Examining the Experiences of Older Women with ICTs: Interrelations of Generation-Specific Media Practices and Individual Media Biographies

A current empirical study explores how Austrian women aged 60 to 70 use and ascribe meaning to ICTs such as television, radio, mobile phone, computer or the Internet. In the study, life-graphs, semi-structured interviews, and indoor walking interviews are used to examine the everyday usage and interpretation of ICTs by older women, coming from various social backgrounds and living in the Austrian region of Styria. Analysing empirical material of the study, this paper focuses on the interrelation of generation-specific media practices and individual (media) biographies as they both influence older women's usage of and attitude towards ICTs. By using Maierhofer's concept of “anocriticism” as a frame for the analysis of the material in addition to Mannheim's idea of “generation location”, it becomes possible to elaborate on a more nuanced understanding of the relation between collective experiences within time and individual life-course perspectives in the context of ICTs.