Cultural Impact on Perceptions of Aging, Care, and Lifelogging Technology: A Comparison between Turkey and Germany

ABSTRACT

An aging society characterized by rising numbers of people in need of assistance and care poses tremendous challenges for care services, hospitals, families, and the whole society. Using assisting technologies represents a potential support and relief for aged individuals, people in need of care, and their caregivers. Despite their advantages, existing concerns and barriers regarding these technologies (e.g., data security, privacy) impede the user’s acceptance. Beyond that, acceptance and the perception of technology-related benefits and barriers depend on the diversity of the future users: e.g., their cultural background as well as attitudes toward aging and care. Applying an online questionnaire, this article aims at an exemplary comparison of Turkish and German participants’ perceptions and acceptance of using lifelogging cameras as technical application. This study investigates how participants of the two countries handle and evaluate the topics aging and care, and to what extent these attitudes are connected with the perception and acceptance of assisting technologies. Findings revealed significant differences between Turkish and German participants’ attitudes, their perceptions of benefits and barriers as well as acceptance of lifelogging cameras. The results indicated that assisting technologies have to be tailored specifically to the respective users.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all participants for their openness to participate in our study and to share opinions on lifelogging technologies. This work has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research project PAAL [6SV7955].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Offermann-van Heek

Julia Offermann-van Heek is working as a research assistant and PhD student at the Human-Computer Interaction Center at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. She holds a master’s degree in communication science combined with basics of mechanical engineering. Her PhD research focuses on the acceptance and perception of assisting technology.

Wiktoria Wilkowska

Wiktoria Wilkowska is working as a senior researcher at the Human-Computer Interaction Center and lecturer at the Department of Communication Science at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Wiktoria is a psychologist and her PhD thesis dealt with the exploration of relevant patterns of technology acceptance of medical assistance systems.

Martina Ziefle

Martina Ziefle is professor for Communication Science, the head of the Chair for Communication Science and founding member of the Human-Computer Interaction Center at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Her research focuses on the interface between humans and technology, taking into account different usage contexts and user requirements.