Values Across Contexts: Understanding How Older Adults Enact What Matters Through Technology

Paper Title

Values Across Contexts: Understanding How Older Adults Enact What Matters Through Technology

Publication Info

• Topic area: Exploring how older adults’ values are shaped by living contexts and the role of technology in supporting or hindering these values.
• Keywords: Older adults, values, technology, living contexts, value-sensitive design, autonomy, social ties, lifelong learning, care homes, aging in place.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing research often treats older adults as a homogeneous group, overlooking how their living contexts influence the expression of values and the role of technology in their lives. Transitions between contexts can disrupt value expression, leading to unmet values.
• Significance: Understanding how values are shaped by and expressed in different contexts is crucial for designing technology that aligns with older adults’ needs and preferences, particularly as populations age and transitions between living contexts become more common.
• Motivation and related work: Prior work has explored older adults’ values and technology use but has largely focused on single contexts (e.g., aging in place, care homes) without comparing across contexts or examining transitions. This study builds on value-sensitive design and life-course perspectives to address these gaps.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A multi-context ethnographic study using semi-structured interviews with 22 older adults across five living contexts: island, rural, urban, lifelong learning institutes (LLIs), and care homes.
• Novelty:
  1. Identification of core values shared across contexts and how their expression is shaped by living environments.
  2. Introduction of the concept of "unmet values" when transitions disrupt value expression.
  3. Design implications for context-responsive technologies that uphold or restore values across transitions.
  4. Recognition of non-use or minimal use of technology as a deliberate choice to protect valued ways of life.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted ethnographic interviews across diverse contexts.
  • Used thematic analysis to identify core values and their expression.
  • Examined the role of technology in supporting or hindering value expression.
  • Compared findings across contexts to identify patterns and differences.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Five core values were identified: social ties (49.3%), altruism (16.6%), freedom and agency (14.5%), lifelong learning (12.1%), and (re)discovery (7.5%).
  • Values were consistent across contexts but expressed differently depending on the environment.
  • Transitions between contexts often led to "unmet values" until new supports were established.
  • Technology acted as a "conditional ally," supporting values when guidance and support were present but acting as a barrier when systems were inaccessible or imposed.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Provides a cross-context comparison of older adults’ values, unlike prior studies that focus on single contexts.
  • Highlights the dynamic interaction between values, context, and technology, offering actionable insights for design.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with participants aged 60–93 across five contexts.
  • Analyzed 531 value-related coded segments to identify patterns in value expression and technology use.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Focused on one Western European country, limiting generalizability.
  • Did not evaluate proposed design opportunities through real-world deployments.
  • Future work should explore longitudinal studies, cross-context technology prototypes, and systematic analysis of value erosion or preservation.

Summary

This study explores how older adults’ values are shaped by their living contexts and transitions between them, identifying five core values that persist across contexts but are expressed differently. Technology plays a conditional role, supporting values when guidance and access are present but acting as a barrier when systems are inaccessible or intrusive. The study introduces the concept of "unmet values" during transitions and provides design recommendations for context-responsive technologies that uphold or restore values. Future work should focus on longitudinal studies and adaptive technologies to better support older adults’ evolving needs and preferences.