Mediating intergenerational family communication with computer-supported domestic technology

Abstract

The proliferation of social media tools for facilitating interpersonal communication has inadvertently modified the ways in which intergenerational exchanges are supported. However, such technology has generally not acknowledged the complexity of designing social interaction mechanisms involving older adults, where the provided technology services and the actual needs of elderly people are not necessarily aligned. As a way to bridge this gap, we developed SocialConnector, a computer-supported domestic system that facilitates and mediates social interaction among older adults and other family members using their preferred interaction paradigms and communication media. This paper reports on the results of an empirical in-the-wild study evaluating the mediation effect of the proposed system with a sample of nine families over nine weeks. The study results show that older adults using SocialConnector were more engaged in interacting within their close social networks, whereas social awareness notification messages did encourage user participation between family members and their older adults. By addressing the lessons learned in this study, social computing designers and practitioners would be in a better position to identify plausible solutions that would improve user experience and the effectiveness of computer-supported mediation strategies in intergenerational communication settings.