Hsin-yi Sandy Tsai

Getting Grandma Online: Are Tablets the Answer for Increasing Digital Inclusion for Older Adults in the U.S.?

Using information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve older adults’ quality of life. ICT use is associated with decreased feelings of loneliness and depression, along with increased feelings of independence and personal growth. However, limited access and low technological self-efficacy are key reasons why some groups, especially older adults, are excluded from being fully engaged in the digital world. In this study, we focus on older adults’ technological self-efficacy, which is related to their actual use of technology and the second level digital divide. Specifically, we examine: (a) how older adults decide to use a new technology, tablet computers; (b) how they conquer the barrier of technological self-efficacy through using tablets; and (c) the impacts of using this new technology in their lives. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with older adults residing in independent living communities in a medium-sized city in the Deep South region of the United States. Observational and enactive learning played important roles for older adults in using tablets. Seeing others use tablets, getting recommendations from family members, or having tablets given to them were the primary reasons they started to use tablet computers. The ease of use feature of tablets helped solve the problem of lacking technological self-efficacy. Using tablets helped increase a sense of connectedness. Tablet computers may be one way to increase digital inclusion among older adults.

Online safety begins with you and me

We explore ways to encourage individuals to follow online safety practices.We test effects of persuasive messaging strategies versus vicarious experience.Importance of tailoring safety strategies to efficacy/experience levels shown. Serious and pervasive threats confront all Internet users. Despite frequent reports of losses due to computer security breaches, many individuals still do not follow basic safety precautions. Understanding the mental processes that motivate users to follow safe practices is key to strengthening this weak link in the security chain. Using protection motivation theory (PMT), a model within the class of social cognitive theories (SCT), we develop and assess the value of interventions strategies to enhance safe online behaviors. Furthermore, we integrate the concept of personal responsibility within the PMT approach to better understand what motivates safe, online behaviors. The online safety interventions were tested using a 2 (intervention strategy: manipulated)i?2 (personal responsibility: manipulated)i?2 (knowledge: measured and blocked), between subjects with random assignment to experimental conditions and online safety behavior intentions as the targeted outcome. Based on SCT principles of behavior change, two intervention strategies were developed, one that semantically explained behaviors, and one that offered the user an enactive mastery exercise. The sample was cross-sectional and representative of Internet users. Results showed a significant three-way interaction effect among personal responsibility, the intervention strategy and prior knowledge. Enhancing a users sense of personal responsibility appears to be a necessary precursor to effective online safety interventions, but not necessarily sufficient; the intervention strategy should match the knowledge level of the user to enhance online safety behaviors. Potential strategies for designing effective online safety messages are discussed.

Social Support and ‘Playing Around’: An Examination of How Older Adults Acquire Digital Literacy with Tablet Computers

This study examines how older adults learn to use tablet computers. Learning to use new technologies can help older adults to be included in today’s digital society. However, learning to use new technologies is not always easy, especially for older adults. This study focuses on how older adults learn to use a specific technology, tablet computers, and the role that social support plays in this process. Data for this project are from 21 in-depth interviews with individuals who own tablet computers. We examine how older adults engage with tablet devices and increase their digital literacy. The findings suggest that, for older adults to start to use tablets, social support plays an important role. In addition, a key way that many participants report gaining expertise with the technology is through “playing around” with the tablets. Suggestions for how to help older adults learn to use new technologies are detailed.

Completion rates and non-response error in online surveys: Comparing sweepstakes and pre-paid cash incentives in studies of online behavior

Abstract This study aims to compare the effects of incentives and contact modes on survey completion rates, and examine how non-response rates might affect the quality of responses in online surveys. Two online surveys with different incentives and contact modes were conducted. In study 1, both pre-paid cash incentives and a sweepstakes offering of equal monetary value were more effective than no incentive but the pre-paid incentive were more effective than the sweepstakes. In study 2, respondents who received a pre-paid cash incentive via postal mail after initially failing to respond to an emailed sweepstakes offer differed from the initial respondents with respect to demographic and psychological characteristics previously found to be important in a widely cited study of social networking. Therefore, non-response error may indeed be a problem in online surveys, at least among those directed to college students and using a common method of recruitment in which offers of sweepstakes drawings are delivered via email. Not only do the levels of variables important to an understanding of online communication vary by survey method, but also the lawful relationships among variables differ between groups recruited by different methods.

Broadband Internet adoption and utilization in the inner city

Examining the efficiency of several technology adoption theories/models.Sufficiency of the social cognitive model of broadband adoption is supported.The SCT model accounts for 52% of the variance in broadband intentions.The SCT model appears to be superior to MATH and UTAUT2.Price sensitivity is a significant predictor of broadband intentions. Factors influencing the adoption and utilization of technology have been extensively studied within a variety of theoretical paradigms but questions about their parsimony and their integrations with and contributions to overarching models of human behavior have been questioned. The present research employed a mail survey of inner city residents of a Midwestern state to analyze the sufficiency of the social cognitive theory (SCT) model of broadband adoption by testing it against variables drawn from the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households, Diffusion of Innovations, and the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Utilization of Technology-2. The variables tested explained little additional variance in broadband intentions after accounting for SCT and demographic variables, arguing for the superior parsimony of the SCT model. Price sensitivity, often overlooked in adoption research, was a significant predictor of broadband intentions and its effect was interpreted through the SCT framework.

Are You What Your Avatar Eats? Health-Behavior Effects of Avatar-Manifested Self-Concept

Drawing on the self-concept activation and goal-priming account of the priming effect, this study examined how self-concept—i.e., ideal self, ought self, and actual self—can be harnessed as a model for avatar customization in digital games to promote healthy-eating behavior. Female participants (N = 133) customized an avatar in a digital game to reflect either the ideal, ought, or actual self. Participants then selected food items for their avatar within the digital game as well as food items for themselves to eat afterward. Results suggest that for participants using an ought-self avatar, the extent to which they were conscious of their health was positively related to healthier food choice both within and after playing the game. No such effect emerged for participants who used an ideal- or actual-self avatar, indicating that participants formed the goal of being healthy only with regard to the ought self. This study demonstrates that avatar customization in a digital game can serve a regulatory function by representing individuals’ duties and responsibilities, thus, causing them to adopt such attributes manifested in their avatar during and after the game.

Generational Differences in Online Safety Perceptions, Knowledge, and Practices

ABSTRACT As Internet usage has proliferated in recent years so have online security threats. Internet users are increasingly susceptible to online security threats. Using a qualitative approach, this study conducted 18 focus groups to examine how three different generations perceive online safety, use coping strategies, and protect themselves online: Silent and GI generation (SGI) (born 1945 or earlier), older Baby Boomers (1946–1954), and Millennials (1977–1992). Results show that although each generation shares a variety of online safety concerns, SGIs and Boomers are more suspicious about online security, have less confidence in their abilities, are uncertain about the effectiveness of protection resources, perform fewer protection behaviors, and are more likely to rely on others’ assistance compared to the Millennial group. Our findings indicate online safety training is needed for all three generations, but especially for older adults. Tailored approaches are suggested to reach different generations.

Dude, where's my avacar? A mixed-method examination of communication in the driving context

Abstract Drivers who feel social closeness with other drivers tend to drive more safely, according to previous research. Given this, we examine how communication in the driving context influences social closeness, drawing from theories of computer-mediated communication, a context with notable similarities to the road. A survey study found that social closeness with others is associated with greater communication comfort and identity expression through the car, but less treatment of the car as a social entity. An interview study provides context and caveats for these generalizations. Together, these studies present implications for near-future social-mobility services relating to safety on the road.

Impacts of the Broadband Telecommunication Opportunities Program in Michigan Urban Communities

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was used to increase broadband adoption and utilization across the United States as part of the economic recovery after the 2008 recession. Part of this act implemented a program called the Broadband Telecommunication Opportunities Program (BTOP), which focused on expanding effective broadband utilization in underserved communities through the development of library-based public computing centers and other educational outreach. This paper reports the results of two waves of surveys of 400 participants each, spanning 18 months, which were conducted in urban communities in Michigan served by libraries participating in a

Measuring Sustainable Broadband Adoption: An Innovative Approach to Understanding Broadband Adoption and Use

6M BTOP grant project to upgrade their public Internet resources. The surveys tracked perceptions of broadband services and their utilization in public libraries, residences, and other community locations. One of the major questions going into this project was whether or not urban poor residents were adopting and utilizing broadband through either a private connection or a public connection. If the former, then results would indicate a similar trend among urban poor as seen in the rest of the world. That is, home adoption of fixed landline broadband connections will be lower in our sample than in more wealthy areas, but mobile adoption of broadband devices and services would be increasing. The second question, with libraries across the U.S. losing funding and reducing hours, would be whether the implementation of programs and new computing centers from the ARRA BTOP increase broadband adoption and utilization leading to economic recovery in these urban poor communities?Over three-fifths of those surveyed as the project drew to a close were aware of the public computing center initiative at their local library, although only about one tenth were active participants. Among those using library computers at the time of the final survey, about a fourth indicated that they had noticed an improvement in library computing facilities. The above findings suggest that, while library access, public computing centers, and broadband awareness increases adoption of broadband at the home and mobile level. Thus, in order to increase broadband use among urban poor, other considerations may need to be adopted in addition to increased outreach and awareness projects about library broadband use.