns:
Including Peer Effects. ECIS 2015 Completed Research Papers, 22(5), 530–537. doi:10.18151/7217342
31. Hearn, G. N., & Foth, M. (2007). Communicative ecologies, Editorial Preface. The Electronic Journal
of Communication, 17(1-2).
32. INE. (2014). Population at 1st January 2014. Municipal Register. Revision of the Municipal Register.
Official Population Figures. Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE).
33. Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., boyd, danah, Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., … Yardi, S. (2010). Hang-
ing out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media. The Ecologist. Cam-
bridge, MA: The MIT Press.
34. Jolanki, O. H. (2009). Agency in talk about old age and health. Journal of Aging Studies, 23(4), 215–226.
doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2007.12.020
35. Jung, J., Kim, Y., & Chan-Olmsted, S. (2014). Measuring usage concentration of smartphone applica-
tions: Selective repertoire in a marketplace of choices. Mobile Media & Communication, 2(3), 352–368.
doi:10.1177/2050157914542172
36. Katz, J. E., & Aakhus, M. (2002). Perpetual Contact. Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Per-
formance. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
37. Khvorostianov, N., Elias, N., & Nimrod, G. (2012). ‘Without it I am nothing’: The internet in the lives
of older immigrants. New Media & Society, 14(4), 583–599. doi:10.1177/1461444811421599
38. Kiukkonen, N., Blom, J., Dousse, O., Gatica-Perez, D., & Laurila, J. (2010). Towards rich mobile phone
datasets: Lausanne data collection campaign. In Proceedings ACM International Conference on Perva-
sive Services (ICPS) (p. 62). n.p.
39. Lagacé, M., Charmarkeh, H., Tanguay, J., & Annick, L. (2015). How Ageism Contributes to the Second-
Level Digital Divide: The Case of Canadian Seniors. Journal of Technologies and Human Usability,
11(4), 1–13.
40. Lee, U., Lee, J., Ko, M., Lee, C., Kim, Y., Yang, S., … Song, J. (2014). Hooked on smartphones: An ex-
ploratory study on smartphone overuse among college students. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Confer-
ence on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2327–2336). New York, NY: ACM.
doi:10.1145/2556288.2557366
41. Ling, R. (2008). Should We Be Concerned That the Elderly Don’t Text? The Information Society, 24,
334–341. doi:10.1080/01972240802356125
42. Ling, R., Bertel, T. F., & Sundsøy, P. R. (2012). The socio-demographics of texting: An analysis of traf-
fic data. New Media & Society, 14(2), 281–298. doi:10.1177/1461444811412711
43. Loos, E. (2011). Generational use of new media and the (ir)relevance of age. In F. Colombo & L. For-
tunati (Eds.), (Vol. 5, pp. 259–273). Berlin, Germany: Peter Lang.
44. Loos, E., Haddon, L., & Mante-Meijer, E. A. (Eds.). (2012). Generational use of new media. Farnham,
Reino Unido: Ashgate.
45. Lord, C., Hazas, M., Clear, A. K., Bates, O., Whittam, R., Morley, J., & Friday, A. (2015). Demand in
my pocket: Mobile devices and the data connectivity marshalled in support of everyday practice. In Pro-
ceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2729–2738).
New York, NY: ACM. doi:10.1145/2702123.2702162
46. Mihailidis, P. (2014). A tethered generation: Exploring the role of mobile phones in the daily life of young
people. Mobile Media & Communication, 2(1), 58–72. doi:10.1177/2050157913505558
47. Nef, T., Ganea, R. L., Müri, R. M., & Mosimann, U. P. (2013). Social networking sites and older users
– a systematic review. International Psychogeriatrics, 25(07), 1041–1053.
doi:10.1017/S1041610213000355
48. Neugarten, B. L. (1996). The meanings of age: Selected papers of Bernice L. Neugarten. (D. A. Neu-
garten, Ed.) (3rd ed.). London, England: University Of Chicago Press.
49. Nguyen, T., Irizarry, C., Garrett, R., & Downing, A. (2015). Access to mobile communications by older
people: Mobile phone use by older people. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 34(2), E7–E12.
doi:10.1111/ajag.12149
46 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 46
50. Nimrod, G. (2014). The benefits of and constraints to participation in seniors’ online communities. Leisure
Studies, 33(3), 247–266. doi:10.1080/02614367.2012.697697
51. Nylander, S., Lundquist, T., & Brännström, A. (2009). At home and with computer access: why and
where people use cell phones to access the internet. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems, 1639–1642. doi:10.1145/1518701.1518951
52. Ørmen, J., & Thorhauge, A. M. (2015). Smartphone log data in a qualitative perspective. Mobile Media
& Communication, 2050157914565845. doi:10.1177/2050157914565845
53. Oulasvirta, A., Rattenbury, T., Ma, L., & Raita, E. (2012). Habits make smartphone use more pervasive.
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16(1), 105–114. doi:10.1007/s00779-011-0412-2
54. Pan, D., Chen, N., & Rau, P. P. (2013). The Acceptance and Adoption of Smartphone Use among Chi-
nese College Students. In P.-L. Patrick Rau (Ed.), Cross-Cultural Design. Methods, Practice, and Case
Studies. 5th International Conference, CCD 2013, Held as Part of HCI International 2013, Las Vegas,
NV, USA, July 21-26, 2013, Proceedings, Part I (pp. 450–458). Berlin, Germany: Springer.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39143-9_50
55. Pang, N., Vu, S., Zhang, X., & Foo, S. (2015). Older adults and the appropriation and disappropriation
of smartphones. In J. Zhou & G. Salvendy (Eds.), Human aspects of it for the aged population: Design
for aging (Vol. 9193, pp. 484–495). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
56. Petrovèiè, A., Fortunati, L., Vehovar, V., Kavèiè, M., & Dolnièar, V. (2015). Mobile phone communica-
tion in social support networks of older adults in Slovenia. Telematics and Informatics, 32(4), 642–655.
doi:10.1016/j.tele.2015.02.005
57. Prendergast, D., & Garattini, C. (Eds.). (2015). Aging and the digital life course. In Aging and the digi-
tal life course (pp. 594–595). Nueva York, NY: Berghahn Books.
58. Raento, M., Oulasvirta, A., & Eagle, N. (2009). Smartphones: An emerging tool for social scientists. So-
ciological Methods & Research, 37(3), 426–454. doi:10.1177/0049124108330005
59. Righi, V., Sayago, S., & Blat, J. (2012). Older people’s use of Social Network Sites while participating
in local online communities from an ethnographical perspective. In Proceedings CIRN 2012 Communi-
ty Informatics Conference:‘Ideals meet Reality’ (pp. 7–9).
60. Sanchez Aroca, M. (1999). Voices Inside Schools - La Verneda-Sant Martí: A School Where People Dare
to Dream. The Harvard Educational Review, 69(3), 320–336.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.69.3.gx588q10614q3831
61. Sawchuk, K., & Crow, B. (2011). Into the grey zone: Seniors, cell phones and milieus that matter. WI:
Journal of Mobile Media.
62. Shye, A., Scholbrock, B., Memik, G., & Dinda, P. A. (2010). Characterizing and modeling user activity
on smartphones: Summary. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGMETRICS International Conference on Meas-
urement and Modeling of Computer Systems (pp. 375–376). New York, NY: ACM.
doi:10.1145/1811039.1811094
63. Silverstone, R., & Haddon, L. (1996). Design and the domestication of information and communication
technologies: Technical change in everyday life. In R. Mansell & R. Silverstone (Eds.), Communication
By design: The politics of information and communication technologies (pp. 44–74). Oxford, Reino
Unido: Oxford University Press.
64. Thomas, L., Little, L., Briggs, P., McInnes, L., Jones, E., & Nicholson, J. (2013). Location tracking:
Views from the older adult population. Age and Ageing, 42(6), 758–763. doi:10.1093/ageing/aft069
65. Uprichard, E. (2012). Being stuck in (live) time: the sticky sociological imagination. The Sociological
Review, 60, 124–138. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.002120.x
66. Van Damme, K., Courtois, C., Verbrugge, K., & Marez, L. De. (2015). What’s APPening to news? A mixed-
method audience-centred study on mobile news consumption. Mobile Media & Communication, 3(2),
196–213. doi:10.1177/2050157914557691
67. Xu, Q., Mao, Z. M., Arbor, A., Erman, J., Park, F., Gerber, A., … Venkataraman, S. (2011). Identifying
Diverse Usage Behaviors of Smartphone Apps. Internet Measurement Conference (IMC).
doi:10.1145/2068816.2068847
Beyond WhatsApp: Older People and Smartphones 47
Revista_comunicare_37:Revista_comunicare_37.qxd 27.05.2016 12:58 Page 47