Technological Concepts: Object and Tool of Knowledge Outsourcing at Different Ages

Technological devices and the Internet have profoundly transformed people’s lives. Among their impacts, one of the most significant is knowledge outsourcing. This article explores this phenomenon from two perspectives: considering the technological devices as objects and tools of knowledge outsourcing. While technological devices have become the primary tools for extending knowledge, they remain epistemologically opaque, requiring the help of others and, crucially, specialists, to comprehend their internal mechanisms and functioning. In the first section, building upon empirical research, we outlined an identikit of technological concepts across different generations. Younger adults tend to feel more confident in their tech knowledge and trust specialists’ expertise more than older adults. Both groups show a high reliance on generic others and experts to understand technological concepts, more than for other concepts. This reliance is especially notable in older individuals, who generally report less need for help, except for technological concepts. We suggest that knowledge outsourcing may be critical for technological compared to more vague concepts due to their pervasive use in Western daily life. In the second section, we went across the behavioral and metacognitive implications of using technological devices as tools for knowledge outsourcing. We highlighted how accessing the Internet can lead to an overestimation of one's own knowledge and examined the psychological, physical, and metacognitive barriers that older adults might face when using technology for knowledge outsourcing. Finally, we analyzed knowledge outsourcing to technological tools versus humans, concluding that asking a person requires crucial interpersonal skills, whereas searching online or using AI tools does not.