1. Who uses technology to socialize? Evidence from older Canadian adults
- Author
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Amber D. DeJohn, Michael J. Widener, and Alex Mihailidis
- Subjects
Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 ,Social Sciences - Abstract
Abstract Socializing is understood to be important for mental and physical health, especially in later life. Technology-mediated socializing may be just as beneficial, but older adults are less likely to adopt social technologies than younger cohorts. Using time use data from the Canadian General Social Survey collected in 2015–2016, the older adult population (65 +) is clustered into ‘tech socializers,’ ‘common socializers,’ and ‘in-person socializers’ using a k-means algorithm. We employ multinomial logistic regression to assess explanatory relationships for the assigned mode of socializing. Model results demonstrate that older adults with disabilities have lower odds of being in-person socializers and higher odds of being tech socializers. Older adults are also more likely to be in-person socializers in the summer and autumn months, but we observe no seasonal relationships for tech socializers. More research with longitudinal time-use data and more discrete conceptualizations of disability is needed to understand opportunities to bolster older adults’ socializing habits.
- Published
- 2023
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