New Older Users’ Attitudes Toward Social Networking Sites and Loneliness: The Case of the Oldest-Old Residents in a Small Italian City

Abstract

Older adults make little use of social networking sites (SNS). SNS has become essential for maintaining social contacts and countering loneliness in the current era marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. This study explores the attitudes of the oldest-old on SNS after attending a training course on SNS use. The study’s goals are to investigate their personal experiences, choices of use and to survey their views on the usefulness of SNS and its effects on mitigating loneliness for older people. The interviews were conducted in the context of the “Ageing in a Networked Society—Social Experiment Study.” The participants, who were randomly selected for the course on SNS use, agreed to be interviewed during the post-intervention evaluation (N = 39). Results show SNS are mainly and productively used with relatives and friends. A positive view is reported for the potential impact of using SNS to counter loneliness, but mainly for socially isolated older individuals, while only a few find online contact futile. Intergenerational communication and a perspective of SNS as a leisure activity were identified as motivational factors for SNS use. Rare use or non-use are mainly related to privacy and security issues and technical difficulties. This is also the reason underlying the majority’s preference for WhatsApp over Facebook. These findings confirm the need for widespread SNS-focused online communication training interventions for seniors. On the speculative level, these results complement the existing literature by delving deeper into the perceptions of new older SNS users, a poorly studied segment of the population.