比較台灣與愛沙尼亞: 65歲以上年長者使用智慧型手機行為 - 政大學術集成

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(1)International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies National Chengchi University 國際傳播英語碩士學位學程碩士班國立政治大學. Master’s dissertation. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SMARTPHONE USAGE AMONG THE ELDERS AGED 65 AND ABOVE IN TAIWAN AND ESTONIA 比較台灣與愛沙尼亞: 65歲以上年長者使用智慧型手機行為. Student: Siiri Sommer Advisor: Wang Sumei. July 2017.

(2) Table of Contents 1.Introduction. 3. 2.Literature review. 7. 2.1 Communication technologies and smartphone rise in society worldwide 2.1.1 Communication technology usage in Taiwan. 8 10. 2.1.2 Communication technology usage in Estonia. 12. 2.2 How consumers use the smartphones?. 15. 2.3 Older adults and technology usage. 20. 2.4 Services offered for elderly smartphone users. 24. 2.5 Cross-cultural research. 26. 3. Research Questions. 36. 4. Pilot study. 36. 5. Research Method. 36. 5.1 Estonian participants. 38. 5.2 Taiwanese participants. 45. 5.3 Similarities between Taiwanese and Estonian participants. 51. 5.4 Differences between Taiwanese and Estonian participants. 54. 5. 5 Why do older adults aged 65 and over have chosen to use the smartphone?. 58. 5. 6 What content are they consuming on their devices?. 60. 5. 7 How and with whom are older adults communicating on their smartphones?. 61. 5. 8 What positive and adverse effects has using smartphones brought to elderly people's’ lives? 1.

(3) 61 APPENDIX 1. Interview questions.. 64. APPENDIX 2. Results of interviews with Estonian Participants. 67. APPENDIX 3. Results of interviews with Taiwanese Participants. 91. References. 116. 2.

(4) 1.Introduction In the modern world, smartphones have increasingly become an integral part of our everyday lives. Whether it is for communicating with friends or family, reading the news, using applications for entertainment or practical use - smartphones seldom leave the owner’s sides. For most people checking their smartphone is the first task in the morning and the last task at night before closing their eyes. When it comes to the newest technologies, especially for smartphones, marketing and promotion is usually targeted towards the younger generation. This age group is often classified as the typical consumer mainly because they enjoy buying the newest gadgets, but sometimes they do so in order not to feel left out. When it comes to the older generations, specifically the elderly who grew up without a lot of technology or Web 2.0, consumption of such gadgets is not as high compared to the younger generations. The reasons for this can vary from one individual to another, although, some general assumptions can be made.. The actual aging process depends on an individual’s lifestyle, environment and genetics. (Govindaraju, 2015) In general, people aged 65 and above are more likely to develop health related problems that can affect their physical or cognitive abilities to use the new technologies, such as smartphones. For example, sight and hearing diminish, reflexes slow down, and there might be decline in motor function among the elderly. (Cliffnotes, 2016) As smartphones are highly sensitive, react fast once you touch them, and often have small script, it can become challenging for an older generation.. Growing up in Estonia, I am used to the fact that the elderly are usually not able to use any technological devices like computers or smartphones. However, in recent times this has changed - according to Statistics Estonia, last year around 54% of people aged 65+ were able to use the internet (2016), and International Technologies News of Estonia has published a finding showing. 3.

(5) that 40% of them owned a smartphone (Lilleorg, 2016). This figure of 40 percent seems high because one is rarely able to witness an elderly person using smartphones in public. Older people generally prefer the older models of phones instead. The most common reason for the preference towards classic mobile phones is that the older phones have physical buttons, they are durable, and they have the most important functions - calling and messaging.. Taking a picture, or a selfie, with a phone, is not that common among the elderly in Estonia. The selfie culture is already rooted in the younger generations, but for the older generations, the only way to take a picture is with a camera. Pictures are taken only on special occasions, like birthdays or other celebrations, and with a digital camera or even older models.. In Taiwan, however, the smartphone culture is different from anything I have ever seen in Estonia or much of continental Europe. One can often see elderly ladies happily taking selfies with their smartphones and then promising to send them to each other through various social media platforms, e.g. Facebook, Line. After living here for more than two years and seeing numerous situations like this, I am convinced that the Taiwanese elderly are much more open to the digital world than the elderly of Estonia.. This phenomenon elicited my interest and led me to the idea of conducting cross-cultural research about smartphone usage among the Taiwanese and Estonian elderly. The first purpose of this study is to find out why elderly use smartphones and for what. Secondly, it is to examine the differences and similarities in smartphone usage between elderly in Taiwan and Estonia. Mainly, I would like to know whether my assumptions about Taiwanese elderly being more tech-savvy than Estonian elderly are correct. From the interview questions, it will be easy to understand if elderly people in these two countries have differences or similarities when it comes to smartphone usage.. Both countries are different in quite a few aspects, considering that one of them is located in Asia 4.

(6) while the other in Europe. In Taiwan, society is still quite collectivistic, while in Estonia, people value individualism; Taiwan, like other countries in East-Asia, have people that worship religions like Buddhism and Taoism, while Estonia is one of the most atheist countries in Europe. However, they still have similarities that make this research comparable; both of them have a history of being under foreign occupation for extended periods of time. For Taiwan, it was Mainland China while for Estonia it was Russia. Both countries had been suppressed for a long time, but both of them worked hard to become known in the world despite their size and history. Taiwan has become technologically very well known, for example one-third of the world’s computers are made here (Taiwan Ratings, 2015), and everyone knows brands like Asus, Acer, and HTC. Estonia has become a digital society as well and has contributed to the world with different startups and e-solutions despite the size of its population (more on p. 5). For example, E-residency is offered by Estonia to foreigners to ease people doing their own business without leaving their homes. The success of this project was followed by many other countries that are creating similar systems.. I believe this research might be an interesting addition to other research out there that has been dealing with smartphone usage among the elderly worldwide. I am hoping to find out if my assumptions about the smartphone usage in both of these countries are valid or not. Also, I hope 5.

(7) that it could give smartphone designers more information about elderly consumers and the features that typical smartphones lack that could to make more older people use them. 2.Literature review. The literature review is divided into five chapters. The first chapter introduces communication technologies and the rise of smartphone usage worldwide while also looking at the technology usage in Taiwan and Estonia. The second section concentrates on the smartphone usage by the consumers, while the third chapter looks specifically into the habits of the elderly using technology. The fourth chapter describes some services that are offered to elderly individuals using smartphones. Fifth and the last chapter of the literature review observes the cross-cultural part of Taiwan and Estonia from the theoretical part and also from my personal experiences. The purpose of the literature review is to assemble previous findings that have been conducted in the past, and to gain more knowledge about how the elderly use technology. The literature review will give the reader the necessary background about the usage patterns and possible trends. As our society becomes more smartphone friendly, it will be interesting to see how the older generation has kept up with new trends, what kind of hardships they might encounter and what benefits they can receive by using the newest technology.. 6.

(8) 2.1 Communication technologies and smartphone rise in society worldwide When we start tracking back the history of communication methods, we can go back as far as 3500 BC when first traces of pictographs were recorded by Sumers or fast forward to the 19th century to the invention of first telephones, radios, and computers (Fang, 1995-1996). Over time these technologies have been improved tremendously, and they have become an inseparable part of our lives. When it comes to the internet, by the end of 2016, 53% of the world’s population (3.9 billion people) still don’t have access to the internet. The areas with the most non-connected users are found in Africa (75% of people) while the most connected people are in Europe (over 79%). In Asia and the Pacific, the percentage of individuals being offline is 58.1%. (ITU, 2016) But for those who are connected, they also have bigger demands for the new technologies, therefore, the smaller and more compact new devices are made. Presumptively, this is how they came up with the idea to put many functions together and to create the smartphone.. The first smartphone hit the market 24 years ago in 1993. IBM Simon was part mobile phone, part PDA, part pager and part fax machine. It also had programs, or as we refer to them today as apps, such as a calendar, calculator, and address book. From 1996 to 2006 smartphones have developed rapidly, led primarily by a Finnish enterprise, NOKIA. A major revolution in mobile phone design came in 2007 when the company Apple launched the first smartphones featuring a multi-touch interface in their first iPhone (Bitrebels, 2011). From that point on, smartphones were not just devices certain people had, such as business personnel, they had become a part of everyone’s daily life.. This can be attributed to the dramatic rise in mobile network coverage across the world's population from 2007 to 2016 shown in figure 1 (ITU, 2016).. 7.

(9) Figure 1. Source: The International Telecommunication Union, 2016. At the same time, figure 2 shows smartphone usage in percentages worldwide. From 2014 to 2016, the percentage of smartphone users has grown every year by around 5%, and for 2017-2020 the percentage is expected to increase steadily (eMarketer. June 2016). percentage is expected to increase steadily (eMarketer. June 2016).. 8.

(10) Figure 2. Source: Emarketer, 2016. 9.

(11) 2.1.1 Communication technology usage in Taiwan Although Taiwan is a tiny island in East Asia, especially compared next to China, its populace has shown massive participation in the adoption of mobile technology. At the core of Taiwan’s technological evolution is its national high-tech manufacturing industries that produce about ⅓ of the world’s computers and half of the world’s LCD’s (liquid crystal displays) and they are also the second largest producers of LED (light emitting diode) screens in the world. (PRNewswire, 2016) Taiwan is also a home to some big brands like Asus, HTC, Acer, and D-Link. Asus and HTC were among the top 50 corporations in Taiwan in 2014 (Taiwan Ratings, 2015). Consequently, the major high-tech companies including Asus, HTC, and Acer are also major producers of mobile technologies such as tablets and smartphones. In 2015, 88% of the 24 million habitats in Taiwan possessed internet connection (CIA Factbook, 2015) and the most used device for browsing the web was the smartphone (see figure 3) (eMarketer. November 2015).. Figure 3. Source: Emarketer, 2015 The other statistics show smartphone users and the penetration now and the estimated numbers up to 2019 among the countries in the Asia-Pacific. It is important to note the differences between technological penetration and a state population. Although Taiwan’s population of 24 10.

(12) million is easily dwarfed when compared to China’s 1.3 billion, Taiwanese smartphone user penetration percentage is proportionally higher, in second place, while China sits at 7th (figure 4.1, 4.2) (eMarketer. September, 2015). The figure mentioned above is showing that the Taiwanese are presumably very tech-savvy compared to some other Asian countries.. Figure 4.1. Source: Emarketer, 2015. 11.

(13) Figure 4.2. Source: Emarketer, 2015 In addition to the big corporations like HTC or Asus, the younger generation in Taiwan is also trying to contribute to information and communication technologies by entering the startup market, for example, there is an app called Colorgy that is made by and for university students. The primary purpose of the app is to make new friends, but what makes Colorgy different from other apps is the way chatting is constructed. When two people first start to talk, their pictures are blurred, but the more they chat, the more visible the picture becomes. (Colorgy, 2016) This student company started with just six people in their team, and now, less than a year later, their team consists of more than 20 people and they are gaining more popularity in the market.. 12.

(14) 2.1.2 Communication technology usage in Estonia In 2015, 88 percent of the population among 16-74-year-olds used the internet. This user rate is significantly higher when compared to the average in the Europe Union at 79%. From 2014, this number has risen 4%. 16-54-year-olds used the internet most frequently, among them the usage was 90%. Older adults who were 55-64 years old had a utilization rate of 76% and the percentage for those aged 65-74 years was 54% (Statistics Estonia, 2016). Also, according to research made in 2014, around 60% of Estonians own a smartphone. Considering that in July 2016, Estonians bought 33,400 new smartphones, we can estimate that smartphone penetration rate among the population of 1.3 million is quite high and has risen greater than 60% by now. (TNS Emor, 2014). Estonia is labeled a startup-heaven according to AngelList, a website that aims to connect investors with entrepreneurs. There are currently 418 active start-ups in Estonia, which is the highest in Europe per capita. These include Skype, Pipedrive, and Transferwise, for example. (AngelList, 2016) Besides having the title of a startup heaven, Estonia carries another name: “e-Estonia”. ‘e’ represents ‘electronic’ since the Estonian e-economy is becoming internationally recognized for it. All Estonian schools have access to the internet, and free Wi-Fi is available in most public places around the country. Around 90% of the country's residents file income tax returns online. Cabinet meetings have been paperless since the year 2000. Doctors only issue prescriptions electronically. Estonians can vote online and sign legal documents even from a smartphone. The ID-card system has been evolved whereby virtually every bureaucratic assignment can be performed online. (e-Estonia, 2016). Estonia is carrying the ‘E-Estonia’ name, and the government has been actively encouraging its primary school children to be trained and well-versed in coding and information technology systems. More and more schools are using computers, tablets, and smartphones to teach lessons. An Estonian Government national study plan was accepted in 2014 for middle school students 13.

(15) highlighting the importance of a “digital competence” curriculum that schools are supposed to offer their students. According to the study plan students learn to use digital technology based on a fast changing society, communications with different communities, and also must possess the competence to protect their privacy and digital identity (Vabariigi Valitsus, 2014). At the moment there are around 370 public schools in Estonia offering ITC classes among them programming and robotics. (Nael M., 2016) In addition to financial support teachers also receive practical help from the government, for example, there are teaching materials available on a web platform called Progetiiger. This government funded web page is meant to be a teacher’s lesson plan for instructions with programming, robotics, 3D design, smartphone apps and multimedia. (Progetiiger, 2016) Another important supporter of young IT kids is a non-profit organization called Eesti 2.0 which has noted on their web page that they “aim to inspire the next generation of Estonians to choose a future in technology by providing students with a different technological tool and offering them ideas to apply these techniques.” (Eesti 2.0, 2016) They have conducted projects among one of them was giving 50 schools in Estonia 3D printers (Lakson P., 2015). Evidence of the practical effort from the Estonian Government to indoctrinate their students with ICT training is found in the number of student company startups. Making a student company has become familiar for the latest generation of young adults, and many great startups have continued to thrive. For example one of the most recent ones is GetWeps, which was created by two 19-year-olds. The startup’s app promises to create a website within 2 minutes automatically. With this tool, anyone or any potential startup can make quickly their company web page without having to pay to outsource the process. For maintaining your website, GetWeps is offering annual and monthly plans with prices 6.99€ (~234 NTD) and 9.99€ (~335 NTD) respectively. (GetWeps, 2016). Although knowing about how the Estonian government is helping the younger generation to be more tech-savvy might not seem to be related to the older generation in a direct way, I believe it 14.

(16) does have importance. It is important to know that all the technology advancements Estonia has had, have been occurring around the past ten years which means that a lot of people are affected when it comes to the new technology in Estonia. That is especially true for adults aged 65 and over, who never had these chances to learn, to begin with making their adapting process slower and even more interesting to conduct the survey with them. 2.2 How consumers use the smartphones? We all know someone who is an avid smartphone user. In the past, it was apparent that the classic mobile phones were used for calling and messaging. With new technology, options for usage are indefinite. In my observation, the smartphone ‘addiction’ can be observed in younger people. A research was done to millennials, and it was discovered that 80% of the people asked admitted using their smartphone first thing in the morning and 87% said that their phone never leaves their side. Millennials also pointed out the importance of the camera on their smartphone to 91% it was important to have a camera on their device, and to 61% it was crucial. (Zogby, 2014) In another research conducted it was found that people check their smartphone around 150 times on average. (Kleiner, 2013). In addition to the fact that we keep checking our phones very frequently throughout the day, we also spend a lot of hours on it. For example, it has been found that an average person in the United Kingdom is going online for almost two hours per day with their smartphone, (Ofcom, 2015) and that 10 percent of people aged 18-44 are looking at their phone first thing immediately after waking up. Sixty-nine percent of individuals admitted doing that within a half an hour of waking time. Similarly, for over half of the smartphone users, the last check up on the phone happens within 30 minutes before going to the sleep; a quarter of them would check their smartphone five minutes before, and 10 percent would check it immediately before bedtime. (Deloitte UK, 2016) In the United States the percentage of people looking at their smartphone first thing in the morning is 18, and within half an hour it rises to 76 percent. Before sleep, smartphone owners in the United States are quite similar to those in the United Kingdom: 68 15.

(17) percent does it within 30 minutes before going to sleep, over half of them five minutes before and 15 percent of users check their phone immediately before sleep. (Deloitte US, 2016). Considering the above and knowing that an average person spends a significant portion of the day on screen time for their smartphone there is a question that to what exactly do these people devote their time. The earlier mentioned research by Ofcom found out that those who have access to 4G broadband are doing more things on their smartphones (see figure 5.) than those who do not. For example, instant messaging (63% of 4G users compared with 50% of non-4G users), watching TV and video clips (57% versus 40%), banking (55% versus 33%) and sending videos and photos via text (49% versus 36%). (Ofcom, 2015). When it comes to seniors in Europe, not a lot of research has been done about their smartphone consumption. However, there are some exceptions. For example, Italy is a very smartphone user-friendly country in Europe among all ages, was an outcome of. a survey conducted in 2015. The study. discovered that Italy has the highest percentage of user activities compared to an average European. For example, they take more pictures, browse social media sites and read the news more than in the EU on average (see figure 6). (Deloitte, 2015) The “average European” is put together by the Deloitte statistics since they are doing annual statistics about most European countries.. 16.

(18) Figure 6. Source: Deloitte, 2015. Since the communication has always been a fundamental concept of a phone, they were interested to find out how using a smartphone will change the way people connect with each other. Results varied by age but it was determined that the most popular way to communicate with young adults aged 18-34 was using instant messaging, while adults aged 35-44 and older adults aged 55-65+ preferred regular voice calls. Besides these categories, they also listed out text messages, social networks, and email. (Deloitte, 2015) Elderly people may use or not use smartphones for different reasons; the “new” elderly are more likely to use technology than elderly people who were older when the internet and newer technology emerged.. As mentioned above, the most popular communication method in Italy in the age group 65 and over was voice calls; however, in the conducted survey, the researchers realized that the usage percentage has been declining within that year. When in 2014, 88 percent of elderly would use 17.

(19) voice calls to communicate, in 2015 it had decreased to 82 percent. Similarly, in 2014, 74 percent of elderly communicated through text messaging but in 2015 only 64 percent continued doing that. Although some of these statistics have been decreasing, other forms of communication have been increasing. For example, older adults have started to use more instant messaging and social networks that the usage for both has grown 11 and 10 percent respectively. (Deloitte, 2015) These numbers could be real indicators that people aged 65 and over increasingly think that for them there is no problem to integrate into the internet world that often is seen only for the younger generations.. Next, Deloitte tried to find out what are the other uses of smartphone among the elderly. The results showed that the primary uses of the smartphone for them were taking photos, reading the news, researching things online, using social networks and checking their bank balance (figure 7). (Deloitte, 2015) Although in Estonia the elderly are not maybe that avid for social networking, but bank solutions are widely used by everyone. The reason behind this is that in Estonia online banking is very efficient and convenient. There is a smartphone application one can to see the balance change after minutes of a transaction.. Figure 7. Source: Deloitte, 2015. 18.

(20) In the United Kingdom, researchers tried to find out ten most frequently used applications. They found that the most commonly used smartphone application is the weather app (56%), followed by the social networking apps (55%) and navigation system (54%). Out of ten, online shopping was used only by 22 percent of people, indicating that this activity is more popular to be done by using the web browser (see more on figure 8). The majority of respondents also concluded that the highest amount of applications they have on their phone is 20, although the average is 11 to 20 apps. Only 10 percent of them had downloaded 30 or more applications. (Deloitte UK, 2016). Figure 8. Source: Deloitte UK, 2016 In Southeast Asia for example, Deloitte did an excellent survey that involved 5000 respondents in rural and urban areas. They found out that the three most frequently used smartphone applications in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines in 2016 were social networks, messaging and 19.

(21) gaming respectively. Singaporean respondents mostly preferred messaging apps, followed by gaming and social networks. In Thailand gaming gained the first place, followed by social networking and messaging. In general, the most frequent activities across Southeast Asia were taking photos, sharing photos, sharing videos, watching videos, social networking, and gaming. (Deloitte, 2017) 2.3 Older adults and technology usage New generations grow up with the internet and all kinds of different gadgets while the older generations now aged 65 and over did not encounter it until their adulthood. Marc Prencky has used a term called “digital natives” (p. 1) for the younger generations, who have spent most, if not all, of their life skillfully forming the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet. The people who were not born into a digital world, but adapted it into their lives later on, are “digital immigrants” (p. 2). According to Prencky, no matter how well digital immigrants master using the digital information they will always be immigrants because they will always have an “accent.” Prencky explains that this generation will use the internet as a secondary resource instead because they have used a different method for acquiring information. (Prencky, M; 2001) As Web 2.0 became more widely used in the past 30 years, the Prencky. term “digital. immigrants” can be applied to anyone who was not born into the internet age but instead is adapting it into their lives later on. This can be apparent even more clearly among older adults, aged 65 and above, mainly because they not only belong to the “immigrants” of the digital world, but also their ability to learn and adapt to new things becomes increasingly difficult with age. For example, when a member of the younger generations will turn to Google for the moment it is needed to acquire new information, the “digital immigrant” might try to find the same information from books instead. Being in this “immigrant” status, however, once these people aged 65 and over will adapt at least slightly with the digital world, they would probably appreciate it more than the younger generations that were born into it. This is especially due to the convenience and the speed of getting a new knowledge literally about anything in the world. 20.

(22) Whether or not older adults want to use smartphones and other gadgets varies on culture and the individual. From my personal observation, I have seen a difference between Asian and Western cultures, such that certain Asian cultures’ older adults might be able to accept new technology faster and more keenly than their counterparts in Western countries. This difference has been readily observed in the public spaces and also in my personal connections in Taiwan and Estonia. For example, in Estonia, it is rather rare to see a senior taking a selfie with a smartphone while in Taiwan it is a daily occurrence.. Technology usage can help people with feelings of loneliness and make them feel more integrated into society. While being lonely is not a problem only for older adults, older people are more likely to be in this situation as the result of widowing, children living far away and other related issues, which can lead to feelings of depression. (Singh, 2015) Among the many platforms of social media that are widely targeted at the younger generations, there are also some that are specially made for reducing the loneliness felt by seniors. For example, there is Stitch, an Australian based social network founded in 2014, which is trying to help people 50 years old and above to find companionship, travel partners or people with whom to join for different activities. (Stitch, 2016) In America, for example, 82 percent of 65-year-old and older users saw owning a smartphone as “freeing” and “connecting” instead of as a “leash” and “distracting,” which were the answers to many of their younger counterparts. (Pew Research Center, 2015). If technology is designed to be simple and easier to use, there is a greater likelihood for the elderly to join the digital world. Too small and complicated devices can exclude older adults from using them mainly because of physiological reasons. The research conducted about health devices (that involve screens) meant for older adults (2014) pointed out some perceptual changes that come with aging. One of the mentioned changes related to vision and how people might encounter loss of visual sensitivity as they age. Loss of vision could create difficulties reading scrolling text on the device; reading small, or poorly weighted fonts; distinguishing between 21.

(23) similarly shaped software icons on screens, etc. The second problem can occur when our touch sensation in our fingers is diminishing. The studies found that “as a person ages, the tactile thresholds of various modalities such as light touch, vibrations sense, spatial acuity, and pain are increased.” (p.258) (Harte; Glynn, 2014) Smartphones are made to react quickly, but an aging person’s sensation of touch is slowing down, therefore making it a possible problem for the elderly when they use smartphones. I have encountered an older adult trying to use the touch screen, but in that case, she held her fingers on the screen for too long, which resulted in the device not performing the task that she intended.. When it comes to older adults using phones, one can predict that seniors will use the basic phone features the most. This is also backed up by research completed in Hong Kong and Finland, (K.Chen, 2013; V. L.Vuong, 2013) where they realized that some of the most frequently used functions by older adults were the basic ones - calling and messaging for example. According to Pew Research Center survey, the American elderly use smartphones for a small range of purposes, such as calling and emailing. (2015). Many statistics from different countries reveal the percentage of the older adults aged 65 and over who own and use a smartphone. These rates from around the world listed from highest to the lowest are stated in figure 9. Without a doubt, these statistics must be scrutinized because most statistics are not able to get the information of all the population. However, it still gives an estimated overlook of the elderly smartphone penetration in these particular countries.. 22.

(24) Figure 9. Source: Emarketer, 2014. Among these nine countries, Norway with its GDP 68,400USD per capita (CIA FactBook, 2015), had 48% of older adults using smartphones in 2013 (eMarketer) while Mexico, with its GDP 17,500USD per capita (CIA FactBook, 2015), scored only 3.1% in 2014 (Emarketer). In Taiwan, according to the most recent survey, around 47 percentage of population aged 65 and over are using mobile messaging apps. (The China Post, 2016) In Estonia, it is estimated that by now around 40% of older adults over 65 years old in Estonia own a smartphone, and this percentage is expected to rise higher in 2016. (Lilleorg, 2016). 23.

(25) 2.4 Services offered for elderly smartphone users The aging population in the world is growing with every year, in 2015 8% of the world population is 65 years and above. It is also estimated that before 2020 this age group will be bigger than the percentage of children under the age of five. (The World Bank, 2016) For example, Taiwan, being the 55th most populated country in the world with the population over 23 million people has a rate of older adults from 65 years and over at 13.07 percent. (male 1,408,367/female 1,657,443) (2016 est.) (CIA Factbook) By contrast, Estonia is ranked 159th most populated country with a population as little as 1.3 million. Older adults, 65 years and over, make up 19.47% (male 82,968/female 162,114) from all of the population (2016 est.) (CIA Factbook). Since the amount of older adults in the world is increasing while birth rates are decreasing many companies have begun designing smartphones for seniors. These smartphones would make the user experience for older adults convenient and simpler compared to regular smartphones on the market. Examples of these companies are Doro and E2C, which are based in Europe and Israel/USA respectively. Both of the phone companies stress the fact that their smartphones directed to older adults have easy access to the most important things for them, which includes mostly keeping in touch with the loved ones and having safe buttons in the case of an emergency. (Doro; E2C, 2016). E2C was started in Israel but has carried its market to the USA by now with the idea to bring the core of a smartphone to the older adults who are suffering the effects of aging such as problems with hearing, vision, and memory. One problem seniors usually have with a touch screen is that the phones react faster than they do. E2C, however, has a long touch screen which means its reaction time is slower than on regular smartphones. This makes it easier for seniors to use their phone. The phone also has emergency features that are proven to be very useful. For example, it has an SOS button that connects with a chosen family member if you press on it. Another very 24.

(26) useful feature is that the older adult can decide to have a family member access their phone if needed. For example, they would receive a notification if the battery of the senior’s phone is running low and then break into their phone, which will turn it into a walkie-talkie, therefore helping to connect with loved one immediately and make sure they are doing fine. (Weinglass, 2015). Besides having direct help buttons, there is also an indirect way to help older adults keep track of their health. There are health care clouds that are used by healthcare providers all over the world to provide and back up the peoples’ personal health information. (HealthIT, 2016) From my experience, I can say that compared to Estonia, Taiwanese healthcare is very cheap and affordable for nearly everyone, especially when one is part of the National Health Insurance. That is probably one of the reasons why you can see people always visiting a doctor when they might only have slight concerns. For example, in general Estonian people would not go see a doctor with mild symptoms of a cold (a runny nose) and they would try to treat themselves either by over-the-counter medicine or naturally. In Taiwan, however, I have experienced that people will see the doctor for everything. Therefore patient’s access to the healthcare cloud is an excellent way to keep track of their health and medical history and to remind them to take their medicine, for example. This would be particularly useful for older adults.. 2.5 Cross-cultural research Culture has a crucial part of how people use technology and what role it plays in their lives. Definitions of culture can be many, but Geert Hofstede has defined national culture as the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes one group or category of people from another. (Hofstede, 2010). This research will be using Hofstede national culture theory to view the habits of smartphone usage among Taiwanese and Estonian elderly. Geert Hofstede is a Dutch professor who is the 25.

(27) founder of a comparative intercultural research and who was the first to develop national culture dimensions (Hofstede, 2010). These six dimensions include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, long vs. short term orientation and indulgence vs. restraint, which he measured for different countries using a score from 1 to 100 (Hofstede, 2011). Hofstede cultural theory has been used in many studies before to find relations between culture and technology (Böhm, 2015; Arpaci, 2015, Willis 2015, Straub, 1997).. This chapter below elaborates on the similarities Taiwan and Estonia according to Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture. I will shortly introduce each factor and will also look at what are the scores for all those six dimensions in Taiwan and Estonia. In addition I will have a look in historical, cultural and economic areas with a help of personal observations and experiences.. 1. Power distance Power distance is related to acceptance and expectancy by less influential members of society to unequal power distribution. Power distance looks into the legitimacy of power; hierarchy and government; distributions on salaries; how subordinates are treated; parents-children and the teacher-student relationship. (Hofstede, 2011) Taiwan scored 58, revealing that Taiwanese society is hierarchical. The hierarchical order is accepted and not questioned. Estonia scored 40 in this measurement, indicating that Estonians do not always obey people of higher status just because they are hierarchically on a higher level. It is to be highlighted, however, that sometimes Estonia can score higher power distance points because Estonia has been independent of the Soviet Union for just over 25 years, so among the older generations, the hierarchy system is followed more because they are often still following the Soviet mindset. (Hofstede, 2016). 2. Uncertainty avoidance 26.

(28) Uncertainty avoidance is related to how the society is replying to the uncertain situations in life. It displays how comfortable or uncomfortable society members feel in unexpected circumstances. Uncertainty avoidance looks into how people deal with jobs (are they working on a job even if they dislike it); what are the views on “different” from the ordinary; their stress/anxiety levels. Also, it looks into how citizen see themselves in politics compared to authorities; their emotional need to follow the rules in society; and what are the beliefs when it comes to religion, philosophy, and science. (Hofstede, 2011) In uncertainty avoidance, Taiwan scored 69 and Estonia 60 which means that the both countries would rather avoid uncertain situations than embrace them in the society. People in the countries with higher expectancy for the avoidance of uncertainty have an emotional need for rules, even if sometimes the rules are not followed. People tend to work harder; innovation might be resisted, punctuality is a norm and expected. (Hofstede, 2016) From my personal observation, I could say that in the case of Estonia it is mostly true, although innovation is encouraged more and more in the recent ten years than it used to be in the past. Estonians and Taiwanese equally work hard and like to be busy, but again, from what I see they do have a different approach to this. While Taiwanese work long overtime hours, Estonians try to work hard but more intensively to finish more things in a shorter time.. 3. Individualism vs. collectivism Individualism and collectivism are two opposite characteristics to society. In individualistic countries ties with family are not as high as in collectivistic countries. In individualistic countries, one is expected to take care of the immediate family, but not the extended family while in collectivistic countries it is also often expected to take care of your extended family like grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. Individualistic society favors opinion and voting; privacy; speaking one’s mind, the consciousness of “oneself”; education focuses on learning how to learn. At the other side, collectivism sees it more necessary to belong to a group; maintain harmony instead of speaking your mind; consciousness of “we” is favored; education is focusing on learning how to do. (Hofstede, 2011) 27.

(29) Taiwan is a collectivistic society with a score of 17 on the Hofstede scale. Family, as well extended family is important to the people, and it is followed very strictly. Estonia got a score of 60 and is an individualistic country. Estonians believe that everyone should have the right to do their own thing and to reach to their personal fulfillment. Honesty and directness are respected in the society while communicating. (Hofstede, 2016) People in Estonia do not like small-talk, so sometimes Estonians might seem rude to the people from “small talk” countries, when in reality they just like to speak when there is something to say. There is a proverb in Estonian that says “speaking is silver, silence is gold.” Therefore being honest and direct is well appreciated and expected. Apparently in Taiwan there is a similar sentence. I have experienced in Taiwan that people sometimes are indirect to help others “save face” while sometimes even being dishonest. When it comes to the family ties, the kids in Estonia are expected to become independent early on. Usually, kids leave their parents after graduating high school, and even if they have not achieved financial independence, all members of society are rather living apart than living together with large communities with extended families. However, from my personal experience, I have noticed how many families in Taiwan live together with their grandparents and parents even after getting married. In the cases when the grownup kid is not living together with parents, they would still support the family monthly financially even when the parents are not necessarily in need for it.. 4. Masculinity vs. femininity This dimension is related to the division of emotional roles between women and men in the society. The core values of feminine culture are caring for others, where the quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not considered admirable. (Hofstede, 2016) Both genders are expected to be modest and caring; it is important to balance work and family, sympathize the weak; and both parents deal with the facts and feelings in the family. Also crying among genders is allowed but fighting is not; mothers can decide the number of children she wants to have; and there are many women who are elected to political positions. (Hofstede, 28.

(30) 2011) In masculine society, people are competing for success when success means that you are the winner or the best in what you are doing. (Hofstede, 2016) Men are expected to be, and women may be, more confident and have strong determination; work is often more important than family; active people are admired. Also in the family the mother takes care of the feelings while the father deals with the facts; girls are allowed to cry and are said not to fight, boys should not cry but fight back instead; fathers have the right to decide the size of the family; fewer women are elected to political positions. (Hofstede, 2011) In this dimension, a higher score means the country is more masculine while a lower score means more feminine. Taiwan scored 45 points, which puts the country’s society slightly more on the feminine side. It means that Taiwanese people are focusing on “working to live, ” and for example, equality and solidarity are valued in their working lives. Estonia is also a feminine society with a score of 17 points. If Estonians achieve something, they will not show it off, and they let the results to speak for themselves instead. Estonians likewise to the Taiwanese try to avoid conflict and keep communication peaceful.. 5. Long vs. short-term orientation Long-term orientation societies are expecting the most important events to occur in the future; they expect a right person to adapt to specific situations, traditions are adaptable, and even the sense of being good or bad depends on a situation; people try to learn from other countries; savings and investment is necessary. Short-term orientation societies are the opposite: the most important events have happened either in the past or are currently taking place. Also, stability is considered to be a virtue of a good person; difference between good and bad is clearly highlighted and is not changeable; one is expected to be proud of one’s country; social spending and consumption is considered a norm. (Hofstede, 2011) Taiwan and Estonia scored both highly on this dimension, 93 and 82 respectively, making these societies long-term orientated. According to this Taiwan can apply traditions to the modern society and there is also strong urge for saving and investing. Estonia likewise firmly believes in 29.

(31) investments and adapting their traditions depending on the circumstances. (Hofstede, 2016) According to my observation, both of these countries are trying hard to get better by looking at other countries and getting inspiration from there. For example, although Taiwanese independence is not supported by many countries, they are trying to stress on the cultural relations instead; and in Estonia, they are trying to be more international because it is known that a small country can not prevail alone.. 6. Indulgence vs. restraint Indulgence is referring to the society that lets its members enjoy life and follow their desires while the control means how society controls and regulates the social norms. In the culture that favors indulgence, there is higher percentage of people considering themselves to be jubilant; people stress more importance on leisure time. Also, people more often remember positive instead of negative emotions; when the population is educated they tend to have higher birthrates as well and freedom of speech is considered to be important. In the society that is more restrained, however, less people will find themselves to be jubilant; leisure is not seen as highly valuable. Also, people are more likely not to remember the positive emotions; when the population is educated they also tend to have lower birthrates and freedom of speech does not have the highest priority. (Hofstede, 2011) In this dimension, Estonia scored 16, which makes the country to have a very restraint society where people do not feel it is necessary or a right to indulge. This also reflects on negative birth rates, mentioned in the next chapter where I discuss my personal observations. Taiwan scored 49 which would mean that this dimension is not dominating the society, it is rather in the middle of restraint and indulgent. (Hofstede, 2016) Although birthrate is low in Taiwan and people here put work ahead of fun most of the time, the government has provided many possibilities and places where people can enjoy the leisure time: many riverside parks, affordable public bike service in Taipei or hiking trails to name a few.. Although Taiwan is a collectivistic society while Estonia is individualistic, and Estonians do not 30.

(32) obey hierarchy as often as Taiwanese, they are both feminine cultures with a long-term orientation and high uncertainty avoidance.. Figure 10 Source: Hofstede Official Webpage, 2016 2.5.1 Similarities from my observation. After finding out that Taiwanese and Estonians both tend to avoid uncertain situations in life; that they are long-term orientated and are a feminine society, there are more similarities than what I have noticed while living in Taiwan for almost three years now.. To begin with the elderly people population aged 65 and over in Taiwan and Estonia is quite big. Both of these countries are considered aging, and the elderly population is increasing steadily over time. As of 2016, Taiwan’s older people are forming over 13 percent of the population and Estonia reaches to 19.5 percent. Population growth rate in Estonia, however, is negative, in 2016 it was estimated to be -0.54 percentage making the country even more vulnerable for aging. (The World Factbook, 2016) Although at the moment Taiwan is still in the range of an actual percentage, currently the growth rate is 0.2 percent, but considering that Taiwan’s total fertility 31.

(33) rate is among the lowest in the world, it is possible that there will be considerable problems in the future. It is even estimated that the older adults aged 65 and over is expected to grow up to 20 percent by the year 2025. (The World Factbook, 2016). Another similarity what I have found is that Taiwanese and Estonians are both very proud of their country and culture. If there is someone from the outside acknowledging their language or traditions, they are taken into the group way faster and more deeply than without it. For example, if a foreigner in Estonia has learned at least basic Estonian, they will be praised for their efforts which will be accompanied by the sentence that “your Estonian is better than some Russian Estonians who have lived here for their whole life.” We, the Estonians, are still bitter about our history of Russian occupation, and the Russians who live in Estonia without properly learning the language have always been as an example to the foreigners who have learned something, even if it is just basics. The reason why people in these two countries are sometimes maybe more proud of the culture and the language can hide behind the fact that both of them have been occupied for a long time by different countries in the past. Estonia was ruled by Swedes, Danes, Germans and Russians (EE Kronoloogia, 2016) while Taiwan was occupied by Japan and mainland China (BBC, 2016). During most of these times, the locals were repressed from talking their native language, and they were forced to take the languages and religions that were forced upon them. Considering the above, it makes sense that the Taiwanese and Estonians are proud of their language and traditions.. Both Taiwan and Estonia have also known some way for their technological accomplishments. Taiwan is more known for producing hardware, like products from Asus, HTC, Acer and D-Link (Taiwan Ratings, 2015); while Estonia is more known for their software creations like Skype, Transferwise, and E-residency (E-estonia, 2016). As Taiwan produces many phone brands, it will be interesting to see among other things if the Taiwanese prefer to use Taiwanese brands because I would assume that they are cheaper and easier to obtain for the locals.. 32.

(34) Similarities between the Taiwanese and Estonians are not limited to unfortunate coincidences on the historical level or how good we are doing in the technological world; they are also found on a personal level. People in both of these countries come off first as shy and very reserved. Although Taiwanese are immediately very friendly and kind to foreigners, to become someone’s close friend, one would have to spend a lot of time and effort to achieve it. Getting close friends in Estonia is the same slow process as in Taiwan. Estonians are seen first as “cold, ” and they usually open up only after longer interactions. However, from my personal experience, I could say that in both countries there is a shortcut for getting close with the locals and this is by learning their native language.. I believe that the above concluded similarities between those two countries. It could help me to compare the smartphone usage among the Taiwanese and Estonian elderly. I am aware that the interview method in cross-cultural studies can also have weaknesses. For example, the interview language can become a factor for increasing measurement bias. Translated questions, wording and the question delivery can all have an effect on how people respond to the questions (Kappelhof, 2014). When it comes to the current research, I am conducting the interviews in two different languages and then translating the results into a third language. However, in order to limit the errors, I have asked native speakers of Chinese to translate the interview questions into Chinese. For the cases where I would not be able to understand the respondent's answers completely, I have recorded all the conversations which make it easier to understand or ask the help, if needed, from a native speaker.. 33.

(35) 3. Methods For this research I chose to use my own conducted interviews, because I was unable to find any research similar to this in Estonia and Taiwan. While there have been conducted researches on younger generation smartphone usage, no one has done it on older adults aged 65 and above yet. I believe the best method to find out how smartphone designers can come up with better versions for the elders is to conduct interviews with these users. The problems older generation are facing while using smartphones are often the problems younger people do not even take into consideration. Therefore conducting interviews with elderly users gives valuable information and insight to make the phones better for the future potential users.. The next sections are devoted to analyzing data collected from the participants from both countries, firstly finding similarities among the people in the same country before pointing out similarities and differences between Taiwan and Estonia. Finally, on the background of my findings, I will attempt to answer the research questions proposed earlier.. 3.1 Estonian participants For this study, among 15 Estonian participants selected, five were males and ten females. I was facing difficulties finding male participants, as it seemed like all the older male acquaintances were still using regular phones instead of smartphones. Also, it needed to be taken into consideration that Estonia has more females than males. According to the statistics, in 2016 from age 0 to 54, there were slightly more males than females but from age 55 to 65 the male population significantly dropped. Among people aged 65 and over there were 162,114 women while on the contrary there were almost only half as many men, the exact number being 82,968. Life expectancy for males in Estonia on average is 71.9 and for females 81.7 years respectively (CIA Factbook, 2016). However, men in Estonia often die earlier than what is expected because of recklessness. Over-consuming alcohol is one of the big reasons for the shrinking of the male population. Not only does it cause drunk-driving and other accidents, but long-term alcoholism is 34.

(36) also creating many health-related problems that result in men dying earlier than women.. In order to find participants I had to go through my personal network. Not being physically present in Estonia, I had to instruct my friends to help me conduct the interviews for me. Three of my friends helped me arrange face-to-face communication through Skype with Liina, Toomas and Kea. The rest of the interviews were conducted by my friends, and the recordings were passed on to me. All the interviews took place between March and May 2017. Interviews length depended largely on the interviewee. If a person was more shy and would not want to share much, it generally took around 15 minutes. When people were open for additional questions and they were comfortable, the interview could take up to one hour. If I detected any discomfort in the respondent I would not push them to speaking if they did not wish to. However, in some cases we continued talking about their usage experience even after we were finished with the questions. Many participants enjoyed chatting and they would gladly show me their smartphone and applications they use; some even showed me their personal chat conversations and pictures.. All together I used the help of 12 friends. Three of them helped me find two interviewees each and 9 of them one each. The participants’ and my friends’ relations were usually either immediate family member, relative or for example in Tiina’s case, my friends co-worker. All the interviews were conducted in Estonian language, and I have translated all the replies into English.. For my interviewees the average age of female participants was 69.5 years; the youngest respondent was 65 years old while the oldest was 78. The average age of male participants was 69.6 years, with the youngest respondent being 65 and the oldest 77 years old.. Among the 15 interviewees, seven of them had obtained higher education, three had a college degree, three had a high school diploma, and one of them had graduated junior high school. 35.

(37) Estonians have a high education level, one of the reasons being that because it is a small country, so people need to work harder than some others living in bigger countries to be seen in the world. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2015, 35.4 percent of 55-64-year-old Estonians have obtained higher education, compared to the OECD world-wide average of 32 percent. (OECD, 2017). At the time of the interviews, four out of 15 participants were officially retired and not working, while eleven of them continued working after retirement. The age for retirement in Estonia depends on the year a person was born but from 2017 it is 65 years. Sometimes people may retire up to 10 years earlier, for example hard labor workers, people who have raised three to five kids within eight years, or people whose health got damaged because of the work they have been doing (Estonia State Portal, 2017). However, the pension is often not enough for people, especially living in the capital, therefore to survive they are forced to work. The amount of pension depends on the years worked. Individuals who do not qualify for the retirement pension, for example because they have not worked in the country long enough, are entitled to the public retirement which is only 175.94 euros per month (Estonia State Portal, 2017). This amount, unfortunately, is not enough to survive. When it comes to the respondents, many of the people who are retired use their skills to work part-time for extra money and to pass time.. Seven respondents owned a house, while eight lived in apartments. However, education level was not correspondent on the participants’ conditions of life. Tallinn has a lot of suburb areas, and people have mostly obtained houses during the Soviet times when owning a house was not considered a luxury as it might be now. Houses were cheap to buy, and many people would build them by themselves.. No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5. No. 6. No. 7. No. 8. Eha. Mati. Tiiu. Kati. Liina. Tiina. Toomas. Kea. 36.

(38) 65. 77. 65. 66. 77. 71. 68. 72. F. M. F. F. F. F. M. F. Junior high school. Phd. Phd. University. College. High school. University. University. Conveyor worker (retired). Tallinn Technical Universit y. Lawyer. Librarian (retired). Local governme nt secretary (retired). Geotechnical headspecialist. CEO of a small clothing importing company. Teacher (retired). House. House. House. Apartment. House. Apartment. House. Apartment. No. 9. No. 10. No. 11. No. 12. No. 13. No.14. No. 15. Ardi. Jaana. Anni. Kristjan. Britta. Kelli. Madis. 65. 65. 66. 66. 78. 70. 72. M. F. F. M. F. F. M. College. College. Masters. University. University. High school. High school. Constructor. Entrepreneur. Head of a High school chancery. Musician. One of the CEO of cleaning supplies company (retired, but working as accountant for four companies.. Labor union. Retired, but part-time car teacher. Apartment. Apartment. House. Apartment. Apartment. House. Apartment. The average time of elderly citizens in Estonia haveing used their smartphones is 3.8 years, while the shortest period was one year and the longest eight years. When using their smartphones, Samsung (6 people) seems to be the favorite brand for the elderly, followed by LG 37.

(39) (3 people), Sony (2 people) and Huawei (2 people). Both OnePlus and an iPhone got only one vote from the participants. Eight of the respondents started using a smartphone because they got it as a gift, usually from their kids or grandkids; other seven started using it because they needed it for their work or communication with far-away relatives. Only one respondent is using a second-hand smartphone that was given to him by his grandchild who was upgrading their phone, other people are using brand-new phones.. 3.2 Taiwanese participants Like for Estonia, I conducted interviews with 15 Taiwanese participants, seven of them being male and eight being female. In Taiwan, it was easier to find participants from both genders. One of the reasons could be that according to statistics male and female ratio in all ages is more even than compared to Estonia. Among people aged 65 and over there were 1,408,367 males and 1,657,443 females in 2016 (CIA Factbook, 2016).. Similar to finding Estonian participants, I was relying on my social network also in Taiwan. Among all of the Taiwanese respondents, I personally knew three of them: Ray, Terry and Henry. They are the friends of a friend’s husband, while Sam is the boss of another friend. Mary is one of my Taiwanese friend’s grandmother, while Susan and Ann are both Mary’s friends and classmates at painting class. Olly and Christine are two volunteers whom I met at the National Taiwan Hospital while I went to see a doctor. The rest of the respondents are grandparents of my Taiwanese friends. All the interviews were conducted in Chinese. While interviewing Ray, Olly and Christine, I was alone with the participants but in the remaining 12 cases, I had a Taiwanese friend present who was related to the interviewees. That was for the sake of making the respondents feel more comfortable and also to have a helping interpreter if there was a need for it. Most of the times, however, I was able to conduct the interviews from start to finish by myself without my friends’ help. While transcripting the interviews from the voice recordings, I would sometimes encounter words I would not be able to fully understand which were other times when I would ask for some 38.

(40) friends’ help.. In this research, the average age of female participants was 73.5 years, and the youngest respondent was 65 years old while the oldest was 81. The average age of male participants was 70.5 years; the youngest and oldest also being 65 and 81 respectively. Out of 15 people, six of them had obtained higher education, four had a college degree, one had a high school diploma, and four of them had lower education level.. Seven out of 15 participants were officially retired and not working. Ray, Steve, Rosie, John, and Sam still work, whereas Olly and Christine have engaged with a volunteer position. When it comes to the living conditions, it is very rare to find someone in Taipei who would live in a house. However George and Nancy are living in the suburbs and do own a house, the remaining 13 people live in apartments. In Taipei, already a cost of owning an apartment is high, not to mention the prices of owning a home and space to build the house. Suburbs, however, do have more room and there it is possible to find people who have either built the house on their own or bought it long ago when the prices were not as high.. No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5. No. 6. No. 7. George. Ray. Mary. Susan. Ann. Steve. Rosie. 70. 65. 81. 74. 73. 75. 79. M. M. F. F. F. M. F. College. High School. University. University. Masters. Elementary school. Elementary school. Lab Technician in a hospital (retired). Security guard in a office building. Elementary School Teacher (retired). Economic ministry international trade bureau (retired). University Professor (retired). Security guard in a high school. Desk job / Housewife + helps husband with plants (wife of no.8). 39.

(41) House. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. No. 8. No. 9. No. 10. No. 11. No. 12. No. 13. No.14. No. 15. John. Sam. Nancy. Olly. Christine. Bonny. Terry. Henry. 81. 72. 75. 72. 69. 65. 65. 66. M. M. F. F. F. F. M. M. Junior High school. University. Middle school. College. University. University. College. College. Gardener. Owns a huge garden where he plants and sells them to the smaller retailers. Finance manager. Insurance commissioner in insurance company (retired). Office worker, after retiring been volunteerin g for 26 years in a hospital. Volunteer at the hospital. Office worker (retired). Soldier (retired). Office worker (retired). Apartment. Apartment. House. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. Apartment. The average period for my Taiwanese participants of using their smartphones was 3.3 years, while the shortest time being one and the longest eight years. Smartphone brand choices among seniors were quite diverse, first was Asus (five), followed by HTC (four) and iPhone (four), and Samsung (two) and Sony (one) coming in last. In the previous chapters, I posed a question whether or not Taiwanese prefer to use Taiwan brands instead of others and according to the respondents, local brands like Asus and HTC are indeed a bit more popular than the foreign ones. One of the reasons is the price and quality. It is possible to get a device of high quality from Asus and HTC for a suitable price.. Ten of the respondents started using their current smartphone because it was gifted to them, in 40.

(42) eight cases they received brand new phones, and two of them were using someone’s old smartphone. When using someone’s old smartphone, it would usually be the close relative, and respondents Olly and Henry called it “family shares everything”. For the rest of the eight cases, most of them received it from their children for birthday gifts. Not everyone who got it as a gift started using it just because they got it, some of them wanted to use it for several different reasons - for example Susan and John wanted to keep up with the society while also feeling the peer pressure.. 4. Summaries of the interviews In this chapter I will be giving the summaries for the answers given by Estonian and Taiwanese interviewees. Although each and every individual is different, certain similarities can be spotted among the respondents. The similarities in communication, complications and positive changes that older people in Estonia and Taiwan face while using the smartphone will be mentioned. Also, it will be shortly concluded what recommendations seniors gave to make smartphones better for the elderly.. ESTONIA Firstly we will be looking at the Estonian respondents’ answers in communication, complications, positive changes and recommendations.. Communication Mostly for the elderly, primary communication with others is conducted by regular calling - 11 people listed it as the number one form of communication, while Kelli and Madis were the two people who listed it as the second most used function for communication. Liina and Anni were the two who preferred to communicate via different methods instead. Besides calling, Estonian elderly also use different applications: out of the 15 respondents, only Mati and Kelli did not use any internet-based calling-texting options. The most commonly used 41.

(43) application was Skype (9), followed by Facebook (6), Whatsapp and Viber (both 3). Reasons for using these kinds of applications were all the same: Skype and Whatsapp were commonly used to communicate with family members or friends who are living abroad to keep everyone up-to-date. Skype is one of the applications that is also very convenient for the older people to use. Since Skype was made in Estonia, it has excellent language support, therefore even older people who would otherwise have the English language as a barrier are able to get easily help to any related questions.. Complications When it comes to the difficulties for older adults using smartphones in Estonia, only Mati and Madis did not report any problems, while the others had a few things in common that were mentioned. The number one thing said was that their smartphones are too complicated. The general worry was that people are not able to make smartphones work for them in the way they have visioned it in their mind. Kati highlighted that this is due to the fact that seniors are learning more slowly; according to Ardi and Madis it will take a longer time to understand and to get used to the new applications. One of the reasons behind smartphones being too complicated is that they have too many functions. Tiiu, Kati and Kelli mentioned how in their opinion smartphones are full of features older people do not use and do not see beneficial for them, cloud service and social media (Facebook and Instagram are usually pre-installed on the phone) to name a few examples. Tiiu stated that having too many functions bothers her because she cannot find the things she actually needs and uses. Also, for those people who are not using these applications, they are only taking the memory and often seniors would need help uninstalling them. Difficulties in uninstalling and downloading a new request were also mentioned by the respondents. Liina, Anni and Kelli said that when setting up their new smartphone, they would need help, even when there are no language barriers. Generally, they found the first steps with the phone still a bit confusing.. 42.

(44) Another big problem that was mentioned was the fear of clicking the wrong place. Eha, Kati, Tiina and Kea were scared that if they click somewhere wrong it will mess something up and they are not able to fix it. Also, they would feel frustrated if they did not end up where they thought they would. Sometimes clicking somewhere wrong will also make the process of finding the needed information longer, therefore making them feel discouraged.. For Liina and Kati, the language barrier with the English language appeared to be another problem. Although smartphones in the Estonian market are in Estonian, when downloading an application it might not have Estonian language support. After all, the Estonian language is spoken by roughly 1.3 million people (CIA Factbook, 2016) therefore it is understandable that there is still room for improvement. Also, older adults in Estonia mostly speak Russian instead of English as a second language, because they grew up in the Soviet Union, where Russian was the official language and learning it was prioritized over the English language.. Besides the software problems, Jaana and Kea thought their smartphone screen is not big enough, and it was uncomfortable to read from it and also click on the icons. Kati explicitly highlighted a problem she thought older people have, and it was that the newest smartphones have the huge screen, but according to her it seems to serve a more aesthetic purpose. Hence, although the big screen is good because then it might be slightly easier to read the text from the phone, however, she thought that these phones are very fragile. An older person would be afraid to take their smartphone out with them because they would be afraid of breaking it. Therefore it would most likely stay at home and would serve no purpose. From my personal experience, older people I do know have this mentality, that they would like to use a device, which is more simple but durable rather than shiny and beautiful.. Positive changes All 15 interviewees reported that smartphones had been a positive change in their lives. Most widely reported change was the change for better communication. As mentioned above, Skype 43.

(45) was one of the most used applications and also in here, they mentioned how smartphones had helped them positively to keep in contact with their loved ones living far away from them. Having a smartphone is like having “a computer in your pocket” accorting to Kati; it makes the communication with others easy, cheap and convenient. Estonia is a country with high rates of the younger generations immigrating temporarily or permanently to other countries. Although the Estonian government is encouraging young people to go abroad to study and work, they also encourage the young talents to come back to their home and work for their homeland. However, more people are going and staying abroad, eventually raising their family there. Therefore having family members or relatives abroad is not uncommon at all and smartphones are a great tool for the elderly to communicate with these younger relatives, so they can still feel part of their family’s life even when they are not in the same country. The second change mentioned was the overall quality of life becoming easier and more comfortable - including the ability to use certain services, read news, and watch TV shows. Eha and Jaana found it convenient that you can handle all your bank transactions from the comfort of your home, read the news without having to order physical newspapers, or even go to library or bookstore. For example, you can get a book more easily than ever because you can use an application to read all the books you want for an overall cheaper cost. Thirdly it was mentioned that smartphones are useful for looking up information, whether it is daily weather, transportation or googling health related topics. Many people said that they had learned new things and they feel that they can grow more together with the smartphones. Anni mentioned that she has been able to use smartphone applications like Tinder to find people her age and get more connections and friends. Older adults also reported feeling positive emotions because they were able to share certain moments with their loved ones, who were maybe not able to witness them.. Recommendations Some of the Estonian respondents were not able to think of anything, while others had many 44.

(46) comments and recommendations how to make smartphones more senior friendly. The answers of those who had comments were closely related with the things they are struggling with themselves. Kati thought that there is a “middle version” missing from the current smartphone market. According to her, there are very simple phones for older people with very few functions, and then at the other end, there are complicated versions targeted more towards the younger generation. She thinks that some older people want to be able to take good quality pictures and go online with their phone, but they do not use many other applications that are in most smartphones. Other things mentioned were small screens and touch screen sensitivity. Eha, Tiiu, Kea and Jaana stated that it would be great if they could be changed because touch sensitivity and reactions are slowing down as people age, and it will be easier to make errors. With small screens, older people find it hard to read things from it, because often it is not possible to change the text size. These issues that Estonian respondents have experienced are also mentioned on page 22, where the research conducted about health devices for older adults that involved screens is mentioned. The mentioned problems were related to visual and touch sensitivity (Harte; Glynn, 2014).. 45.