Narratives on ageing and media use: results of an Austrian media biographical study
Narratives on ageing and media use: results of an Austrian media biographical study

Summary/Abstract: Examining how digitalisation impacts media use, this study focuses on older people, who make up an ever-bigger share of the population. The paper looks at the role of media in older people’s biographies and their perception of technological change. Media-biographical interviews were conducted with 21 individuals aged 60+ years to answer these questions. Findings reveal the dominance of traditional media (TV, newspapers, radio) along with the growing use of digital technologies, notably smartphones as a vital daily medium. The effects of digitalisation on older individuals are ambivalent. While on one hand they feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the applications, on the other they also benefit from advantages like the low-threshold information and communication options. The study shows that different ways of dealing with the challenges of digitalisation exist – from learning from the younger generation through to resilience.

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