Corpos antigos, novos contextos: o idoso em tempos de cibercultura

Abstract

The populational aging is already considered a global reality. The World Health Organization (WHO) perspective is that, only in Brazil, the elderly number is expected to triple until 2050. In the case of developing countries, the elderly population growth can be bigger and faster than in developed countries. Considering that we live in a time that constancy and fixity seems not attractive and given that cyberculture implies const ant and significative social changes, we will research the new elder ’s place in a context of fast alterations and with strong digital influence. Therefore, this study aims to identify sociocultural transformations occurred in daily reality of the elderly p opulation, according to psychosocial analysis. To achieve this objective, we will study the perception of 20 elders from 60 years onwards, living in the city of Mesquita and frequenters of the municipal bicycle path, about technology and its influence in t heir routines. We will approach daily life question s through semi structured interviews in order to understand how significant are the alterations that technology provides and for this purpose, it is required that the respondents are socially active. We w ill investigate these alterations from the elders’ own perception about the events that involve them. Using theories about liquid modernity, cyberculture and aging, we will investigate the elders’ relation with this changing scenario. The applied methodolo gy in the analysis and data collection integrates Social Psychology and will permeate qualitative aspects. The results highlight a heterogeneous perception of the interviewed about electronic devices, but still the elders believe that a new oldness emerged from technological advances. The alterations on new forms of sociability were the ones that caused more strangeness and concern.