Living alone may not be advisable especially for older people, but from other perspectives it is good for them. While most people think that it is risky for seniors to live alone, 80% of the older prefer staying in their current homes alone without making any modifications. Living alone, however, poses risks for older adults because they are usually susceptible to age-related conditions and emergencies. There should always be someone around them to help them with certain tasks such as reminding them of their medication when need be. Web-based information sometimes have limitations when providing the correct information wanted. Using the TRAAP Test (timeliness, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose), the WordPress article on seniors living alone best explains the restrictions and irrelevancy of web-based data.
Published on 14 th August 2016 by a WordPress blogger named Vincent Valvo, the article explains the preference and benefits of seniors living alone. The article also expounds how older people often find trouble when it comes to living with their family members or the prospect of living with other people. Often, most of them prefer living alone. The author highlights the reasons for the older people deciding to live alone, one of them being due to the expensive costs of the assisted living facilities (Valvo, 2016). Many seniors also prefer living alone because of their freedom to do what they want and not adapting to other people’s schedules and activities.
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The article also explains the steps that should be taken by the seniors with their decisions to stay at home. Some of the steps that should be taken for them to remain safe and secure include; making arrangements to get around safely, having home security, keeping contact with friends and fall-proofing their homes. Most older people usually prefer living alone because they can choose what to eat without anyone’s supervision. Living alone can also makes them to feel happy and comfortable doing their own things (Valvo, 2016). The author concludes by recommending the older people to choose a way that will have them live comfortably which can be living alone.
From its timeliness, the article was published in August 2016 and fails the TRAAP test because the source of its information is out of date. For such a topic, there should be provisions of the most current resources which the article fails to provide. The author does not indicate the date and year which he sourced his survey on seniors living together. He uses an approximation as a way of keeping the reader in his context. Even though the article explains the information needed, the article was published two years ago making it out of date. The article does not have any new editions or versions and most likely has no new research because it was published by a blogger who explains his views on seniors living alone.
The topic needs an in-depth analysis of the reasons why older people should live alone. The article simply highlights some few reasons why it is preferable for seniors to live alone. The article only has a good idea about the top, but it does not give out the relevant facts and resources on the topic. Additionally, the author does not directly discuss both sides of the questions which are the advantages and disadvantages of older people living alone. It does not clearly explain the answer to the question, and it also provides limited sources making it fail the R in the TRAAP test.
Looking at the article’s source of information, the author only indicates his names on the website without any other information making it harder for the readers to find more about him in the website itself and even though the website search. According to the about section, shield my senior self describes itself as a website that leads individuals through the confusion of finding a clear path. It is important for the website to indicate who sponsors their information which the article does not provide. Every information provided in articles should have a degree of authority and objectivity (Kantor, 2018). From the article the author may be addressing his own experience because he is old and the article is published in his site.
Since the article is someone’s opinion and views on seniors living alone, the author tends to take a stand on one side supporting the older people living alone. Website articles are not often peer reviewed and may not be supported by scholarly evidence making most of them inaccurate (Perkins, 2016). The article only provides one article which is not highlighted. The author also does not explain the experiments and the methods used to find his approximations on seniors living alone. The information is also not indicated by the author of where it comes from because the author does cite any other source. Apart from the one source being outdated, the information provided is not current making the article more unreliable. Despite the article’s information content agreeing with other resources, the article does not fulfill the requirements of a good piece of evidence to be used in research.
This article begins by discussing the reasons as to why many seniors prefer living alone. This indicates that the author’s intended purpose is to inform and advise the audience on the advantages of older people living alone. The language is also informative and attempts to give the article some objectivity as it advocates from the author's point of view. The author's intended audience is the older people who intend to live alone, and it is also designed for general readers. The perspective of the author may be from his own experience or a closer friend because he is also an older person. The article may have passed the P in the TRAAP test, but it does not fit to be resource evidence for a research topic because the author's perspectives are not included in the article.
The author fails to explain why older adults should be left to live alone. This could be because it is prudent for the seniors to live with someone than to be left to live alone. There are more reasons against older adults living alone than the reasons for living with someone. Most scholars value ideas, opinions, and conclusions backed by hard evidence which shows the meaning of the research questions. The article needs to meet the needs of the research question by being more relevant with accurate and authoritative data. The author should give the article current sources that can meet the research needs. Therefore, the article can be rated medium because it does not fully answer the research question on how good it is for older people living alone.
References
Kantor, S. (2018). Flushing The Craap Test.
Perkins, K. (2016). The CRAAP Test: An Easy & Fun Way to Evaluate Research Sources. RefME Guest Blogger [Internet] .
Valvo, V. (2019). Seniors Living Alone - The Costs, Benefits, and Risks - ShieldMySenior.com. Retrieved from https://www.shieldmysenior.com/seniors-living-alone-costs-benefits-risks/
