Turkish senior´s perspective and utilization of mobile phones

Mobile phone is now common personal item for various users. Users show a broad variety of behaviors when they deal with new technological equipment. They may completely reject them, may only partially use selected functions or users may completely accept the technology and the functions provided. Mobile phones can have a significant role in assisting older people in terms of providing a sense of security, and maintaining social relationships. This study investigated the use of mobile phones by Turkish people who are aged over 60 years. Although it is currently well known that older adults are accepted as the passive users for mobile phones, there is a limited amount of research related to the seniors. In this study, the basic preferences such as color, model, and mobile operator of the elderly were gathered initially. The concerns and the reasons of using mobile phone were identified. As the primary experiment, the relationship between six measures; life satisfaction, self-efficacy, mobile phone anxiety, mobile phone attitude, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use were examined by surveying the participants. The results were analyzed and compared by three factors: gender, education, and income. The correlations between the measures were also identified. The performance of the elderly with mobile phone task completion efficiency and effectiveness was also studied. Also, better mobile phone adoption methods for the elderly should be proposed.