A new photo exhibition at McMaster asks some simple questions: how do older Hamiltonians actually use, think about, and interact with technologies in their homes?
The answers – an Apple Watch, a walk-in bathtub repurposed as a spa, an Alexa deployed as a daily joke machine– tell a more interesting story than the usual one about older people and tech.
‘Engaged: Aging with Technology’, which runs at the Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging until June 30, was co-curated by the older adult photographers themselves and the research team, led by associate professors Nicole Dalmer and Cal Biruk.
The photos are accompanied by excerpts from in-home interviews the team conducted with participants.
“We want to challenge dominant ideas of older adults as technophobic, as being on the other side of a digital divide, or passive in the face of technological innovation,” said Dalmer.
In fact, the photographs of everyday and mundane technologies in participants’ homes show how older adults are actively using, tinkering with and finding pleasure in technological change.
“We want viewers to push back against ageist stereotypical views of older adults as “obsolete”, which is a term one participants used to reflect on how Canadians think of older adults,” said Biruk. “Instead, we should celebrate their accumulated wisdom about technology, given that they’ve lived through multiple generations of technologies, from the rotary phone to the iPhone or the Commodore 64 computer to ChatGPT.”
Below, Biruk and Dalmer break down the inspiration behind the exhibit and what they hope guests will take away from it.
What was the inspiration behind the exhibit?
Our main inspiration was to help challenge ageist stereotypes about older adults and technology, stereotypes our older adult participants felt did not align with their own experiences.
Further, amid the rise of and massive investment in AgeTech—the promulgation and celebration of technological fixes or solutions to aging (such as fall detectors, or smart homes, or AI to alleviate loneliness)—we wanted to tell a different and more nuanced story about older adults and technology.
For instance, while many of our participants did use tech in utilitarian and health-related ways, all of them also embraced technologies as sites of pleasure and leisure. For them, these dimensions of technology were as important to living a good life as an older person as the more straightforward AgeTech gadgets that tend to construct older adults as frail or at risk of falling or other mishaps.
In fact, some of our interviewees self-identified as ‘gamers’ and many spent a lot of time experimenting with in-home technologies, such as asking ChatGPT to make them a list of recipes or prompting Alexa to tell a daily joke.
What were some of the most surprising things that stood out to you while you were curating the exhibit?
One thing that struck us during our interviews with older adults was how their relationships to technology grew out of their own life histories and identities, including growing up in rural versus urban locales, their past lives as musicians or secretaries or long-distance drivers, or their own sense of themselves as “tech-nerds”.
Another element that stood out to us was how older adults continue to tinker with technologies. While studies of older adults and technology tend to paint them as either users or non-users of ‘new’ technologies (such as social media and smartphones), the older adults we talked to made informed decisions about how, when, and whether or not to embrace technologies.
Some, for instance, tried using Outlook calendar but ultimately preferred their hardcopy calendar. Others found that touch screen devices didn’t always work for them because of design flaws that did not account for the changes in circulation to their fingers as they age. One person redesigned her walk-in bathtub (a tub that is marketed as reducing fall risk), transforming from it from a rather unsightly and uncomfortable technology into a “hot tub for one” using candles and pillows.
When does it run until?
The exhibit will be up in the Gilbrea Centre until June 30, 2026. To visit the exhibit, email dalmern@mcmaster.ca to set up a time.
The Gilbrea Centre is located in KTH 118. The Gilbrea Centre is committed to mobilizing research that reshapes how we think about aging in contemporary society.