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"Tell It Like It Really Is": A Case of Online Content Creation and Sharing Among Older Adult Bloggers

Published: 07 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

While the majority of older adults are now active online, they are often perceived as passive consumers of online information rather than active creators of content. As a counter to this view, we examine the practices of older adult bloggers (N=20) through in-depth interviews. We study this group of older adults as a unique case of content creation and sharing. We find that the practice of creating and sharing through blogging meets several important psychological and social needs for older adults. Specifically, blogging supports the development of identity in older adulthood; fosters self-expression that supports older adults' values; provides meaningful engagement during retirement; and enables a sense of community and social interaction that is important for wellbeing in late-life. We argue for a focus on designing for late-life development and detail opportunities for online systems to better support the dynamic experience of growing older through online content creation and sharing.

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References

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cover image ACM Conferences
CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
May 2016
6108 pages
ISBN:9781450333627
DOI:10.1145/2858036
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  1. blogging
  2. creative expression
  3. identity
  4. older adults

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May 7 - 12, 2016
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CHI '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 565 of 2,435 submissions, 23%;
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