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E-scaping the ageing body? Computer technologies and embodiment in later life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2010

CHRISTINA E. BUSE
CHRISTINA E. BUSE*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
*
Address for correspondence:Christina Buse, Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE), School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, LeedsLS2 9JT, UK E-mail: c.buse@leeds.ac.uk.
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Abstract

This paper explores the embodied dimensions of computer and internet use in later life, and examines how technology use relates to constructions and experiences of the ageing body. It is argued that previous research on technology use and embodiment has neglected older bodies, in contrast to research on gender and disability. Furthermore, while earlier theorisations presented internet use as disembodied, it is argued that the experience of using such technologies is grounded in our embodiment. In the light of these limitations and arguments for more complete theories of the body, this paper explores how technology use relates to various aspects of embodiment. These issues are examined in the light of data from qualitative interviews and time-use diaries completed by retirees in 17 households in the United Kingdom. By examining the ‘technobiographies’ of these older computer users, it is shown that changes in body techniques are prompted and in some cases required by broader cultural and technological change. The findings evince the process of acquiring computing skills as an embodied competency, and as a form of ‘practical knowledge’ that can only be ‘learned by doing’. These experiences of technology use were embedded within constructions and experiences of ageing bodies. Although the participants drew on discourses of ageing in complex ways, their coding of computer technologies in terms of the competences of youth often reproduced hierarchies between young and old bodies.

Keywords

embodimentcomputersinternetolder adultslifecoursebiographies
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 30 , Issue 6 , August 2010 , pp. 987 - 1009
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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