Last January 17, CNSC codirector Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol participated in the radio show “Estat de Gràcia” of the Catalan public radio station Catalunya Radio to share her knowledge on how and why older people in Spain use the mobile phone. Mireia based some of her comments on the results of the first wave of the Older Audiences Longitudinal Study, which revealed the intensity of use of the smartphone camera to take pictures and share them via WhatsApp, one of the hottest applications among older people in Spain.
Mireia also discussed the gendered use of the smartphone: older men tend to use more the Internet, while older women tend to use the smartphone slightly more. This trend reveals, in part, the gendered division of labor in family communications, a task that usually relies on women. At the same time, it reflects attitudes related to gender, wherein women tend to be less fearful of making mistakes, an approach that contributes in making them more proficient in the use of these mobile devices.
During the show, Mireia and the show hosts exchanged opinions with older listeners, who called in to share their experiences with smartphones and apps. You can listen to Mireia’s participation (in Catalan) in the embedded video file below (starting at 37:37).
Links:
- Interview in radio show “Estat de Gràcia” (in Catalan)
- Older audiences in the digital media environment: A cross-national longitudinal study
Photo by Jonathan Velasquez on Unsplash.