Navigating Technology: Mobile Media Usage and Reticence Among Older Adults in Rural India

With increasing access to mobile devices and media, 77% of the population of India, the most populated nation in the world, are now mobile phone users. This has translated to an increasing user base across demographics, including older rural adults: Most own a dedicated feature phone and share access to a smartphone, while many older couples share access to one dedicated smartphone. With considerably lower literacy rates, especially among older women, using a mobile phone that is programmed in English comes with its own set of challenges, and the older users have developed their own unique strategies to navigate them. This study uses in-depth interviews and participant observation in a village in the agrarian state of Punjab, a state in north-western India. The findings indicate three types of users among older rural adults: techno-optimists who find the phone useful for younger users, individuals who use the phone solely for useful purposes, and participants who see the mobile phone as disruptive. Factors shaping usage include low digital skills, tendency to depend on warm experts (younger members of the family who can potentially teach them mobile media usage) to use the mobile phone on their behalf, and expectations of moral and ethical performativity. The study finds that, along with digital skills and age, social structure of living in a close knit family (joint family) forms a reticence even among techno-optimist older adults, who see the mobile phone as something for the young people to learn instead of upskilling themselves to use one.