Understanding digital and material social communications for older adults

Alexis Hope, Ted Schwaba, Anne Marie Piper

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

96 Scopus citations

Abstract

Online technologies are promising for helping older adults maintain social connectedness, particularly with younger people, yet many older adults resist or participate minimally in the mainstream technologies used by younger members of their social network. We present results from an interview study involving 22 older adults (age 71-92) to understand communication preferences and values related to social media. Seniors articulate many concerns with online social media, including the time required for legitimate participation, the loss of deeper communication, content irrelevance, and privacy. Additionally, older adults engage in social practices that could be supported by online social technologies, but they rarely use such tools. The theme of material social communications emerges from our data, and we examine this in context of online social media. We conclude with design considerations for the development of social media for older adults, and as part of this we describe the notion of bridging technologies as a framework for intergenerational communication design.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2014
Subtitle of host publicationOne of a CHInd - Conference Proceedings, 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages3903-3912
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)9781450324731
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2014 - Toronto, ON, Canada
Duration: Apr 26 2014May 1 2014

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Other

Other32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2014
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityToronto, ON
Period4/26/145/1/14

Keywords

  • Materiality
  • Older adults
  • Social media
  • Social network sites

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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