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Internet use in older African Americans

may have previous training, use experience, or have more self-confidence and capacity to use the Internet (Carpenter
and Buday, 2007; Choi and DiNitto, 2013; Elliot, Mooney, Douthit, et al., 2014; Hung, Lyons, and Wu, 2020). Cognitive
function decreases with age, so compared to young-old adults, old-old adults may have lower cognitive functioning or
even cognitive impairment, which may be the biggest challenge for them to use the Internet (Choi and DiNitto, 2013;
Elliot, Mooney, Douthit, et al., 2014; Hunsaker and Hargittai, 2018).
4.1. Limitations

This study has several limitations. First, the cross-sectional design of this study does not allow for the estimation of causal
associations. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further examine the causal predictors of technology use among older
African Americans. Second, due to the limitation of the archival questionnaires, in this study, internet use was measured as
use frequency by a single question. Future studies may include more computer/internet use information, such as types of
activities, time spent online, and internet use efficiency (Berde, 2019). Third, this study revealed gender and age differences
of internet use correlates among older African Americans. However, the mechanisms of these differences were still unclear.
Future research should further investigate why some correlates were different between gender and age groups. Finally, the
non-response rate of the 2016 Wave of HRS was high, nearly 40% for the entire sample and 47% for African Americans. As
the non-response pattern among African Americans was related to men, living alone, and better ADL and IADL functioning,
there may exist possible biases for the present findings. More research is clearly warranted to quantify such biases.

4.2. Implications
Despite the limitations, the current study contributes to the field of older African American’ technology use in the
following ways. First, this study is among the few studies focusing specifically on correlates of the technology use
among older African Americans, and as such it provides more insights about this population and expands the currently
limited literature. Second, this study provides valuable insights for future practice. Future interventions to promote
computer/internet use among older African Americans need to target those with low socioeconomic status. Providing
more computers in senior centers and more free training programs may be good ways to increase computer/internet use
in this population. Furthermore, gender differences on correlates of internet use indicate that future interventions for
promoting technology use among African American older adults need to be gender-tailored. For example, interventions
for older African American women may need to target those at older ages and with difficulties in ADL, change their
internalized negative ageist stereotypes, and empower them, whereas interventions for older men need to target those
having depressive symptoms. Considering the age differences on the correlates and that the use of the Internet itself is a
cognitive stimulation activity, more innovative computer training programs need to be designed to assist in the cognitive
stimulation of older African Americans with and without mild cognitive impairment.

5. Conclusions
Literature on the use of technology by older adults is vast, but studies focusing specifically on African American older
adults are very sparse and discrepant in their results. Findings in this study indicated that internet use among older
African Americans is low. Interventions that integrate the use of technology would go a long way in benefiting African
American older adults. Results showed similarities and gender and age differences among older African American adults.
As such, practitioners should consider these gender and age differences when promoting computer/internet use among
older African Americans, as well as in the design and implementation of more gender-specific interventions.
Conflicts of Interest

No conflicts of interest were reported by all others.

Funding
This study was not supported by any grant. Thank Alexandra Marbut for providing grammar checking.

Authors’ Contributions
KW conceived the research question, conducted the analysis, drafted the introduction, methods, results, and discussions
of the manuscript, and reviewed the manuscript. KK advised on the research question, drafter the introduction, and
reviewed the manuscript.

34 International Journal of Population Studies | 2020, Volume 6, Issue 2