Older adults and the new public sphere

As governments and other agencies increasingly turn to the Internet to engage in public discourse and the exchange of ideas, relatively little attention has been paid to how older adults participate in this new and developing public sphere. This inattention will become even more of an issue in the future, as the sustained involvement of a significant and growing portion of our population is needed across the board, but notably in areas of health, family, and community sustainability. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 participants in the Senior Odyssey program, who ranged in age from 62 to 84 (mean: 73 years). An attempt was made to gain a qualitative picture of their online engagement. Responses suggest that participants viewed the Internet as a one-way, transmissive information source, and as a supplementary means of communication, primarily with friends and family. Unlike many of today's youth, they exhibited little awareness of an online participatory culture.