Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper explores the dynamics of peer support and companionship among older adults on a social networking site during the COVID-19 lockdown. Drawing from the authors’ five-month experience as volunteer facilitators and a qualitative study involving users, social workers, and managers, the paper examines two modes of online peer support and companionship: one based on voice messages, the other on visual messages. Guided by critical media and data studies, and incorporating concepts from cultural studies of mobile media and information infrastructure studies, the analysis highlights the interplay of relational/emotional and infrastructural work and uncovers intricate gendered and age-related configurations. Our conclusion emphasises, first, the need to comprehend how socio-technical systems shape emotional, relational, and infrastructural work during emergency digital interventions, and second, the importance of examining how specific notions of support and older people’s agency and response-ability are embedded in the socio-technical organisation of these digital interventions.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
