Are European Older Adults Ready to Engage with Smart Home Technology? Working Towards Inclusion and Digital Literacy via DIY Solutions
Creators: name: Lipphardt, Anne-Marie
name: Salomao Filho, Alfredo
name: Papaioannou, George
name: Panagiotopoulou, Maria
name: Benoit, Boivin
name: Taskaya, Gözde
name: Kékesi, Nikolett
name: Corrigan, Trudy
name: Quinlan, Luke
name: Pappa, Despoina
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: Population ageing stands as a significant societal change, particularly within the European context. The development of innovations through Internet of Things (IoT) systems, such as advancements in smart home technology, health care and engineering have positively impacted on people’s quality of life, extending their life expectancy. Despite the benefits offered by digital technologies, many European older adults or seniors (55+) are neither digitally literate nor interested in participating in the current global digital transformation. Following the EU digital inclusion policy agenda, efforts from educational institutions are continuously required to empower seniors, fostering inclusion and digital literacy in an ageing society. Within this context, the present work emerged from research on digital literacy of senior citizens carried out in the European Union Erasmus+ Project “SmartHome4SENIORS: Smart home automation for seniors using simple DIY solutions”. The study explores seniors’ perspectives on smart home technology and related DIY tasks. The employed methodology consisted of an exploratory and descriptive survey with pre-defined themes, conducted with 166 participants (55+ years of age) across Germany, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Ireland and Austria.

The SmartHome4SENIORS survey results show that seniors require a safe space to experiment with technology with tailored learning experiences that address their needs. Despite the fact that seniors’ understanding of home automation is limited, they comprehend the benefits that the technology offers, particularly of making life easier, more comfortable and safer via the use of health smart devices (i.e., emergency buttons, fall detectors, biosensors, etc.). Additionally, 40,5% of participants pointed out to the degree of security afforded by smart home devices, such as wireless cameras and CO2 detectors as very beneficial. Interestingly, 75% of survey participants had never used a smart security device. Yet, the sample’s recognition of the benefits brought by smart home technology is consonant with their level of interest to explore how such devices work. Over 75% of respondents are interested in smart homes and have basic level of digital literacy: many use their smartphone (87%) and computer (59%) on a daily basis. However, most seniors usually use those devices for basic tasks, such as checking emails, browsing on the internet and for communicating with family and friends. Therefore, it could require them extra training to learn how to navigate through mobile applications for connected devices, becoming more independent users. Survey participants also voiced their concerns from the use of smart home technology, with cybercrime and privacy violations being highlighted by over 40% of the sample. Difficulties in installation and use were also a source of concern for 45%, while cost was an issue to 60% of surveyed seniors.

Respondents were enthusiastic about DIY and the associated opportunities for saving money, having manual work to do, and caring about sustainability. More than 85% of seniors knew about DIY related topics, having had access to information about DIY (45%) and having had experience with DIY solutions at home (65%). Despite seniors’ DIY activities being mainly focused on construction, decoration and repair of non-digital equipment, it is encouraging to observe the sample welcoming DIY approaches. The implementation of DIY solutions in learning how to use and install smart devices at home could be a distinct advantage in order to make seniors feel more confident in their creative abilities, increasing their levels of self-efficacy. The SmartHome4SENIORS survey results reinforced the responsibility of educators in enabling seniors to better understand the possibilities offered by the field of smart homes and the related devices. The results helped in the development of an educational package that integrates principles of engineering, electronics, DIY creations, digital competencies and soft skills – all tailor-made to the needs of seniors. The rationale behind the SmartHome4SENIORS Project is to foster an intergenerational community of practice via a virtual learning academy, including seniors as well as younger adults (volunteers). Considered relatively unknown but highly promising, smart home technology with integrated DIY solutions shows to be potentially effective for the promotion of digital literacy and inclusion of seniors in the digital society.

 

Keywords: population aging, digital literacy, inclusion, seniors, DIY smart home technology

Project Website: https://sh4seniors.erasmusplus.website