Emily Petty Dr. Kelly G. Odenweller Uses and Gratifications, Attitudes, and Willingness to Learn Computer Mediated Communication Emily Petty Dr. Kelly G. Odenweller

Uses and Gratifications (and cmc) Uses and Gratifications Theory Computer-Mediated Communication Affective Cognitive Personal Integrative Social Integrative Tension Free Entertainment Information Gathering Sharing personal stories Belonging to friendships/groups Escape from reality H1: Facebook users use Facebook to maintain relationships. H2: Young adult Facebook users are more likely to use Facebook and social media for escapism than older adults are. H3: Facebook users of all ages use the website as a news source.

Attitudes and CMC Problem: outdated studies Older adults circa 2004: 46.4% avid Internet users (over 20 hours/week) (Eastman & Iyer, 2004) Older adults 2015: positive attitude toward mobile phones/smart phones (Vincent & Lopes, 2015) Attitude is a predictor of positive/negative response to social media (Ledbetter, A., Mazer, J., DeGroot, J., Meyer, K., Mao, Y., & Swafford, B. (2011) H4: Participants who find more enjoyment from Facebook use will report more favorable attitudes toward the website.

Willingness to Learn and Cmc Self confidence Faith in one’s own ability to learn and use something new Venturousness Willingness to try something new Obstacles to Learning Websites constantly updating New forms of CMC emerging Not all updates work H5: Participants’ willingness to learn will be positively connected to positive attitudes toward the Internet and technology.

The Method Online questionnaire 109 Participants Uses and Gratifications Scale 27 Likert-type questions (Papacharissi & Mendelson, 2011; Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000) Attitudes instrument 25 statement Likert-type scale (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000) Willingness to Learn 3 point Likert-type scale (Reynolds, 1974) 109 Participants Active Facebook users 32 Male, 77 Female Age: 18-79 years-old

Results H1: Facebook users use Facebook to maintain relationships. SUPPORTED (Social: M = 4.38, SD = .91; Affective: M = 4.87, SD = .94) H2: Young adult Facebook users are more likely to use Facebook and social media for escapism than older adults are. NOT SUPPORTED (t[25] = 1.73, p =.10) H3: Facebook users of all ages use the website as a news source. SUPPORTED (Cognitive: M = 4.35, SD = 1.09) H4: Participants who find more enjoyment from Facebook use will report more favorable attitudes toward the website. SUPPORTED (Affective: r = .31, p < .01; Tension free: r = .32, p < .01) H5: Participants’ willingness to learn will be positively connected to positive attitudes toward the Internet and technology. NOT SUPPORTED (r = .12, p = .21) SURPRISE FINDING: Negative relationship between age and number of social media sites used

Significance Gap in research centered around older adults and computer-mediated communication Younger people are more likely to use more than one social media site Older adults and young adults use social media for the same purposes

Acknowledgements Thanks to all the participants, without whom this study would not have been possible! Thanks to the ISU Communications Faculty for the preparation and support for this capstone project! Thank you to Professor Kelly Odenweller for all the knowledge and support throughout this project!

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