How older adults experience the digitalisation of their everyday life: the case of e-reading

Werner Schirmer, Anina Vercruyssen, Nelly Geerts and Ignace Glorieux

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 19, 4684-4695

Abstract: This article explores e-reading as an instance of how older people experience the digitalisation of everyday life. Drawing on focus group data, we examine how older people make sense of e-reading in particular and digitalisation in general. We analysed the data with a constructivist analytic strategy inspired by sociologist Niklas Luhmann. The participants appreciate e-reading in situations where practicality and functionality matter. At the same time, they prefer an analogue “essence” in the materiality of traditional books allegedly missing in e-reading, which can be referred to as “emotional materiality”. When using e-readers as an entry point for older people to talk about digitalisation in general, it can be seen that digitalisation is accepted by older people when it offers practicality, but is rejected when they experience it as an interference in their everyday lives that is pushed upon them at a high pace and against their will.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2486569

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