Ricerc@Sapienza

In this paper, we explore ageist depictions of both young and older people as they emerge
from discourses addressing ‘other people’s’ digital media usage practices. We carried out
eight focus groups (four with teenagers, four with people aged 65 or older) in two southern
European cities (Rome and Barcelona). By negotiating the affordances and constraints
of (digital) tools and platforms, people develop their own usage norms and strategies,
which might – or might not – be intersubjectively shared. Discourses surrounding usage

This article analyzes the idioms of practice and media ideologies of adolescents
and older adults regarding mobile digital media usage, and how they are negotiated
within and between age cohorts. We formed aged-based focus groups in Rome and
Barcelona (four groups of 16- to 19-year-olds and four of 65- to 85-year-olds). The
comparison provides new insights on older individuals’ communication practices, often
overshadowed by the focus on youth. Participants of both age groups explained they do