The waves that sweep away : older Internet non- and seldom-users’ experiences of new technologies and digitalization

• The aim of this chapter is to empirically explore, understand, and discuss the digitalization of society as part of the shared and negotiated experience among older non-and seldom-users of networked technologies (ICT). More specifically, it focuses on how older people reflect upon social change brought by the so-called waves of mediatization, with a particular focus on digitalization (Couldry and Hepp, 2017). Digitalization is understood here as the third wave of mediatization that relates to the computer, internet, and mobile phone. Of particular interest here is the internet, namely the contemporary infrastructure that links media devices with computers and large data centers. It is also an infrastructure that has undergone rather fast transformation from a “closed, publicly funded and publicly oriented network for specialist communication into a deeply commercialized, increasingly banal space for the conduct of social life itself”(Couldry and Hepp, 2017, 50, emphasis in the original). Mediation and the communicative organization of time are usually approached in terms of clocks, calendars, and timetables. However, being an older person is a specific position in the life course, which allows people to reflect back upon the social change prompted by technological development. It also offers a perspective on the lived experience of different waves of mediatization, including digitalization. This chapter departs from the idea that there is not one universal and straightforward experience of time, speed, and technology but rather assumes multiple temporal landscapes, which come into play in different contexts and situations.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Temporality

Time

Digital Lives

Practices

Disconnection

Intercultural Studies

Interkulturella studier

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