Selecting, Optimizing, and Compensating During Lockdown: How Older Consumers Use Social Networking Services to Improve Social Well-Being

During the COVID-19 pandemic, older consumers have increased their usage of social networking services (SNSs) to avoid social isolation, yet this behavior remains unexplored. Through selective optimization with compensation theory, the authors combine concepts from gerontology and marketing to investigate the following research question: How does older consumers’ usage of SNSs during the pandemic interrelate with the constructs of social well-being? The research draws on qualitative data collated during lockdown in the United Kingdom, including 14 semistructured interviews from participants age 65–80 and six months of netnographic data from an online forum geared toward older people. The findings reveal how older consumers leverage three strategies—selection, optimization, and compensation—to improve their use of SNSs and social interactions during lockdowns. Such behaviors in turn interrelate with the dimensions of social well-being: social acceptance, social integration, social contribution, social actualization, and social coherence. This research contributes to the marketing literature by (1) introducing a framework for transformative SNSs into transformative service research, (2) utilizing theory from gerontology studies to further understand the older consumer, and (3) enhancing the sparse understanding of older consumers’ use of SNSs. Future research directions and managerial implication are suggested for both marketers and developers of SNSs for aging consumers.