Booksology Remember the “blinking 12:00 problem”? That was a phenomenon in which older people never set the clock on their VCRs because they couldn’t figure out how. If you don’t remember it, or VCRs, congratulations—you were probably “born digital.”
The absurdity of these two clichés—that all older people struggle with technology and all younger people are somehow naturally adept—is obvious, especially to anyone in regular contact with either population. Yet they do persist, in media accounts and everyday life.
In “Wired Wisdom: How to Age Better Online,” Eszter Hargittai and John Palfrey look at the real differences between older and younger people in their use of digital technology, the attitudes that underlie those differences, and—where older folks do lag in adoption—what can be done to help.
Hargittai and Palfrey are well equipped for the task. Hargittai, with Paul DiMaggio, coined the term “digital inequality” to describe the differences age, income, gender and other factors have on internet use. Palfrey wrote the book “Born Digital” and has also looked at parenting in the digital age. Both have studied these issues for decades: Hargittai as an internet sociologist at the University of Zurich, and Palfrey as a legal scholar, author and president of the MacArthur Foundation.
The book combines original research with a synthesis of past studies. The original research includes a 2023 survey, split into two parts, of four-thousand adults sixty and older. A second survey included more than two-thousand adults of all ages. More than one-hundred interviews with over-sixties in seven countries between 2018 and 2020 provide color and stories that enliven the survey data. The effort to integrate past research for a book whose main goal is practical rather than scholarly is admirable—more than fifty pages of notes and sources extend back almost to the beginnings of internet social research.
I say the goal is practical; here’s how the authors describe it: “We hope our findings are useful for all readers: older adults themselves, those who care about and for them, and policymakers, who help make essential resources—including technologies—available to all members of society.” To that end, the book is organized by the main challenges and issues of using digital tech effectively: adoption, support, safety, privacy, misinformation, etc. Each chapter looks at how older users are doing and explores the most effective ways to help those who lag behind.
It’s fair to say the results show that over-sixties are generally more active, more skilled and less credulous than the clichés suggest. Among the surprises: Older users are actually less likely than younger users to fall for internet scams. We simply hear more about it because older users tend to lose more money when they do. On the other hand, the belief that elders are more likely to share misinformation online appears to be grounded in fact—although only a small percentage do so, fewer than one in ten.
There are a few areas I would have loved to hear more about. Elsewhere, Hargittai has shared results that show internet skills show no significant difference between young and old up until age seventy. More on skills here would be welcome. Some research has suggested that awareness is the biggest barrier to successful adoption and use of digital technologies—you can’t use what you don’t know about. While it’s good to learn about all the challenges and how to address them, where are the biggest leverage points?
On balance, however, Hargittai and Palfrey do an excellent job of making academic research relevant and useful to a general audience. As a member of the target population myself, I found the later chapters on misinformation, wellness and learning to be the richest. Those in roles to help older users might find the earliest chapters on adoption and support—and the final chapters with specific advice for each role—the most helpful.
“Wired Wisdom: How to Age Better Online”By Eszter Hargittai and John PalfreyUniversity of Chicago Press, 272 pages
