Individual and shared digital repertoires : older adults managing digital services

Abstract

The rise of public and other non-recreational digital services is based on the idea of catering to the daily needs of the citizens cost-efficiently and with ease. Previous research has approached the use of digital services mainly from the perspective of an individual, while the significance of shared practices of use has attracted only a little attention. In this article, we (1) examine the incentives and limitations associated with the use of non-recreational digital services, which either encourage or discourage older adults to use them. Based on the first question, we then ask (2) how older adults in this study manage those non-recreational digital services they have chosen to use. Our qualitative analysis is based on participant-induced elicitation (PIE) interviews (n = 21) carried out in Central Finland with older adults aged between 65 and 89. Our findings suggest that there are conflicting views about digital services – they simultaneously evoke both positive and negative associations among interviewees. The incentives and limitations of digital services are expressly heterogeneous among older adults and vary depending on the individual and shared digital repertoire of each user. We describe how participants in this study employed multiple strategies, such as sharing digital repertoires with warm experts, to actively manage using digital services in their daily lives.