Are older adults networked individuals? Insights from East Yorkers’ network structure, relational autonomy, and digital media use

ABSTRACT

Networked individualism is a critical concept about the transition of the societal shift from geographically bounded local groups to the contemporary network society comprised of sparse, permeable, and dynamic communication networks. An underlying assumption about networked individuals thus far in the literature is that they are at a younger age. There are fears that older adults have been left behind in this transition to networked individualism. In this study, we are the first to inquire to what extent ‒ and in what ways ‒ are older adults networked individuals. Using in-depth interviews with 41 older adults living in the East York area of Toronto, we used a combination of quantitative coding, thematic analysis, and individual profiling to analyze their social network structure, relational autonomy, and digital media use. Our findings render a rather complex and nuanced picture, showing three types of older adults along the spectrum of networked individualism: networked individuals, socially connected but not networked individuals, and socially constrained individuals. Although most participants are socially connected, those who are networked individuals actively manage and navigate multiple, diverse, and non-redundant social networks. Digital media use is neither necessary nor sufficient in qualifying a person as a networked individual as the great majority of East Yorkers ‒ even if not networked individuals ‒ integrate digital media into their everyday lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Networked individualism
• older adults
• social network
• network structure
• relational autonomy
• digital media

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Christian Beermann, Brent Berry, Rhonda McEwen, Isioma Elueze, Maria Kicevski, Darryl Pieber, Anabel Quan-Haase, Lilia Smale, and Beverly Wellman for their advice and support, the reviewers for their constructive comments, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding our project, and most importantly, the East Yorkers who took the time to share their experiences with our research team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hua Wang is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. She studies communication technologies, social networks, health promotion, and social change. Her award-winning work has been published in journals such as American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Communication Research, and Computers in Human Behavior. She was the 2014 International Communication Association conference theme chair and theme book editor on technologies and well-being [email: [email protected]].

Renwen Zhang is a PhD student in the Media, Technology, and Society program at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on peer support among people with mental illness, with an emphasis on the role of social media in fostering empowerment. She is particularly interested in how individuals use online health communities to obtain health information and social support. Her publications have appeared in Computers in Human Behavior and Telematics and Informatics [email: [email protected]].

Barry Wellman is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, co-director of the NetLab Network, and the Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Ryerson University’s Social Media Lab. Formerly the S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, he studies the intersection of community, digital media, and social networks. Wellman founded the International Network for Social Network Analysis in 1976. He has more than 300 publications, including Networked: The New Social Operating System (Rainie & Wellman, 2012) [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Hua Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8428-8360

Renwen Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7636-9598

Barry Wellman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6340-8837

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada [Grant no 778556] Networked Individualism: A Comparative Study of Social Networks, Digital Media, International Ties, and Privacy.