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

Belen Barros Pena; Rachel Clarke; Lars Holmquist; John Vines

doi:10.1145/3411764.3445128

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

Belen Barros Pena^*, Rachel Clarke, Lars Holmquist, John Vines

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

98 Downloads (Pure)

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.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	ACM
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Print)	9781450380966
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445128
Publication status	Published - 6 May 2021
Event	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021) - Online, Yokohama, Japan Duration: 8 May 2021 → 13 May 2021 https://chi2021.acm.org/ https://chi2021.acm.org

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
Abbreviated title	CHI 2021
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	8/05/21 → 13/05/21
Internet address	https://chi2021.acm.org/ https://chi2021.acm.org

Keywords

Older adults
Life course
Life story interview
Everyday resistance

Access to Document

10.1145/3411764.3445128

chi21b-sub4022-cam-i16Accepted author manuscript, 6.44 MB

Cite this

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title = "Circumspect Users: Older Adults{\textquoteright} as Critical Adopters and Resistors of Technology",

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{\textquoteright} 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.",

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author = "{Barros Pena}, Belen and Rachel Clarke and Lars Holmquist and John Vines",

note = "Funding information: This research was funded by a UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council doctoral studentship (Ref: 1947353). We would like to thank our participants for sharing their experience and making this research possible.; ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), CHI 2021 ; Conference date: 08-05-2021 Through 13-05-2021",

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Barros Pena, B, Clarke, R, Holmquist, L & Vines, J 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., 84, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, ACM, New York, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), Yokohama, Japan, 8/05/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445128

Circumspect Users: Older Adults’ as Critical Adopters and Resistors of Technology. / Barros Pena, Belen; Clarke, Rachel; Holmquist, Lars et al.
CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: ACM, 2021. 84 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Clarke, Rachel

AU - Holmquist, Lars

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N1 - Funding information: This research was funded by a UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council doctoral studentship (Ref: 1947353). We would like to thank our participants for sharing their experience and making this research possible.

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N2 - 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.

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

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