Assessing the impact of smart nation discourse on older adults in Singapore

• Main Authors: Goh, Pei Xuan, Kong, Valerie Xin Yi
• Other Authors: Nurul Amillin Hussain
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Social sciences::Sociology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168518
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Despite the Singapore government’s decade-long campaign to turn Singapore into a Smart Nation, older adults continue to exhibit low and slow acceptance of emerging technological developments, with implications on older adults’ integration into society and their feelings towards it. This study seeks to explore: (1) how Smart Nation policies and initiatives have shaped older adults’ feelings and perceptions toward successful ageing, as well as (2) their positions as members of today’s modern society. Our qualitative research study on 18 older Singaporean adults reflects the changes in the configuration of caregiving for the elderly as a result of Smart Nation developments and reveals a tendency of older adults who struggle with adopting Smart Nation technologies to exhibit negative self-perceptions of ageing.