A Study of the Factors Those Affect the Smartphone Usage of the Age Group of 40 to 60 (With Special Reference to Colombo District)

Abstract

As people who live in a technological era, we all have witnessed so many mindblowing innovations which ease our day to day activities. The advancement of the technology has spread across all fields, especially among infrastructure facilities. As we speak about the technological encroachment in the communication field, introduction of the smartphone has become a turning point in communication. A smartphone is a device which gives more functions than a computer. Due to its user friendly interface and applications, demand for smartphones has increased worldwide. According to the Recode (Molla, 2017), two third of the world adult population is expected to own a smartphone by the end of 2018. As a developing country, even though Sri Lanka is moving along with new trends and technology, the smartphone usage of the adult population of Sri Lanka is not as significant as in other countries or in Sri Lanka we cannot see the smartphone usage among the age group of 40 to 60, as higher as the youngster’s usage. Therefore the purpose of this study was to identify the factors that affect the smartphone usage of the age group 40 to 60. The multi-stage cluster sampling technique was employed to draw a sample from Colombo district and primary data were collected using structured questionnaires. Binary logistics regression was used to identify the factors that affect the smartphone usage. Research results indicated that, the attitude was the main factor that affected the smart phone usage causing a rise in the usage by 32.14%, whereas with respect to a person who was educated up to grade 8, smart phone usage of a graduate and Advanced Level qualified person was greater by 1.37% and 1% respectively. The study further discovered, in relation to a person who was self-employed, smart phone usage of a person working in the private sector was 10.2% higher. Results also emphasized that, compared to a person living in rural areas, the smartphone usage of a person living in a semi-urban and urban areas were greater by 5.2% and 1.8% respectively. Consequently, it was concluded that attitude played a foremost role in smartphone usage of the age group of 40 to 60. The main suggestion was to consider their motivations, to promote their smartphone usage, since it would ease the loneliness in their later lives and improve the Sri Lankan standard of living