Life's third act

I recently watched with my mother-in-law (in her seventies) the talk by Jane Fonda "Life's third act" on TED talks. view talk here I really enjoyed her talk and thought that the analogy of life as 'going upstairs' (rather than going up some steps and after peaking, going the steps down) was very apt. My mother-in-law felt that most of it was very true. When I probed she said that she couldn't remember the details but it felt that way. She made, however, the point that Jane Fonda is someone who has sufficient money and that an older person's development might be very different when they have money worries. I couldn't disagree with this, and now wonder how for example a homeless older person experience life.

Introducing the Social Gerontology Group at Uppsala University

I only recently came across the theory of gero-transcendence, which made me aware of Lars Tornstam from Uppsala University. He developed the theory of gero-transcendence as answer to the discredited disengagement theory. Gero-transcendence, in a nutshell, is a shift in meta perspective, from a materialistic and rational view of the world to a more cosmic and transcendent one, normally accompanied by an increase in life satisfaction. Gero-transcencende is a possible natural progression with growing older towards maturation and wisdom. Lars Tornstam and team form the Social Gerontology Group at Uppsala University, which did work within the framework of the national multidisciplinary gerontological program - Elderly in Society - Past, Present and in the Future. Their current and past research output can be found here

Paper:"Embracing ambiguity in the design of non-stigmatizing digital technology for social interaction among senior citizen

Sokoler and Svensson used ethnographic research methods to learn about social interaction between older residents of 3 senior housing facilities in Sweden. They found that everyday activities such as going on walks or doing the gardening provide a 'ticket to talk' with unacquainted older people. They are argue that many everyday activities in public or semi-public places open opportunities for social interaction because it leaves room for ambiguities and unspoken non-explicit intention where people can choose to take part in interaction. They provide the example of the 'gardening lot' where people pass by, rest on a bench, have brief conversations, swap tools and plants. They suggest that designers (of digital technology for social interaction) deliberately leave room for ambiguity to make it possible for people to leave their intentions of use unarticulated. The thought of ambiguity and 'not labelling what it is for' supports my current design idea of the 'teletalker'. However, the 'teletalker' system itself would not be integrated 'invisibly' in everyday activities, but be placed in a semi-public place to evoke curiosity. I write more about my idea once I achieved prototyping stage. T. Sokoler, M.S. Svensson: Embracing ambiguity in the design of non-stigmatizing digital technology for social interaction among senior citizens Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol 26, No.4, July-August 2007, 297 - 307

Do latest technologies empowered silver surfers really exist?

Title: Older adults' use of information and communications technology in everyday life NEIL SELWYN,STEPHEN GORARD, JOHN FURLONG,LOUISE MADDEN Ageing and Society (2003), 23 : pp 561-582 Albeit this paper is from 2003 (and I only just discovered it!) it's reassuring to read similar findings to the ones I have made with my research. I believe that not much has changed in the landscape of older adults' ICT use since 2003. Selwyn et al write: "Above all it is clear that to conceptualise all older adults with the popular notion of a polarisation between the ‘cannots’ and the highly empowered silver surfers is misleading. Indeed, the construction of the highly resourced, motivated silver surfer using ICTs for a range of ‘high-tech’ applications is erroneous." The paper concludes by considering how political and academic assumptions about older people and ICTs might be refocused, away from trying to ‘change’ older adults, and towards involving them in changing ICT. Can someone provide me with an example of a highly resourced and motivated silver surfer? reference to the paper

Why an ageing population is an encouraging sign

Hania Zlotnik, director of the UN Population Division, sees an ageing population as an encouraging sign since people have fewer children. In her opinion the greatest challenge for an ageing world population is economic adaptation. By 2050, more than one in five of the 9 billion people on Earth will be over the age of 60, according to a U.N. report. read article here read article about newest population numbers here

Good example of bridging the generations

AgeUK Barnet has teamed up with schools and colleges in Mill Hill, North Finchley, East Finchley, Colindale and Hendon to bring sixth formers together with older adults who would like to learn more about using computers. The free sessions are run at the AgeUK centres in Hendon and East Finchley. I look forward to hearing about the outcome and success of those sessions in the future. See more about the MiCommunity project here

Facebook blocked the social suicide machine

This article may appear a bit dated, but I think it's still apt! Read the article here The recent Oxford Internet survey showed that there is a increasing number of people who are not interested and reject taking part in the 'online world'. With this article I'm also referring to a previous post about the social suicide machine since I looked for official reviews on this service. The social suicide machine deletes your facebook / twitter / linked profile for you (well since 2010 not Facebook anymore), but it doesn't delete it only - the suicide machine shows in a animated way how you loose your online friends and contacts and this might give you some pleasure! I watched the intro movie about the suicide machine and thought there was one big flaw the way the creator of the suicide machine put things. He said: "Online experience is absolutely no substitute for realtime experiences, all those images, youtube links and tweets are leaving us feeling empty". I support the view that online contact can't replace face-to-face contact, but is there not an argument for realtime online experience, for example where a family video calls another family over skype at Christmas?