Explaining the Consumption Technology Acceptance in the Elderly Post-Pandemic: Effort Expectancy Does Not Matter.

Consumer technology has been enormously boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with one of the primary consumers being the elderly. In this scenario, it is necessary to consider the impact of technologies on different older generational cohorts to understand the future of a data-driven digital society fully. This research aims to explain the acceptance of social networking sites, a particular consumer technology, in the post-pandemic elderly population. Data were obtained from 1555 older adults in Chile based on a consumer technology acceptance model. The respondents were grouped according to their technological predisposition and their generation into three groups. Applying a multigroup analysis based on structural equation modelling reveals significant differences in the explanatory variables of the intention and use of this technology between the groups. And more remarkably, the effort expectancy is not statistically significant as a variable to explain this acceptance globally in either of the three groups. There are two principal contributions of this study. First, it shows why adults adopt consumer technology after the pandemic. Second, it validates a classification of elderly adults who use consumption technologies that are useful in understanding the heterogeneity of this phenomenon.

Acceptance of Social Networking Sites by Older People before and after COVID-19 Confinement: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study in Chile, Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB).

This study aims to examine the capacity of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to explain the intention to use social networking sites by older people in two time periods, before and after confinement due to the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as the evolution of effects (paths) over time of TPB's determinants. Based on interviews from samples of 384 and 383 elderly Chilean adults collected before and after confinement, the evolution of the effects (paths) was analysed using the TPB model applying the PLS-SEM technique. The intention to use social networks and its association with three factors were evaluated: attitude toward the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived control over the behaviour. The model explains the intention to use social networks by 27% before confinement, increasing its magnitude to 50% after confinement. After the period of confinement, their attitudes become more significant, their perceptions of control become less important, and social pressures remain permanent in predicting the behaviour. In conclusion, better access and greater use of social networks by older people during the lockdown period increased the predictive strength of the attitude towards these technologies.