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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Smartphone usage among older adults

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Abstract Problematic smartphone usage, associated with impaired daily functioning, has gained increased attention among researchers. However, extant research is focusing on adolescents and younger adults. This paper investigates smartphone usage among older adults, of which less is known. To do so, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 154 smartphone users (60+ years) in Norway using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We examined the contributing roles of loneliness, habit, social influence, emotional gain, fear of missing out, self-control, and problematic smartphone usage. We further investigated how older adults engage with their smartphones. Our findings suggest that older adults use smartphones for various social and non-social reasons and that social media and news reading are the most common use areas. Furthermore, we found a low prevalence of problematic smartphone usage among older adults. Whereas social influence and habit were strong predictors of smartphone usage among older adults, loneliness was not. Fear of missing out was not prevalent among older adults. As we expected, higher self-control was associated with lower problematic smartphone use. Finally, we discuss the contributions and implications of our findings.