Miller, D;
Garvey, P;
(2021)
Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland: When life becomes craft.
Ageing with Smartphones.
UCL Press: London, UK.
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Abstract
There are not many books about how people get younger. It doesn’t happen very often. But Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland documents a radical change in the experience of ageing. Based on two ethnographies, one within Dublin and the other from the Dublin region, the book shows that people, rather than seeing themselves as old, focus on crafting a new life in retirement. Our research participants apply new ideals of sustainability both to themselves and to their environment. They go for long walks, play bridge, do yoga and keep as healthy as possible. As part of Ireland’s mainstream middle class, they may have more time than the young to embrace green ideals and more money to move to energy-efficient homes, throw out household detritus and protect their environment. The smartphone has become integral to this new trajectory. For some it is an intimidating burden linked to being on the wrong side of a new digital divide. But for most, however, it has brought back the extended family and old friends, and helped resolve intergenerational conflicts though facilitating new forms of grandparenting. It has also become central to health issues, whether by Googling information or looking after frail parents. The smartphone enables this sense of getting younger as people download the music of their youth and develop new interests. This is a book about acknowledging late middle age in contemporary Ireland. How do older people in Ireland experience life today?
| Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland: When life becomes craft |
| ISBN-13: | 9781787359666 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.14324/111.9781787359666 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787359666 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Text © Authors, 2021 Images © Authors, 2021 This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non- commercial Non- derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY- NC- ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non- commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Attribution should include the following information: Garvey, P. and Miller, D. 2021. Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland: When life becomes craft. London: UCL Press. https:// doi.org/ 10.14324/ 111.9781787359666 Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at http:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/ . Any third- party material in this book is published under the book’s Creative Commons licence unless indicated otherwise in the credit line to the material. If you would like to reuse any third- party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. |
| Keywords: | ethnography, smartphones, ageing, new technology |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10126928 |
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