Digital Gaming by Older Adults: Can It Enhance Social Connectedness?

Abstract

It has been well established that social engagement is an important component of positive aging, yet little is known about whether and in what forms digital games can provide social benefits. This paper addresses this issue by discussing research we have conducted during the past four years. The research question addressed in this paper is: Can playing digital games provide social benefits to older adults? To address this question, we provide overviews of four of our research studies that have investigated the social aspects of playing digital games. These are: (1) a face-to-face survey of 463 older adults in Canada who play digital games; (2) an eight-week Wii Bowling tournament involving 73 older adults from 14 long-term care facilities; (3) a four-week Bingo ‘frame game’ study involving 50 older adults in long-term care facilities; and (4) an online survey of 176 older adults who play the Internet game entitled World of Warcraft. The findings of these four research studies are encouraging as we found social benefits in each study. Although many older adults play digital games, a minority play games with others. These findings suggest that promotion and education would be helpful to encourage and support older adults to play digital games with others to gain the social benefits.