Aging and the Digital Life Course

David Prendergast is a social anthropologist based at Intel Labs Europe and a Principal Investigator in the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities with Imperial College and University College London. He also holds the position of Visiting Professor of Healthcare Innovation at Trinity College Dublin.

2016 CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE“Editors Prendergast and Garattini have done an outstanding job bringing to the forefront what it means to age in a digital world. They have broken new ground inasmuch as they explore an everyday phenomenon as an extension of the life course. This text provides a clear path to considering and possibly understanding multiple ways of knowing and assigning meaning to aging… Highly recommended.” • Choice“…a candid look at how technology can and is being used in our aging society. Taken as a collection, these essays make a powerful case for the potential of thoughtful technologies to improve the quality of life of older adults, whether they are aging in place independently or being cared for by family or a professional caregiver.” • Huffington Post“…this book gives a powerful takeaway thought for future research in the aging field: People want to focus on what they can do. Nobody of any age likes to feel they are a burden.” • Anthropology Notebooks“[This volume] is unreservedly recommended as a critically important addition to both community and academic library collections.” • Midwest Book Review“Aging and the Digital Life Course provides an interesting and often thought-provoking read… The editors have succeeded in assembling an engaging and effective compilation from amidst the range of material that might have been included. The authors write clearly and accessibly about their subjects, allowing a wide range of readers (e.g. policymakers, practitioners and academics in engineering, health and social care) to get quickly to grips with a huge diversity of facts and concepts… The chapters are factually well-informed and also theoretically articulated, although some stand out.” • Anthropology and Action“This book presents us with an interesting study of how various technologies, including web-based tools and information and communication technologies, are embedded in particular social processes and experiences of aging and the life course. Instead of taking the usual position that ‘technology’ is something that is consumed and thrust upon us… this book shows how technologies are themselves a set of relations and processes that are open to change.” • Philip Kao, University of Pittsburgh“…a comprehensive view of a topic that is becoming increasingly important in health care but is often misunderstood and/or undervalued. It presents the actual/potential use of technology for enhancing the lives of older people and their caregivers.” • Catherine McCabe, Trinity College Dublin

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Critical Reflections on Ageing and Technology in the Twenty-First CenturyChiara Garattini and David PrendergastPart I: Connections, Networks and InteractionsChapter 1. Social Media and the Age-Friendly CommunityPhilip B. StaffordChapter 2. Exploring New Technologies through Playful Peer-to-Peer Engagement in Informal LearningJosie Tetley, Caroline Holland, Verina Waights, Jonathan Hughes, Simon Holland and Stephanie WarrenChapter 3. Older People and Constant Contact MediaRachel S. SinghChapter 4. Beyond Determinism: Understanding Actual Use of Social Robots by Older PeopleLouis Neven and Christina LeesonPart II: Health and WellbeingChapter 5. Designing Technologies for Social Connection with Older PeopleJoseph Wherton, Paul Sugarhood, Rob Procter and Trisha GreenhalghChapter 6. Avoiding the ‘Iceberg Effect’: Incorporating a Behavioural Change Approach to Technology Design in Chronic IllnessJohn DinsmoreChapter 7. Supporting a Good Life with DementiaArlene AstellChapter 8. Home Telehealth: Industry Enthusiasm, Health System Resistance and Community ExpectationsSarah Delaney and Claire SomervilleChapter 9. Analysing Hands-on-Tech Care Work in Telecare Installations. Frictional Encounters with Gerontechnological DesignsDaniel López and Tomás Sánchez-CriadoPart III: Life Course TransitionsChapter 10. Caregiving in the Digital EraMadelyn Iris and Rebecca BermanChapter 11. Digital Storytelling and the Transnational Retirement Networks of Older Japanese AdultsMayumi OnoChapter 12. Digital Games in the Lives of Older AdultsBob De Schutter, Julie A. Brown and Henk Herman NapChapter 13. Digital Ownership across LifespansWendy MoncurNotes on ContributorsIndex