| Sumario: | Purpose Current trends in Age Tech innovation designed to enable aging-in-place assume a shared vision of a future where aging can and should be monitored and controlled through data. Many of these technologies include ambient sensors that silently and remotely track the older, "at risk" person's comings and goings, their eating, sleeping and bathroom habits, whether they are taking their medication, their gate, the length of time they are sitting, standing, or lying down, and the list goes on. Although there have been some efforts to include the experiences and desires of older adults into the design and critique of aging-in-place technologies, young adults, as future users of these devices - both as caregivers and cared for - have thus far been excluded. Method To understand whether current trends in Age Tech innovation reflect a future that young adults envision for themselves as they reach what they would define as 'old age', in focus groups with individuals between the ages of 18-35, we asked participants to visually map out onto floor plans the kinds of technologies they imagine using in their home in later life. Results and Discussion Reflecting on the conversations that were elicited in the presentation and discussion of these maps, we highlight the multiple sources of tension participants voiced as they imagined living with technologies in their later years. These sources of tension arose from a desire to limit technologies in some manner, whether by decreasing their dependence on technologies or by striving for balance in living with technologies. As we argue, their concerns trouble the assumption that technological resistance by older adults is merely a reflection of generational bias and incompetence. These findings highlight the need to be as innovative in finding new ways to disconnect from technology and the digital world as we are in finding new ways to digitize our aging futures. We conclude by suggesting that the first step in doing so is to ask people, both young and old, caregivers and cared for, if this is a technology they would want in their own home, now and into the future.
|
|---|