Abstract
The present research focuses on the problems connected to digital literacy for the elderly and on moments of intergenerational learning. The paper presents the main results of an ethnographic research carried out for a course on the risks related to the unintentional use of ICTs. The course took place in March 2019, involving 60 seniors as attendees and 25 students from a secondary school in a small town in the north of Italy as lecturers. The research seems to remark the importance of the context where the encounters between younger and older people take place. Overall, our observations do not indicate that intergenerational learning is useless per se, nor they suggest that it is not successful at all. The joining of different generations always raises symbolic challenges in terms of social recognition. What appears clear from our observations is that placing an intergenerational training in a classroom is not sufficient in itself to transform young students in teachers. It neither puts older people in the correct disposition to feel like students again.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Standard Eurobarometer. Media use in the European Union (2017). for more recent percentages. https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/ResultDoc/download/DocumentKy/82786
Loos, E., Haddon, H., Mante-Meijer, E. (eds.): Generational Use of New Media. Ashgate, Farnham (2012)
Czaja, S.J., et al.: Factors influencing use of an e-health website in a community sample of older adults. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 20, 277–284 (2013)
Hunsaker, A., Hargittai, E.: A review of Internet use among older adults. New Media Soc. 20(10), 3937–3954 (2018)
Breck, B.M., Dennis, C.B., Leedahl, S.N.: Implementing reverse mentoring to address social isolation among older adults. J. Gerontol. Soc. Work 61, 513–525 (2018)
Kim, J., Gray, J.: Qualitative evaluation of an intervention program for sustained internet use among low-income older adults. Ageing Int. 41(3), 240–253 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-015-9235-1
Neves, B.B., Amaro, F., Fonseca, J.R.S.: Coming of (old) age in the digital age: ICTs usage and non-usage among older adults. Sociol. Res. Online 18, 22–35 (2013)
Sourbati, M., Carlo, S.: The mutuality of age and technology in digital divide policy. In: Partnership for Progress on the Digital Divide 2015 International Conference, Scottsdale (Phoenx), Arizona, USA, 21–22 October 2015 (2015)
ISTAT: Rapporto annuale 2017, La situazione del Paese (2017). http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/199318
European Commission: Europe’s Digital Progress, report 2017 (2017). https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/european-digital-progress-report
CENSIS 15° Rapporto Censis sulla comunicazione (2018). http://www.censis.it/comunicazione/15%C2%B0-rapporto-censis-sulla-comunicazione
Rossi, G., Boccacin, L., Bramanti, D., Meda, S.G.: Active ageing: intergenerational relationships and social generativity. Stud. Health Technol. Inform. 203, 57–68 (2014)
Sourbati, M.: On older people, internet access and electronic service delivery: a study of sheltered homes. In: Loos, E., Haddon, L., Mante-Meijer, E. (eds.) The Social Dynamics of Information and Communication Technology, pp. 95–104. Ashgate, Aldershot (2008)
Colombo, F., Aroldi, P., Carlo, S.: “I use it correctly!”: the use of ICTs among Italian grandmothers in a generational perspective. Hum. Technol. 14, 343–365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.17011/ht/urn.201811224837
Carlo, S., Vergani, M.: Risk and benefit perceptions: resistance, adoption and uses of ICT among the Italian elderly. In: Zhou, J., Salvendy, G. (eds.) ITAP 2016. LNCS, vol. 9754, pp. 155–166. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39943-0_15
Aroldi, P., Carlo, S., Colombo, F.: New elders, old divides: ICTs, inequalities and well being amongst young elderly Italians. Comunicar 23(45), 47–55 (2015). peer reviewed
Prensky, M.: Digital natives, digital immigrants. Horizon 5, 1–6 (2001)
Bramanti, D.: Scambi tra famiglie e prosocialità intergenerazionale. In: Scabini, E., Rossi, G. (eds.) La famiglia prosociale, pp. 157–180. Vita e Pensiero, Milano (2002)
Carlo, S., Rebelo, C.: Technology: a bridge or a wall? The inter(intra)generational use of ICTs among Italian grandmothers. In: Zhou, J., Salvendy, G. (eds.) ITAP 2018. LNCS, vol. 10926, pp. 446–464. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92034-4_34
Lüscher, K., et al.: Generations, intergenerational relationships, generational policy: a multilingual compendium, Universität Konst. Rocznik Andragogiczny 22, 459 (2016). https://doi.org/10.12775/ra.2015.032
Buse, C.E.: When you retire, does everything become leisure? Information and communication technology use and the work/leisure boundary in retirement. New Media Soc. 7, 1143–1161 (2009)
Nimrod, G.: The internet as a resource in older adult leisure. Int. J. Disabil. Hum. Dev. 8(3), 207–214 (2008)
Ivan, L., Hebblethwaite, S.: Grannies on the net: grandmothers’ experiences of Facebook in family communication. Revista Română de Comunicare şi Relaţii Publice 18(1), 11–25 (2016)
Fernández-Ardèvol, M., Sawchuk, K., Grenier, L.: Maintaining connections: octo- and nonagenarians on digital ‘use and non-use’. Nordicom Rev. 38(1), 39–51 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0396
Comunello, F., Fernández-Ardèvol, M., Mulargia, S., Belotti, F.: Women, youth and everything else: age-based and gendered stereotypes in relation to digital technology among elderly Italian mobile phone users. Media Cult. Soc. 39(6), 798–815 (2017)
Loos, E.: Senior citizens: digital immigrants in their own country? Observatorio 6(1), 1–23 (2012)
Bennett, S., Maton, K., Kervin, L.: The ‘digital natives’ debate: a critical review of the evidence. Br. J. Edu. Technol. 39(5), 775–786 (2008)
Acknowledgments
This research is a pilot project within the wider international project HARVEST - eHealth and Aging in Rural Areas: Transforming Everyday Life, Digital Competences, and Technology. Harvest is funded by Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) “More Years, Better Lives” (Third Call). The third Joint Transnational Call, launched in December 2016, is entitled “Ageing and Place in a digitising world”, Joint Programming Initiative “More Years, Better Lives” (JPI MYBL) is supported by J-Age II. J-Age II is funded by Horizon2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, under Grant Agreement nr 643850. International Coordinator: Simon Lindgren - Umeå University (Sweden). Italian coordinator: Fausto Colombo – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Carlo, S., Bonifacio, F. (2020). “You Don’t Need Instagram, It’s for Young People”: Intergenerational Relationships and ICTs Learning Among Older Adults. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology and Society. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12209. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50232-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50232-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50231-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50232-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)