“I do it my way”. Idioms of practice and digital media ideologies of adolescents and older adults
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
media in their own way, which is perceived as “the right” (or legitimate) way. Strategies
and hierarchies differ with age, according to meanings and rankings attributed to media
choices in a communicative environment of affordances, or polymedia. The results
suggest that differentiated generation-based idioms of practice and media ideologies are
in operation in each cohort while, in both cases, refer to adaptative and goal-oriented
communications.