Becoming Digital, Elderly Engagements with a Norwegian Digital Present

Abstract

From a senior center in Oslo, the struggle against social alienation is acted out by a group of retirees as they bring their smartphones and tablets along to courses that seek to help them become more digitally literate. This thesis considers aspects of digitalization from the point of view of those who very actively try to keep up with it. There is an articulated goal for the Norwegian government to make digital citizens. What goes into this process for these particular people, and what can insights into this tell us about the digitalization that we are all engaged in? This thesis explores what kind of premises a group of retirees in Oslo needs to come to terms with, in order to navigate their digital devices. The thesis is made up of six main chapters. The first chapter introduces the field and discuss the most important methodological considerations when dealing with digital space. The following two explore the way in which people at the senior center perceive digital spaces on the level of experience and how they come to terms with the transition from analog to digital forms: chapter two explores how they understand and navigate digital space, whereas the third considers the very fast speed that the course participants are confronted with in this digital space. The fourth chapter follows those of my interlocutors who have come to terms with using digital devices in a way that allows them to actively engage with their intimate and more distant relationships online. Being present in digital space is not just a matter of getting access to arenas where sociality is played out, it is also becoming increasingly imperative to be a full member of the Norwegian society and welfare state. The last two chapters of this thesis will therefore change its scope to a more systematic approach to discuss how rapidly changing digital technologies seem to generate new forms of exclusion as well as reinforcing already existing social orders between the young and the old in society. Lastly, I will raise questions related to the idea of digital citizenship and discuss how the Norwegian welfare state presents itself to its citizens in digital space and how this alters the relationship between citizens and state.