"Nytta vet jag inte om vi har, men vi har roligt i alla fall"
En studie av äldres IT-användning
The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine the use of IT, that is the Internet and other applications of personal computers, among seniors 65+. It also deals with issues of access to IT for seniors in public libraries. The theoretical background of the study consists of Rogers "Diffusion of innovations", Hektors categories of information activities, and the Swedish IT-commissions categories of motives and prerequisites for the use of IT. The research questions focus on factors motivating the use of IT, the extent and the purposes of IT use, the consequences and the barriers that IT-users experience, and views on IT in public libraries and IT courses, respectively. Qualitative interviews were carried out with nine senior IT-users. The conclusions are that the encouragement of close relatives is a great incentive in becoming an IT-user, as are individual needs, and the urge to keep up with developments in todays society. The extent of IT use varies from person to person. The most popular applications are word-processing, e-mail, and searching the web for information on subjects of personal interest. Search engines are very little used. IT use brings both benefits and pleasure to the user, and transforms negative views of IT into more positive ones. Communication has become more diversified due to e-mail. The use of other media is only partly affected by the use of IT. Many types of barriers exist; the most essential ones are lack of IT knowledge and memory deficiencies. The seniors are positive to the introduction of IT in public libraries, but negative to using it regularly there. IT courses are often held at a pace that is too rapid for seniors and groups are often too large and diversified.