Facebook app reviews senior connections

A new Facebook application will help shed light on how seniors use online social networks.

The application, titled Australian Seniors’ Online Networks (AuSON), will reportedly provide data for a pioneering research project into how Australian seniors are using social networking site, Facebook, to connect with friends and family, and the relationship between social networks and successful ageing.

Dr Heather Booth, from the Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, is leading the Australian Research Council Linkage Project with industry partner National Seniors Australia.

“Understanding how online social networking can contribute to successful ageing is critically important in Australia with our ageing population,” Dr Booth says.

“Social isolation is a significant inhibitor to health and wellbeing in later years, but social networks offer a potential means to overcome this.”

According to Dr Booth, the rollout of the National Broadband Network is expected to significantly increase internet broadband access, and the opportunities for using online media as a tool to promote successful ageing are also likely to grow.

Fellow researcher, Dr Robert Ackland, who led the development of the new application, claims it has the potential to “revolutionise our understanding of the online behaviours” of older Australians.

“Once the AuSON Facebook application is installed, it automatically collects information on the structure of users’ Facebook networks,” Dr Ackland explains.

“But the functionality goes beyond that to enable participants to provide additional information about offline friends, how their social networks provide access to resources such as information and assistance (social capital) and measures of ageing status such as physical and mental wellbeing,” he says.

By collecting data on both social networks and ageing status, Dr Ackland hopes a better understanding of the role of social networks, in particular, online social networks, will ultimately contribute to “successful ageing” in Australia.

For more information about application, visit The Australian National University website. http://auson.anu.edu.au/