Internet use as a Leisure Pastime

Abstract

This study examines older adult’s subjective well-being (SWB) as a measure of Quality of Life (QOL) and its relationship with other SWB correlates. It investigates whether the Internet plays a significant role in assessing the life quality of older adults. It is proposed that spending time online helps fulfill leisure, interaction with the outer world, and socializing needs of older adults, and thereby promotes physical and mental health in older age. The interplay of these factors was tested through a structural equation model using secondary data of a nationally representative sample of older individuals over 50 years old in the U. S. The results show that older adults’ interactional activities on the Internet through information seeking and communication have positive associations with all three SWB correlates and consequently exert impacts on their subjective health and subjective well-being.While considerable research has examined the structure of SWB, or the impact of leisure activities and social interaction on SWB, this study expands the SWB framework by including not only leisure and social interaction variables but also the Internet influences on them.

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