Being Senior and ICT: a Study of Seniors Using ICT in China

Sun, Y., Ding, X. , Lindtner, S., Lu, T. and Gu, N. (2014) Being Senior and ICT: a Study of Seniors Using ICT in China. In: SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14), Toronto, ON, Canada, 26 Apr - 01 May 2014, pp. 3933-3942. ISBN 9781450324731 (doi: 10.1145/2556288.2557248)

Abstract

System design for seniors often focuses on the decline of their biological capabilities and social connectedness. This approach has been challenged as too simplistic to capture what it really means to be senior. This paper presents a qualitative study of 17 seniors in urban China (age ranging from 50s to 70s), who have adopted and incorporated ICT into their daily lives. Findings from this study show that the ways in which seniors attend to ICT are not simply shaped by changes in health or other wellbeing, but also by their life attitudes, value systems, relationships to younger generations as well as historical specifics during their coming of age. This paper contributes by showing that 1) what it means to be senior is shaped from within a whole social ecology of past and current experiences, values and interactions; 2) senior identities are not fixed, but continuously negotiated, articulated and enacted through ICT; 3) social interaction and access of technologies are highly intertwined.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ding, Dr Sharon
• Authors: Sun, Y., Ding, X., Lindtner, S., Lu, T., and Gu, N.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 9781450324731