Social samvaro i sociala medier : En studie om digitalt utanförskap hos äldre

Sammanfattning: This study focuses on trying to understand the attitudes of people born in the 1940’s concerning their view on social media. This 1940’s group has been growing on the social networks such as Facebook, but their usage is not active. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to understand in what way they are affected by the using of these platforms. The theories that have been applied to this report is Habermas theory of the Public sphere and democracy, McLuhan's theory of Medium is the message and the theory of the Digital divide. These theories have been used to create an understanding of the results that emerged during the study.  A Qualitative method was used to collect information, and through this Qualitative interviews were used. The interviews resulted in three themes, which was democracy in social media, risks and possibilities in the social and the digital divide. The result showed that the group felt left out because of their lack of skills when it comes to technology. It also showed that the lack of skills has caused a negative effect since the users rather seek information than sharing their own, which was a result of their lacking skills. This result was linked to the theory of the Digital divide and McLuhan's theory of Medium is the message. When the democracy aspect was analysed, it showed that they did not trust information shared on social media.   The risks that were detected by the interviewed group was for example identity theft and stress related illness that were caused by social media. The possibilities were for example the fact that it is possible to talk to someone in another country on social media despite time differences and borders and to maintain relationships with distant relatives. These results were used to analyze the consequences further and to have a deeper discussion about the subject. For example the lack of skills lead to that this group do not have the possibility to share their thoughts and counteract stereotypes.