Technology and Retirement Life: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Older Adults and Social Media

The increasingly ubiquitous adoption of technology in contemporary society brings both opportunities and challenges for older adults in retirement. This chapter examines how one specific type of technology, social media, can assist older adults in living a happy and productive life, helping them to cope with retirement transition and the challenges that older adults face in a technology-oriented world. A systematic review of the literature of twenty-nine databases in eight fields was conducted in September–November 2010 to identify existing research on older adults and social media. After four rounds of careful screening, ten articles were selected from these databases. Combined with two additional articles obtained through professional contacts, a total of twelve articles reporting fifteen independent studies was included in the final sample for qualitative analysis. While these existing studies are small in sample size and exploratory in nature, they shed light on the intersection of older adults and social media. Key themes identified in these articles are discussed and future research directions are proposed.

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