Drawing on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data, this research adopts a life course perspective to examine how Chinese urban older adults adjust their smartphone use in response to significant life events across later life. The findings reveal that multi-level life events foster a dynamic continuum of (dis)connection. At the same time, adaptive and maladaptive use patterns coexist among Chinese urban older adults, demonstrating heterogeneity in their smartphone use. By proposing a shift from an age-as-variable approach to an aging-as-process approach, this study emphasizes older adults’ contextualized (dis)connectivity situated within life course transitions and trajectories, which reflects a negotiation between individual agency and socio-technical structures.
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Chen et al. (2026) studied this question.
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