Elderly and Social Media: Bridging the gap of eMarginality

Funder: Fundació Bancària "la Caixa"

Call: Ajuts a la recerca RecerCaixa 2012 (Fundació Bancària "la Caixa")

Of Regional scope.

Then, the main objective of the research is to reduce the feeling of isolation amongst older people, by fostering their social media usage with a view to increase their possibilities for interpersonal relationships. This objective is aligned with La Obra Social la Caixa programme entitled; Informática y comunicación al alcance de todos; that promotes elderly access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in everyday life. Specific objectives of this proposal are as follows: * To contribute to the analysis and prevention of feeling of isolation and loneliness amongst older people * To analyse the causes of social media engagement for older adults * To develop a model of older people's social web engagement * To promote older adult's social media engagement in order to increase their emotional well-being * To outline recommendations for designing interfaces for social media more usable for elderly * To outline recommendations for future policy in the area of e-Inclusion. The project will cover social media, considering all services and applications where older people can relate with others and share topics of interests.