Między obyczajem a modą: wykluczenie cyfrowe osób starszych w perspektywie przemian praktyk społecznych
Between Custom and Fashion: Digital Exclusion of Elder Generations in the Perspective of Change of Social Practices

Summary/Abstract: Due to law rates of ICT consumption among individuals aged 65+ in Poland (14% use computer and Internet, 55% use cell phones), they are treated in public discourse as homogenic digitally excluded group. Drawing upon ethnographic data, practice theory and Lipovetsky’s theory of transition from custom to fashion, this paper proposes a new look at use and disuse of ICT among elders. The research method was multi-sited ethnography among 18 individuals living in Warsaw, born between 1918 and 1942 (pre-war generation, war generation, post-war generation, the Thaw generation). According to life course approach, biographical narratives were conducted beside in-depth interviews and participant observation. Among pre-war generation, social practices were regulated by customary norms. ICT were perceived with anxiety as ‘strangers’ – possibly dangerous novelties. Among war – and post-war generations, ICT were treated as necessities facilitating satisfaction of needs. The important factor of the development of this attitude was the Enlightement idea of progress, widely propagated by the socialist state of People’s Republic of Poland after the WWII. Among the Thaw generation, social practices were regulated by fashion, understood as imitation of new external models of behaviour in order to find emotional stimulation. Individuals engage into practices to gain emotional advantages. Skills connected with using ICT are elements of most of today’s social practices. Digital competences are acquired incidentally during engaging into practices.

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