Warm Experts As Catalysts for Digital Inclusion: A Scoping Review of Supportive Practices in Older Adults' Technology Adoption

Background and Purpose

As digital technologies become increasingly integral to daily life—spanning healthcare, finance, and social connectivity—the urgency for older adults to engage with these tools has intensified. While models like the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) have enhanced understanding of individual-level adoption, they often overlook the relational and contextual dimensions shaping digital inclusion. In this context, warm experts—non-specialist informal supporters such as family members, friends, peers, neighbors, volunteers, and local business staff—have emerged as key but underexplored actors in facilitating older adults’ engagement with technology. This scoping review maps and synthesizes existing literature on how informal social networks support the adoption, adaptation, and appropriation of digital technologies among older adults (age ≥ 60), considering how these supports intersect with user characteristics and technological contexts.

Methods

Following Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a comprehensive literature search was conducted across six databases (Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and ERIC), complemented by Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and ResearchRabbit. Three reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts, assessed full texts for eligibility, and extracted relevant data. Discrepancies were resolved through discussion to reach consensus, and when needed, a fourth reviewer was consulted. A total of 135 publications from 2005 to 2025 were included, encompassing diverse methodologies and geographic contexts. Risk of bias and methodological quality were assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), with average quality scores informing the descriptive and thematic synthesis. Key variables included the role of warm experts, types of technologies, user demographics, and reported facilitators and barriers.

Results

Warm experts played a pivotal role in older adults’ technological engagement—not only offering technical help but also translating digital concepts, providing emotional encouragement, and acting as co-users across platforms like telemedicine, online banking, and social media. Their effectiveness was shaped by intergenerational trust, digital literacy, gendered caregiving roles, and sociocultural frameworks of aging. Challenges included intra-family digital divides, dependency risks, and a lack of institutional recognition for these roles. Support structures ranged from familial ties to peer and volunteer-based models.

Conclusions and implications

Findings underscore the need to integrate informal support—particularly warm experts—into digital inclusion models and aging policies. These actors are vital not only for access but also for the meaningful and sustained use of digital tools in later life. Social work interventions should strengthen these networks through community-based digital literacy initiatives, backed by professional training. Policy frameworks must formally recognize informal support networks as foundational to digital citizenship in aging societies, including targeted funding and inclusion in care strategies. Future research should expand technology adoption models to incorporate relational, emotional, and contextual dimensions, and explore intersections of age, gender, caregiving roles, and technological ecosystems to advance socially grounded understandings of gerontechnology.