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- Convenors:
-
Shivangi Patel
(Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi)
Harsh Vardhan Dubey (National Institute of Fashion Technology)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Room 109, Teaching & Learning Building (TLB)
- Sessions:
- Thursday 10 April, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The panel seeks into multi-sited ethnographies exploring the role of digital technologies to shape and reshape elder care practices. It investigates the potential of ICTs and other digital media platforms, which challenges the traditional notions of aging and care.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores the interaction between digital media platforms and elder care practices using a multi-sited ethnographic approach. Given the rise of global migration and changing family structures around the world, these approaches look at the role of digital technologies in sustaining care circulation across distances. Papers in this panel will seek the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in elder care, particularly in the case where physical presence in caregiving is lacking. The multi-sited ethnographies will reveal the nuances of the virtual presence mediated through platforms such as Whatsapp, Skype and healthcare apps which are becoming essential tools for sustaining relationships, facilitating care practices, and maintaining emotional bonds between aging parents and their distant children. Papers will also investigate and analyze the media representation of these digital platforms discussing different prospects of aging and care.
The panel highlights the need for the adoption of new digital realities in the anthropology of aging and care. It explores how mobility—both physical and digital—shapes and reshapes the circulation of care in ways that transcend traditional roles and boundaries, calling into question established notions of proximity, obligation, and intimacy. With being open to the wider scholarly debate on the complex entanglements of aging, technology, care, and mobility; this panel tries to contribute to a deeper understanding of these intersections and how they are collectively transforming anthropology on the move.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 10 April, 2025, -Paper Short Abstract:
By exploring the narratives and portrayal of older people in telecom ads, this paper argues that media representation of older people in ads that have hitherto featured only the young, are an evidence of digital leisure and thus new paradigms emerging from the Global South.
Paper Abstract:
Telecom companies in the Global South have been facing stiff competition, such that they have had to devise various customer acquisition strategies: lower price points, data coverage geographically, daily data limit being increased, free SMS, lower rates for phone calls, free access to select streaming platforms. While these offers are advertised towards increasing the number of new enrollments, another strategy of customer acquisition is through advertisements that are targetted to newer audiences. One such demographic is older people (those aged above 60), who are featured in advertisements rolled out by telecom companies. This is a shift from featuring younger people in ads, thus revealing the emergence of older people as consumers and creators of digital cultures. Through discourse analysis, this paper is an analysis of various television commercials (TVCs) by telecom companies. The geographical and cultural scope of this analysis are ads created in India since 2019. This paper thus explores the interlinkages between digital divide and digital leisure (Arora, 2019). By exploring the narratives and portrayal of older people in telecom ads, this paper argues that new forms of agency as exercised by older people can possibly bridge that digital divide, and media representation of older people in ads that have hitherto featured only the young, are also an evidence of digital leisure and thus new paradigms emerging from the Global South.
Paper Short Abstract:
This ethnographic study explores how Facebook plays a vital role in the lives of elderly Filipino women: from a simple communication tool to a digital community center, a shopping platform, a telehealth service, and even a place for worship.
Paper Abstract:
In rural provinces of the Philippines, traditional family structures have been disrupted by the migration of younger generations in search of better work opportunities. This has left an aging Filipino population isolated in their rural homes, often tasked with taking care of young grandchildren while their parents work. At the same time, government services meant to address this new problem have been slow to develop, prompting many older Filipinos to turn to the digital world for support.
This ethnographic study, conducted in a rural town in North Luzon approximately eight hours away from the capital of Manila, explores how elderly women use social media to navigate their changing lives. What began as a way to communicate with family has evolved into a multifunctional tool: a digital community center, a marketplace, a telehealth service, and a space for religious practices, among others. These platforms provide elderly women a space to foster connections and access resources otherwise unavailable to them. This research further highlights how using ICTs has increased their ability to maintain agency and redefine their roles even as the world outside becomes limited, gaining greater access to the world and asserting their voices and identities in new and transformative ways.
Paper Short Abstract:
This study explores how social media reduces loneliness among elderly parents with children living abroad or at a distance. Platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook foster emotional connections, enhancing well-being.
Paper Abstract:
Among the elderly, loneliness has become a significant concern, mainly for those whose children have migrated abroad or are located far away. Social media offer a potential avenue through which these feelings can be reduced by facilitating communication and emotional relationships.This study explores the role of social media in reducing loneliness among separated elderly parents from their children.
With the mixed-method approach, we conducted a survey with 50 elderly residents aged above 60. The data supplementations involved semi-structured interviews of 15 participants. The method of measurement for the survey measures social media use, most popular sites, and self-assessed levels of loneliness by UCLA Loneliness Scale; the interviews collected insights into their digital life.
Results for seniors indicate that there exist crucial roles of WhatsApp and Facebook, helping them preserve emotional connections. Results show that, especially with messaging, video calls,group chats, people can develop connections and prevent issues arising from isolation.
This study finds the potential of social media in reducing elderly people's feelings of loneliness in a transnational and geographically distanced family setting. Hence, suitable senior-friendly digital literacy schemes and accessible online settings require an augmentation of emotional well-being and quality of life among the elderly population.
Paper Short Abstract:
The proposed paper examines the shifting contours of 'aging' and 'care' (in the absence of physical care) amongst transnational Indian older persons residing alone. It does so by analyzing social media platforms of care providing agencies in India.
Paper Abstract:
The proposed paper examines the shifting contours of aging and care provision amongst urban Indian older persons residing alone. India is currently witnessing a massive shift in demographic and developmental processes. In a country where elderly care was largely embedded in the patriarchal joint family, these developments are complicating family based care arrangements for elderly. Situated within this context, this paper illuminates the media representation of aging and care in absence of physical care for older persons whose adult children have migrated transnationally. It analyzes the social media platforms of several market-driven mechanisms of elderly care ranging from Antara, Age Venture India, Avaza, Emoha, Epoch, Elcare etc. which have sprung up in the Indian market promising to offer ‘family like care’ or ‘home based care’. Through the lens of media posts and advertisement posters of these care providing agencies, this paper discusses the changing narratives and conceptions of elderly care in Indian transnational families. This further illustrates the shifting understanding of aging as a ‘lethargic experience’, ‘debilitating process’ to ‘an active and engaged phase’. This paper also examines the terms like ‘Smart ageing’, ‘Active-ageing’ and ‘Positive ageing’ which are increasingly pointing towards these shifts.