Resumen de Media literacy and senior adults’ navigation to social media: practices, participation and challenges
Sana Zainab, Maryam Mansoor, Maham Bukhari
Social media platforms are no longer limited to digital natives, but include digital immigrants too. The senior generation also navigates into social media and has a fair share of participation as well. Therefore, the impact of new mediated spheres has targeted not only youngsters but all age groups, though the user experience, contribution and struggles vary based on their digital competencies and media literacy. Popularly, social media is studied and viewed as something related to youngsters who are born in the digital age. The senior generation is equally important, but the practice patterns, participatory aspects, and their challenges in mediated platforms need to be explored as the transition from conventional to digitalized media has made them make some changes. They also need to step forward to adopt media literacy, whether self-taught or assisted, as formal adult media literacy options are limited. This paper studies the ways adults use social media, specifically senior adults, how they participate in interactive mediated spheres, their struggles and vulnerabilities having insufficient skills, their media literacy level, and how they tackle the issues. For that, in-depth interviews have been conducted with twenty-five senior adults and data has been transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. The findings allow us to conclude that most senior adults also navigate into the digital space and use one or more social media platforms. Their purpose, using patterns, contributions and challenges are different, and insufficient media literacy options limit their choices to tackle their issues in mediated spaces. It’s an exclusive phenomenon to design, include and engage this particular age group in media literacy programs and assist them in developing digital competencies.
