Internet-Able Older Adults: Text Notifications and Satisfaction with Online Questionnaires

The 2020 Census was the first U.S. census to use an online reporting option as the primary data collection vehicle. The online census questionnaire was available between March and October of 2020. User satisfaction with the online census experience was measured via an online follow-up survey called the 2020 Census User Experience (UX) Survey. A sample of 153,000 web respondents from the 2020 Census were invited to complete the UX survey, and notified with up to three text message invitations. We selected a representative nationwide sample of respondents likely to have had different experiences filling out the Census, such as those who answered the census in March and those who waited until October, or those who answered using a smartphone and those who used a PC. We did not take into consideration the demographics of the respondents when selecting the sample, however, post analysis showed some age-related differences in both satisfaction with the online census experience and in responding to the UX survey through a link sent via text message. Older adults who already answered their census online and who likely owned a cell phone were more likely to interact with the text message (either by replying STOP or answering the survey) than either younger users or middle-age users. Older adults were also more satisfied than younger adults. However, satisfaction did not differ between older and middle-aged adults. These findings add to the general research on older adults and technology.