Growing old with media technology and the material experience of ageing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Growing old with media technology and the material experience of ageing

AU - Givskov, Cecilie

PY - 2018/6/1

Y1 - 2018/6/1

N2 - During the 20th and 21st century, media such as radio, telephone, television, computers and cell phones moved into everyday life as taken-for-granted elements. Based on observations and life-history interviews with 22 older women, this article discusses how media technology is materially involved in the experience of growing old. The analysis reveals two aspects of this. First, different technology stands out from its background presence as problematic because the media no longer enable the experiences they used to. Second, disconnects with and through media technology direct attention towards the declining body. The participants embody ‘old age’ by linking their experience with media to two cultural constructions of material ageing: generation and natural ageing. I argue that inasmuch as everyday life has become mediatized, the experience of growing old also takes place with and through media technology. This article forms part of ‘Media and the Ageing Body’ Special Issue.

AB - During the 20th and 21st century, media such as radio, telephone, television, computers and cell phones moved into everyday life as taken-for-granted elements. Based on observations and life-history interviews with 22 older women, this article discusses how media technology is materially involved in the experience of growing old. The analysis reveals two aspects of this. First, different technology stands out from its background presence as problematic because the media no longer enable the experiences they used to. Second, disconnects with and through media technology direct attention towards the declining body. The participants embody ‘old age’ by linking their experience with media to two cultural constructions of material ageing: generation and natural ageing. I argue that inasmuch as everyday life has become mediatized, the experience of growing old also takes place with and through media technology. This article forms part of ‘Media and the Ageing Body’ Special Issue.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Ageing body

KW - cultural ageing

KW - media materiality

KW - mediatization

U2 - 10.1177/1367549417708431

DO - 10.1177/1367549417708431

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1367-5494

VL - 21

SP - 305

EP - 316

JO - European Journal of Cultural Studies

JF - European Journal of Cultural Studies

IS - 3

ER -