Warm experts for elderly users : who are they and what do they do?
Olsson, T. & Viscovi, D. (2018). Warm experts for elderly users : who are they and what do they do? Human Technology, 14 (3), 324-342. doi:10.17011/ht/urn.201811224836
Date
2018Copyright
©2018 Tobias Olsson & Dino Viscovi, and the Open Science Centre, University of
Jyväskylä
This paper examines “warm experts”—that is, nonprofessional persons who
help inexperienced users come to terms with digital devices—and their significance for
the use of digital media in everyday life by elderly Swedes. We analyze data from a
national survey (N = 1264) and from qualitative, semistructured interviews with 18
elderly Swedes (aged 65+). Our data reveal that the warm expert usually is a closelyrelated
person, often a child or grandchild, who is strongly involved in nearly every
stage of technology domestication, from appropriation (i.e., identifying the need, buying
the item, and installing and adjusting it) to incorporation (i.e., choosing and
downloading suitable apps, teaching how to use them, and solving technical problems).
Although the clear majority of elderly Swedes have been online for more than a decade,
the need for continuous assistance from warm experts seems to persist also among
experienced users.
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University of JyväskyläISSN Search the Publication Forum
1795-6889Metadata
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