ANCIENT BODIES, NEW CONTEXTS: THE ELDERLY IN CYBERCULTURE TIMES.elder; cyberculture; liquid modernity; technology.
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 constant and significative social changes, we will research the new elder 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 population, according to psychosocial analysis. To achieve this objective, we will study the perception of around 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 their routines. We will approach daily life question through semi-structured interviews in order to understand how significative are the alterations provided by technology, for this purpose, it is required that the respondents are socially active. We will 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 methodology in the analysis and data collection integrates Social Psychology and will permeate qualitative aspects.