ABSTRACT
This paper discusses a Canadian tablet distribution and digital training program that involved two non-profit organizations. The program targeted older adults during the fall and winter of 2020/2021, an especially dire period of the pandemic in Canada. Drawing on data collected from surveys, interviews and observations, we report on our evaluation of the impact of the program on the older adults and the organizations, highlighting the key role and potential played by paid “tech mentors” who we consider as “warm experts” in the program’s success. As this study suggests, the term warm expert can be expanded beyond the circle of the family. The digital care work needed within society, provided by warm experts, needs recognition and consideration by policy makers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we convey the results of our digital fieldwork within the current mediascape (English) by examining online reactions to an important source of cultural influence: the news media's depiction of older adult's stress, the proposals offered to older adults to assist them in coping with the stress of living in the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally, the responses of online commentators to these proposals. A quasi-automated social network analysis of 3390 valid comments in seven major international news outlets (Jan-June 2020), revealed how older adults were generally resourceful and able to cope with COVID-19 stress. For many in this technology-using sample, information and communication technologies (ICTs) were important for staying informed, busy, and connected, but they were not the primary resources for coping. Although teleconferencing tools were praised for facilitating new forms of intergenerational connection during the lockdowns, they were considered temporary and inadequate substitutes for connection to family. Importantly, older adults objected to uncritical and patronizing assumptions about their ability to deal with stress, and to the promotion of ICTs as the most important coping strategy. Our findings underline the necessity of a critical and media-ecological approach to studying the affordances of new ICTs for older adults, which considers changing needs and contextual preferences of aging populations in adoption of de-stressing technologies. © 2022, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on a series of guided virtual museum visits designed for older adults over the COVID-19 pandemic. The visits were undertaken as part of a research project in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) and brought together small groups of older adults for weekly guided visits facilitated by trained guides. The visits were held for twelve weeks between March and May 2021. We conducted a qualitative study on the visits, which included weekly observations as well as interviews with the older tour participants, the guides and the research and museum staff to understand the experiences of the virtual guided museum tours from the perspective of older adults. We explore how virtual museum tours provide opportunities for engagement with art, technologies and people, especially during the pandemic when visits to the museum were limited by social distancing measures. We bring these findings into conversation with our previous work with on-site museum visits and reflect on questions related to accessibility of virtual museum visits as well as the challenges for socialization. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.