Circumspect Users: Older Adults’ as Critical Adopters and Resistors of Technology

Barros Pena, Belen, Clarke, Rachel, Holmquist, Lars and Vines, John (2021) Circumspect Users: Older Adults’ as Critical Adopters and Resistors of Technology. In: CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings . Association for Computing Machinery, New York, p. 84. ISBN 9781450380966

Preview

Text chi21b-sub4022-cam-i16.pdf - Accepted Version Download (6MB) | Preview

Abstract

While HCI research has often addressed the needs of older adults, they are often framed as being sceptical of digital technologies. We argue that while many older adults are circumspect users of digital technology, they bring rich and critical perspectives on the role of technology in society that are grounded in lived experiences across their life courses. We report on 20 technology life story interviews conducted with retirees over the age of 60. Our analysis shows how experiences of technology across their life courses significantly undermined participants’ sense of competency, independence, resilience, agency and control. Dissonances between what our participants valued and the perceived values of technology have led them to become critical adopters of technology, and resist its intrusion into certain aspects of their lives. We discuss how the critical perspectives of older adults and the value dissonances they experience are valuable for designing future digital technologies.

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads