research-article

The Safety Net of Aging in Place: Understanding How Older Adults Construct, Develop, and Maintain Their Social Circles

Authors:

Tiffany Knearem,

Michael Williams,

John M. CarrollAuthors Info & Claims

PervasiveHealth '18: Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

Pages 191 - 200

https://doi.org/10.1145/3240925.3240935

Published: 21 May 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Active engagement in social activities is important to maintain and promote healthy aging. In this study, we further investigate how older adults take the initiative role to support their health and well-being. To understand their active participation towards aging, we conducted an interview study with ten retirees who are "aging in place" (adults 65 and older who live independently). Our findings suggest that older adults are naturally developing a network of connections, which we refer to as their safety net. We have identified five social circles inside this safety net: predetermined, chosen, interest-based, location-based, and shared-identity circles. Each circle has a different impact on the support of older adults' health and well-being. Based on these findings, we suggest taking the safety net into consideration when designing technologies to promote and maintain healthy aging.

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Cited By

Beneito-Montagut RBegueria ACassián N(2023)The social connectedness of digital practices in later life: It’s not just about learning, it’s all about relationshipsThe Sociological Review10.1177/00380261221144154(003802612211441)Online publication date: 23-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261221144154
Latulipe CDsouza RCumbers M(2022)Unofficial Proxies: How Close Others Help Older Adults with BankingProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3501845(1-13)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3501845
Richards OMarcu GBrewer R(2021)Hugs, Bible Study, and Speakeasies: Designing for Older Adults’ Multimodal ConnectednessProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462075(815-831)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462075
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

The Safety Net of Aging in Place: Understanding How Older Adults Construct, Develop, and Maintain Their Social Circles
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI

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cover image ACM Other conferences

PervasiveHealth '18: Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

May 2018

413 pages

ISBN:9781450364508

DOI:10.1145/3240925

General Chairs:
Noga Minsky
Mount Sinai Health System
,
Venet Osmani
Fondazione Bruno Kessler

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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EAI: The European Alliance for Innovation

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 May 2018

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National Science Foundation (NSF) Smart and Connected Health program

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PervasiveHealth '18

PervasiveHealth '18: 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

May 21 - 24, 2018

NY, New York, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 55 of 116 submissions, 47%

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Cited By

Beneito-Montagut RBegueria ACassián N(2023)The social connectedness of digital practices in later life: It’s not just about learning, it’s all about relationshipsThe Sociological Review10.1177/00380261221144154(003802612211441)Online publication date: 23-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261221144154
Latulipe CDsouza RCumbers M(2022)Unofficial Proxies: How Close Others Help Older Adults with BankingProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3501845(1-13)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3501845
Richards OMarcu GBrewer R(2021)Hugs, Bible Study, and Speakeasies: Designing for Older Adults’ Multimodal ConnectednessProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462075(815-831)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462075
Hopkins TBae SUhr JZheng CBanić ADo E(2021)User Interfaces in Smart CitiesHandbook of Smart Cities10.1007/978-3-030-69698-6_94(687-719)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69698-6_94
Hopkins TBae SUhr JBanić AZheng CDo E(2021)User Interfaces in Smart CitiesHandbook of Smart Cities10.1007/978-3-030-15145-4_94-1(1-33)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15145-4_94-1
Knearem TWang XCarroll JBietz MWiggins A(2020)Sustaining Engagement in Volunteer Activities for Older AdultsCompanion Publication of the 2020 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3406865.3418337(299-303)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3406865.3418337
Mao MBlackwell AGood D(2020)Understanding Meaningful Participation and the Situated Use of Technology in Community Music for Active AgeingInteracting with Computers10.1093/iwc/iwaa01432:2(185-208)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2020
https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwaa014
Wang XKnearem TCarroll JMayora OForti SMeyer JMamykina L(2019)Never Stop CreatingProceedings of the 13th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare10.1145/3329189.3329192(111-118)Online publication date: 20-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3329189.3329192
Wang XKnearem TCarroll JEvers VNaaman MFitzpatrick GKarahalios KLampinen AMonroy-Hernández A(2018)Ordinary Innovations of Older AdultsCompanion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3272973.3274068(253-256)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3272973.3274068

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