Digitalization of Society and Socio-political Issues 1

18French Pensioners Facing the Digitalization of Society

In France, the number of Internet users has increased since the democratization of the network some 15 years ago, reaching 87% of Internet users in 2016. While this growth has slowed since the late 2000s for the population as a whole, the use of retirees continues to grow impressively: while 12% of retirees were Internet users in 2006, they accounted for 61% in 2016 (Croutte et al. 2016). However, at the same time, they still correspond to the age group that is least likely to be connected (Charmakeh 2015).

Despite these various observations, it appears that the digital practices of this category of the population remain poorly studied in France in the fields of sociology and information and communication sciences, in a context where research focuses more on another age group, that of adolescents and young adults (Lobet-Maris 2011).

However, the relationship of the oldest generations to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a particularly rich field of research for the sociology of uses. Indeed, members of the baby boom generation, now young retirees, have seen computers, and their connected versions, gradually settle into their social environment over the course of their adult lives. Because of this particular temporality, their adoption of these ICTs has been voluntary or forced, or has not taken place, due to many socio-economic parameters that have their roots in the biographical trajectories of individuals, ...