Abstract
By means of a case study we explore how the residents of a retirement home use mobile telephony. This is part of wider research on mobile communication among the elderly population in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). A qualitative approach, based on semi-structured interviews, allows the exploration of social perceptions, representations and use of the technology to better understand the processes in operation here. We analyze the position that mobile telephony occupies in the personal system of communication channels (PSCC) and we observe that the mobile phone has become a central channel and a strategic tool for seniors who have moved from their private household to a retirement home, while intensity of telephony use is kept low. Taking into account the available evidence on mobile appropriation in the golden age, the first results of the case study are presented and discussed here.
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Fernández-Ardèvol, M. (2011). Mobile Phones in a Retirement Home: Strategic Tools for Mediated Communication. In: Cherifi, H., Zain, J.M., El-Qawasmeh, E. (eds) Digital Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications. DICTAP 2011. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 166. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21984-9_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21984-9_34
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