Motivations and Obstacles for Seniors to Adopt Social Network Services

In light of the analysis framework including Political and governmental support, Economical and commercial support, Social and communities support and Technology support (PEST), this study identified motivations and obstacles for seniors’ use of social network services (SNS). Scenario simulation interviews based on four steps in which the seniors built strategies for learning about social media, were conducted through focus groups in China to determine the main motivations and obstacles for their adoption of SNS. Each interview included three sections – a) Introducing, b) Responding, and c) Engagement – and each participant was provided with a personal device. Theoretically, the study focused on exploring the model of motivation, psychological and physical difficulties for seniors’ adoption of SNS. Drawing on the model of continuous online SNS usage, we developed a model consists of motivation and obstacles for seniors’ SNS adoption and tested the model using the focus-group interview method. The results revealed that seniors’ SNS adoption is determined more strongly by negative social influences than by positive social influences. The results also indicated that while the main motivation for seniors’ SNS adoption involves communication convenience and social connections, the obstacles are related to negative social influences and to the physical and psychological barriers of technology usage.