Social Lives
Author: Dr. Katja Seidel, Senior Post-Doc Researcher in SHAPES (Horizon 2020); Department of Anthropology and Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute at Maynooth University
We all learn. Every day we live we experience something new, acquire novel skills or engage with a new person or activity for the first time. Learning thus never ends, not even when we leave formal educational pathways or retire. The Horizon 2020 Innovation Action research project SHAPES (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems) led by Maynooth University and ALL Institute members, starts from the assumption that people of all ages are capable of learning and integrating new tools and behaviours into their lives, especially when assisted in an appropriate manner. This four-year research project looks at ways in which integrated care and governance models as well as smart technologies can support community dwelling older adults to live healthy and active lives, and investigates different pathways for change and innovation that will have a beneficial impact on our societies in Europe.
As part of SHAPES, social anthropologists David Prendergast, Jamie Saris and myself together with a team of researchers in eight European countries are studying ethnographically the lifeworlds of older adults to understand the lived experiences, relationships and values of these individuals. The aim of our task (2.1) is to create a body of knowledge on the actual needs, hopes and challenges that individuals and communities face when growing old. Findings from this research contribute towards SHAPES’ innovations in integrated care models, digital and technological innovations and independent living.
The fieldwork component of our task started in March 2020, with the intention to visit 100 people aged 65+ in their homes and communities to learn about their daily practices, narratives of past and present and their recommendations for future innovations. However, as the beginning of our research overlapped with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the original plan for face to face interactions in people’s homes was quickly made impossible. Given the circumstances, learning has taken a new turn and our team had to develop an alternative research approach. To continue our engagement, despite the pandemic, we constructed a remote research methodology based on long-term interactions through online video-interviewing and remote analogue conversations. To do so, we used a qualitative, semi-structured interview guide with nine themes that enables participants’ free choice in their narrative responses and allows engagement in a flow of conversations led by core topical interest and participants’ own decisions, interests and experiences. Since May 2020 we have in that manner conducted narrative interviews with 94 individuals in 90 households, with most case studies leading to 3-6 interactions with a total conversation time of 4 and 12 hours per person. By August 2021, we had collected 387 hours of transcribed and translated conversations on a wide range of topics, including social lives, mobility, finances, health, care, smart technologies, memories, and plans for the future.
Speaking to community dwelling older adults across Europe, we found that continuing education and especially upskilling on digital technologies is key in order to remain actively connected even in times as difficult as these past two years. For example Ted, a 71-year old participant from Northern Ireland, pointed out that “older people already feel incompetent to a great extent because of the world moving so dramatically around them”. Aware of the importance of upskilling to engage seniors with technologies to a degree that they can participate in the modern world, he furthermore highlighted that older adults wish to be taught in using digital technologies in a way that works for them. And indeed, as the case of Ludwig (69) from Dresden, Germany, shows, digital literacy provides purpose and enables participation.
Ludwig is a profound believer in progress and values the potential the internet unfolds – not least because he got to know his second wife in an online dating platform. With his sense of innovation, the chatty and highly educated former manager of a food company regularly engages with new programmes, technological tools and experiments with new apps and e-health innovations. Retired in 2015, Ludwig today contributes to various advisory boards, invests time in volunteer work and teaching activities. To him, digital environments are an important communicative space. During the coronavirus pandemic, he says, many senior citizens discovered the joys of video conferences. At a time when personal contacts were limited or even prohibited, applications such as WhatsApp or Skype allowed for families to meet, to see each other and to share images as well as videos. Ludwig is convinced that the pandemic provided an opportunity to interest and engage more older adults in using digital technologies:
“As I said, I have a colleague who is 86 years old. She used Skype for the first time. And she was really excited when we had the first project meeting online. (…) I hope this trend – from digital telecommunications to e-health – will keep up beyond this Corona wave.”
Ludwig and Ted both emphasise the significance of educating older adults in the use of digital applications and online communication platforms. From experience, Ludwig has some advice on teaching strategies: “Showing older adults the functions one time is not enough for senior citizens to go home and use them themselves, cause even a small problem can bring their efforts to an end. And feeling that you don’t get anywhere is actually very frustrating.” This however does not mean that they are less willing or eager to engage with these new tools and means of communication, “they just need more regular hands-on support”.
Aware that learning in the later stages of life requires different didactics and pedagogical approaches, including peer-to-peer and professional education, Ludwig recently presented Skype at the Seniors’ Academy in Dresden. With two laptops and two projectors to demonstrate the transmitter’s and receiver’s point of view to convey the usefulness of the available functions. Framed in a wider talk on the social aspects of social media, his audience learned not only about functionalities but also about the joy of applying these means of communication to their personal lives.
Digital upskilling is key to integrating older adults in the developments of a digital age, with all its possibilities of e-Health applications, online banking and digitally supported video conversations that will enrich their lives, especially when living independently and often alone. The coronavirus pandemic has created additional motivation and pathways for older adults and researchers to play with digital communications and to learn about the possibilities that digital environments and technologies offer. Hands-on workshops, courses and lectures are important means for learning, but even forums and platforms where one can find information and peers can share their experiences and learn from one another are essential support systems. The SHAPES governance model and the marketplace that are currently in the making as an outcome of this research project will enable such a platform that creates an accessible environment with a wealth of information for older adults, care givers and policy makers who will benefit from the SHAPES findings and data lake beyond the project’s lifetime.
With research still ongoing we are excited to learn more about the needs of older adults and the possibilities of learning environments, supportive technologies and community networks to assist content living and participation at all ages. To do so will help bridge what another research participant called “a profound cultural break between my own and the next generation” and include senior citizens in meaningful ways to co-create a common future.
For more insights into the lifeworlds of older adults in Europe please visit #SHAPESSTORIES on the SHAPES project website.
The SHAPES project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 857159.