Social networking sites use and life satisfaction. A quantitative study on older people living in Europe

ABSTRACT

The European ageing population poses unprecedented challenges to society as a whole. Social Networking Sites might be important tools to boost older people's well-being, strengthening and creating social connections in old age. Despite of its potentialities, there is relatively little knowledge on the impact of SNS use on older people's well-being, especially in Europe. Our study investigates the relationship between SNS use and life satisfaction (a key measure of well-being) in old age. We use data from the 2017 Standard Eurobarometer 88 survey, performing a set of multilevel regression models. To fully understand the specificity of the relationship between SNS use and life satisfaction in old age population, we perform a multi-cohort analysis. We find a positive association between SNS use and life satisfaction in old age, association that persists after controlling for a number of possible confounding effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Ageing
• social networking sites
• social media
• well-being
• life satisfaction
• socio-economic inequalities

Acknowledgement

We thank Unidata-Bicocca Data Archive for contributing to get access to data. We also thank anonymous reviewers for useful insights and comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. The responsibility for the content of the article lies entirely with the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Alessandra Gaia is a research fellow at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca. Current research interests comprise aging, survey methodology, and methodology of social research. Her work has been published in the following journals: Methods Data Analysis, the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology and Social Science Computer Review. Email: [email protected]

Emanuela Sala is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca where she teaches research methods. Her current research interests comprise survey methodology, digital technologies, and aging. Currently, she is the PI of the project Aging in a Networked Society. Older people, Social Networks and Well-being. Email: [email protected]

Gabriele Cerati is a research assistant at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca. Current research interests comprise digital technologies, aging, methodology of social research, and sociology of culture. His work has been published in Social Science Computer Review. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 While there is agreement on the generational cut-off points of the Baby Boom generation, there is debate on the boundaries of the later generations (Dimock 2019). In this paper we refer to the cut-off points proposed by the Pew Research Centre (Dimock 2019).

Additional information

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by Fondazione Cariplo (Bando 2017, ricerca scientifica: Ricerca sociale sull'invecchiamento: persone, luoghi e relazioni. Project number: 2017-0946; name: “Aging in a Networked Society. Older People, Social Networks and Well-Being”). Alessandra Gaia thanks the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) for funding a research visit at the Institut national d'études démographiques (INED), Paris, France.