<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The concepts of user and non-user are frequently deployed within media and communications literature. What do these terms mean if examined regarding age and ageing? In this article we explore and trouble these notions through an analysis of twenty-two conversations with a group of octogenarians and nonagenarians living in a retirement home. Their descriptions of their changing uses of media througout lifetime, and their encounters with mobile phones, computers, newspapers, television, radio and landline phones, are presented as a set of ‘techno-biographies’ that challenge binary divisions of use and non-use, linear notions of media adoption, and add texture to the idea of ‘the fourth age’ as a time of life bereft of decisional power. Speaking with octogenarians and nonagenarians provides insights into media desires, needs and uses, and opens up ‘non-use’ as a complex, variegated activity, rather than a state of complete inaction or disinterest.</p>
</abstract>

The concepts of user and non-user are frequently deployed within media and communications literature. What do these terms mean if examined regarding age and ageing? In this article we explore and trouble these notions through an analysis of twenty-two conversations with a group of octogenarians and nonagenarians living in a retirement home. Their descriptions of their changing uses of media througout lifetime, and their encounters with mobile phones, computers, newspapers, television, radio and landline phones, are presented as a set of ‘techno-biographies’ that challenge binary divisions of use and non-use, linear notions of media adoption, and add texture to the idea of ‘the fourth age’ as a time of life bereft of decisional power. Speaking with octogenarians and nonagenarians provides insights into media desires, needs and uses, and opens up ‘non-use’ as a complex, variegated activity, rather than a state of complete inaction or disinterest.

Maintaining Connections: Octo- and Nonagenarians on Digital ‘Use and Non-use’

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The concepts of user and non-user are frequently deployed within media and communications literature. What do these terms mean if examined regarding age and...

Computer	Mobile phone
Computer	Current user	Ex-user	Never a user	N
Current user	3	2	4	9
Ex-user	0	1	3	4
Never a user	3	1	5	9
N	6	4	12	22

Maintaining Connections: Octo- and Nonagenarians on Digital ‘Use and Non-use’

Published Online: Jun 27, 2017

Page range: 39 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0396

Keywords
ageing, octo- & nonagenarian, digital communication media, use, non-use

© 2017 Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Participants classified according to their relationship to mobile phones and computers

Maintaining Connections: Octo- and Nonagenarians on Digital ‘Use and Non-use’

Published Online: Jun 27, 2017

Page range: 39 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0396

Keywordsageing, octo- & nonagenarian, digital communication media, use, non-use

© 2017 Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Participants classified according to their relationship to mobile phones and computers

Keywords
ageing, octo- & nonagenarian, digital communication media, use, non-use