Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the role of emotions and on understanding to what extent and how people use SM in later life. An ethnographic study of SM usage serves as the basis for an in-depth analysis of social and emotional conduct in everyday life.

Paper long abstract:

At the same time that the population ages social isolation is emerging as one of the major problems facing society. Social Media (SM) -with Facebook and Twitter as its most popular applications- are becoming fundamental to our social lives. There are few studies so far that explore in depth interpersonal interaction processes on SM in later life, fewer that take into account the role of emotions in this particular communication process for this particular social group. This paper focuses on the role of emotions and on understanding to what extent and how people use SM in later life. An ethnographic study of SM usage, conducted in Catalonia during two years (2013-2015), serves as the basis for an in-depth analysis of their social and emotional conduct in everyday life. Understanding how they use SM could inform the development of policies which foster SM engagement with a view to increase their possibilities for interpersonal relationships, and in turn, reduce social isolation problems. This perspective takes this paper away from simply studying what can or cannot be done online and from an ageism position. It also will allow moving beyond understanding technology as a quick and cheaper fix to social problems. Our interest is rather on how SM are integrated into everyday life in later life, how emotions intervene in their social interaction processes and how to improve their emotional well-being.