This project investigates the potential contribution of the social web to the wellbeing of the elderly –a segment of society which has received relatively little attention by policy-oriented information society research.

Society is getting older. We are constantly being reminded that there is a crisis of aging in the world. At the same time that the population ages the number of older people living alone grows. Social isolation is emerging as one of the major problems facing society. This proposal aims to study whether there is a role for the Internet, and specifically for the social web, in the gamut of social policies and interventions employed to mitigate social isolation among elderly.

OBJECTIVES

The goal is two-folded:

1. to develop a policy-oriented model of social web engagement for older people that could be tested in future interventions in this area.
2. to study the extent to which the social web can help to mitigate social isolation among the elderly by promoting their interpersonal relationships online.