Seniors and the Web

Research shows that older adults respond differently to mediated communication than younger adults. These age differences result from both generational differences and lifespan development. The literature on digital divides shows an age divide, with three levels: 1. Then hardware availability, Internet connectivity, and the distinction between users and non-users; and 2. The digital literacy (e.g. skills, abilities and motivations required for ICT use). Seniors face new challenges in the case of the present deplacement in the study and practice of medical communication. This displacement is in cat a movement from a paternalistic model of patient-provider information toward enclosing the medical and human values in the process of decision-taking of informed patient in medical interaction. Due to the fact that they grew up in a culture where the doctor made critical decisions about others health at present they are left outside a " media centric " world, where people use a diversity of media and communication outlets related to health in order to became informed participants in their own health-care. At the same time, as Caress (2003) showed, seniors' locus of control is external. From the health-communication point of view a person with an external locus of control thins that some aspects of his/her life (e.g. health) are controlled by powerful others (e.g. doctors) and this represents a new challenge for seniors nowadays. As McMillan and Macias (2008) showed the main characterisics of the seniors online behaviour are: 1. The atempts to use internet to send mails to friends and family – to socialise; 2. To see the Internet as an invaluable resource which replace the library or other public places; 3. To use the Internet to prepare for the visit to their doctor or to fill in the knowledge and information. The present study draws on the hypotheses related to health-related Internet use by seniors and try to validate them in a specific context-the Romanian society. The hypotheses of our study are: H1. Usage gap hypothesis: The Internet use by seniors reflects differential uses and activities in all spheres of daily life as compared with younger generations (Van Djick, 2005). H2. Seniors use the internet as a starting point for general infromation related to health but when it came to make informed decisions about health care they adhere to physician-centered care model (Campbell and Nolfi, 2005). H3: The more a senior as a patient learns from the internet about her/his illness, the more likely she/he is to ask questions derived from Internet consumption to his/her physician (Frederikson and Bull, 1995). The sample of seniors included in the analysis was made of ten persons aged +65 years old who used the Internet not only to obtain daily information and to socialise with their friends but also to search for health-related information. Preliminary results showed that Romanian seniors still do not consider online health information to be as reliable as inter-personal communication with their GP. At the same time, Romanian older adults are overloaded with the sheer ammount of information available on the net and tend to " simplify " it by checking that information with medical staff (e.g. GP, nurses). As our set if interviews Romanian seniors have a lower desire to control their own health care by themselves and remain deeply dependent on the interpersonal medical communication with GPs, family, pharmacists, friends.

Artykuł przedstawia wyniki badania zrealizowanego wśród warszawskich seniorów w ramach dwumiesięcznych testów aplikacji portalu społecznościowego Go-myLife. Pokazuje konkretne trudności i problemy, jakie napotykali seniorzy oraz formułuje ogólne zalecenia dotyczące szkoleń informatycznych dla seniorów.

Cytowanie:
Zielińska. I (2015). Seniorzy w wirtualnym świecie - możliwości i bariery. Na podstawie testów aplikacji Go-myLife. w: A. Leszczyńska-Rajcher, L. Domańska, E. Subocz (red.). Seniorzy w pryzmacie koncepcji "Społeczeństwo dla wszystkich grup wieku". Wyd. Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego, Olsztyn. str. 121-137.

This study focus on the use of social networks among senior Pagan women, as a tool to prevent loneliness and improve their self esteem. In the Wiccan religion, the goddess appears in three aspects, each of which is the embodiment of different periods in life: The Maiden, The Mother and The Crone. In the aspect of the goddess as a crone, she is seen as representing wisdom. The passage into the elderly age is marked with rites of passage for seniors, which include Pagan women celebrating their passage into an age of wisdom and freedom. The existence of social networks allows Pagans at this age to create a unique group, which makes it possible for them to meet others like themselves from different countries and discuss the place of old age in their religious lives as well as the changes they go through. Often, seniors feel lonely because of changes in the social structure of their families and also as retirement from their professional lives causes a lack of social activities (Aylaz et al, 2012). Elders also tend to suffer from low self-esteem, due to common media stereotypes about aged adults, in which they are shown in a mocking and disrespectful way (Sijuwade, 2009). Social networks allow people over the age of fifty to strengthen social ties with their families and close friends and assist them to create new relationships (David et al, 2010). In addition, seniors use religion as a mean to stay active, which helps them to find interest in life and gain a higher sense of self-worth (Krause & Hayward, 2013). In the Wiccan religion these feelings are expressed through rites of passage into elderly, called Croning, which celebrate this transition as a transition to another phase in life, associated with years of accumulated wisdom and achievements attained by the woman in her life (Manning, 2012) . The research method that was used in this study was content analysis of the discussions of the group “Crones and Elders” in the social network WiccanTogether. The group consist about 271 members. Women are the majority of the group, their age range is 24-72, and most of them live in the United States. According to the findings of this study, the participants in the group developed various strategies to cope with the aging process such as pursuing pagan leisure activities. According to the conclusions of this study, the group serves as a place where the seniors can discuss issues related to their religion and age. The group afforded creation of friendships, served as a tool for discussing religious dilemmas and gave its participants a sense of belongings and empathy.

This thesis set out to identify service innovation opportunities in the lives of the fastest growing demographic group of consumers – adults aged 55 and older. The focus was on finding ways to bridge the generational gap in digital technologies. Recently, this gap has started to narrow, due to the increased adoption of mobile devices by older adults. The opportunities that lie in this change, however, are largely unknown.

The objective of this thesis was to design a service concept that introduces the possibilities of mobile devices and applications as tools for capturing travel experiences. Three perspectives defined the approach used to achieve this objective: Seeing old age in positive light and as full of opportunities rather than as challenges that need to be solved, focusing on experiences rather than technical innovations; and involving older adults in the service design process. In order to focus the service development on the positive aspects of ageing, the perspective of the Third Age was chosen instead of chronological age. Customer-dominant logic combined with theories of service innovation and customer involvement formed the theoretical framework of this thesis.

The service design process consisted of various tools and methods to gather, analyse and communicate insights about the third age in the digital society. Interviewing third agers was the main method for gathering data. In addition, existing solutions for capturing experiences and learning to use mobile devices were studied. Personas, storytelling, visual mind mapping and systems diagram outlined the insights for idea generation, and a workshop was organized to participate third agers in the idea generation.

The designed service concept “Digipaja” (Digital Workshop) applies a networked perspective to introducing the possibilities of mobile devices for people in the third age. The service concept helps discovering and learning how to capture travel experiences with mobile devices. Four fields that have been largely detached are connected to facilitate this: travel industry, mobile applications, information communications technology (ICT) training, and photo services. The core of the service concept – social events hosted by individuals or organizations – can also be applied also in further contexts apart from travelling. Napkin pitch, value proposition canvas, value web and service blueprint are used to describe the service concept for piloting.

The findings of this design process prove that the interest in learning to use mobile devices is high, but there is a lack of services that encourage taking the first step into the new digital world. Until the digitally native generations reach the third age, it is important to focus on developing services that inspire and teach the use of mobile devices and applications. The designed service concept is one applicable solution for this. Moreover, the identified opportunities in the third age might offer new avenues for creating value also across generations.

The importance of senior travellers as a travel segment for the tourism industry is continuously increasing as the number of pensioners increases in the Western world. These new senior travellers differ from earlier generations in many ways, one of which has to do with the increasing use of information and communication technologies as part of their information search process. This study examines senior travellers as users of tourism information technology. A qualitative approach was adopted to provide insights into the topic, and nine Finnish seniors were inter-viewed. The results were analysed using content analysis. The results show that senior travellers comprise a quite heterogeneous market with respect to the use of tourism information technology. However, there is no special marketing or website design that senior travellers really need: a good website will cater to both the needs of younger as well as older consumers. The study also presents a tentative typology of three different types of senior travellers based on their use of online travel services: Adventurous Experimenters, Meticulous Researchers and Fumbling Observers. This typology contributes to our understanding of the heterogeneous use of tourism information technology by senior travellers.

The purpose of this volume is to explore the dynamics between age, aging, and ICT. Over time, as our global population ages, we are becoming more digitally connected underlining the importance of reflecting on and understanding the linkages between these phenomenons.

This chapter attends to the question of how personal photography is practiced through and with the smartphone by the elderly. The smartphone as a net- worked multimedia device that is always at hand is at the heart of current changes not only in personal photography, but in the mediatization of our ev- eryday lives. It clearly affords new possibilities, but how those affordances are used and how different ways of engaging with the same affordances are evolving, remains to be empirically investigated. One factor of variation are different generation- and age-specific technological experiences that seem to constitute different ways of engaging with media. While considerable research has been done on younger people and their digital photographic practices, the so-called digital immigrants, have not received as much attention. Based on an empirical example that combines the analysis of text and picture, the article shows how a sixtytwo-year-old woman adopted the smartphone as her “con- stant companion” and key device for snap photography. Her modes of showing and sharing suggest that specific configurations of hardware (smartphone) and software (e.g. WhatsApp) contain various affordances that she employs for diverging needs – while her family remains the main motif and counterpart of her photo sharing practices.

Streszczenie:
Od pokoleń człowiek jednocześnie boi się starości i rzuca jej wyzwanie. Pragnie ją zrozumieć, by móc nad nią zapanować lub żyje tak, jakby akurat jego nie dotyczyła. Mimo to ludzie wiedzą, że muszą się zestarzeć. Wbrew zapewnieniom, jakie co jakiś czas generują media, obiecując wieczną młodość i długowieczność, człowiek starzeje się. Nie oznacza to jednak, iż każdy godzi się z tym faktem w milczącym przyzwoleniu. Dla uczestnika kultury zachodniej, owładniętego „kultem piękna i młodości”, starość jest przede wszystkim swoistego rodzaju stratą. Nie powinien zatem dziwić fakt, iż ilość strategii majach na celu uatrakcyjnienie tego okresu życia stale wzrasta. 


Summary
From generations people have been frightened by the oldness and still defy it. We try to understand and prevail or live regardless of it. Nevertheless, we know we’ll get old one day, despite of mass-media’s promises of agelessness and longevity. People get old, but some of them defy the reality. The western-culture partaker – “the worshipper of beauty and youth” – considers the oldness as a “waste”. Hence, we should not be surprised that the number of strategies applied in order to make this stage of life more attractive constantly increases.

I. Seniorzy w „płynnej ponowoczesności”
Janusz Morbitzer Seniorzy w społeczeństwie informacyjnym
Magdalena Szpunar Seniorzy w środowisku nowych mediów
Ilona Zakowicz Starość (nie)medialna
Aleksandra Marcinkiewicz, Katarzyna Mazur Seniorzy w społeczeństwie wiedzy w świetle badań własnych
II. Edukacja osób starszych w zakresie nowych mediów
Ewelina Langer Connect in LaterLife – przeciwdziałajmy wykluczeniu cyfrowemu seniorów
Łukasz Tomczyk „Latarnicy cyfrowej edukacji” jako centralno-obywatelskie działanie na rzecz likwidacji komputerowego analfabetyzmu
Witold Sikorski Edukacja w zakresie technologii informacyjnej na uniwersytetach trzeciego wieku
Aleksandra Marcinkiewicz Uniwersytet trzeciego wieku wobec e-ekskluzji seniorów 
III. E-usługi oraz e-rozwiązania dla osób w „złotym wieku”
Arkadiusz Wąsiński Seniorzy w blogosferze? Od „cyfrowych imigrantów” do „cyfrowych autochtonów”
Anna Jaroszewska Perspektywy e-edukacji w kontekście wdrażania polityki wielojęzyczności w systemie kształcenia seniorów w Polsce
Andrzej Klimczuk Medialaby w kontekście solidarności pokoleń i wykluczenia robotycznego
Zdzisław Szkutnik Integracyjna rola portali społecznościowych dla studentów uniwersytetu trzeciego wieku
Patrycja Kniejska Czy srebrnowłosi esemesują? Determinanty rozwoju telefonii komórkowej dla seniorów w Niemczech i na świecie

Cette communication est une synthèse du rapport d’expérimentation d’Alliage mené en Aquitaine sur 4 territoires ruraux et urbains entre 2013 et 2014 auprès d’une population de seniors âgés de 59 à 90 ans. Ce projet, soutenu par la Région Aquitaine dans le cadre de la promotion du logiciel libre a été piloté par l’Association Aquinetic, en partenariat avec la société Huile de Code, chargée du développement informatique et l’équipe de recherche RAUDIN, missionnée pour accompagner la démarche de co-design et assurer l’analyse des usages.
Cette contribution vise à présenter le protocole d’évaluation des usages mis en œuvre, pour une recherche dont l’objectif est de spécifier la contribution des pratiques numériques des seniors sur les sociabilités et les constructions identitaires favorables à l’amélioration de leur qualité de vie et au maintien à domicile. Modélisée sous forme de processus, l’analyse présentée ici, centre les principaux résultats sur les qualifications sociotechniques qui conditionnent la mise en usage par et pour les seniors.

Older people in current society represent a high percent age that tends to be higher over the years. In addition, these seniors are becoming more active within this society taking part of even the developments resulting from the use of digital technologies. This paper analyzes the level of media literacy of people over 55 years in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia.