Geração 60+ na internet : relações tecnológicas, tensões e produção de sentidos na pandemia de Covid-19

Abstract

The study is interested in the relationships of people aged 60 or over with everyday technologies, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The reference years (2020 and 2021) are marked by a health crisis experienced worldwide, of undulating administration, with regard to Nation-States and, also, internally. In Brazil, physical distancing measures and hygiene guidelines have become a central issue and, in this context, digital communication technologies have taken on a previously unseen centrality. When considering groups of people who may have shown more evident distancing from connected screens, the research focuses on the experience of the elderly, as a starting point. This qualitative research departs from a communicational context to encompass the phenomenon of expanded social doing. Some of the theoretical fronts activated during the argument are in the field of aging (chronological and social), identities (generations), material culture, and power relations, starting from a set of meanings produced by the interlocutors of the research. As collection methods, the digital form and focus groups were used. With that, the Thematic Analysis (TA) showed a path of interest, with the necessary flexibility, in the search for speech patterns, paths of meanings, and senses produced by the investigated. To help with the task, the Iramuteq software was used on the fronts of statistical analyses, similarity, descending hierarchical classification, and presentation of word clouds. By opening up the range of findings, the initial concern about the heterogeneity of the experiences of older people is reinforced. Life, health, economic, and family conditions, for instance, will directly influence the so-called independence (more connected to physical issues) and the desired autonomy (decision-making; self-government). The main screen used was the cell phone to talk to family and friends. Among those who maintained active professional relationships during the verified period, it was possible to perceive a smaller field of friction. In general, the meanings that emerged from these relationships are paradoxical – they contain, roughly speaking, positive and negative points – and translated into technologies seen as access, a door to new learning and possibilities, at the same time as a set of spaces of danger, insecurity, and mystery, especially among those who used the term fear to refer to digital experiences.