"What’s so special about studying old people?". The ethical, methodological, and sampling issues surrounding the study of older adults and ICTs

Generational research surrounding technology use and trends is
beginning to receive more attention. Most of this research has focused on the
younger generations, while ignoring those generations at the older end of the age
spectrum. As research of younger generations becomes more popular, it is likely
that researching older generations will also grow in popularity. There are,
however, several methodological, ethical, and sampling challenges that
researchers must consider when researching older adults. We draw from our
multi-disciplinary meta-analysis of 622 papers that study “older adults and ICTs”
to illustrate our points. Sampling challenges, for example, include defining the
population under study and the difficulties of obtaining a diverse population due
to traditional recruiting strategies. The paper includes suggestions on how to
address some of the pitfalls, and for future methodological development.