Challenging Passive Social Media Use: Older Adults as Caregivers Online

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Older adults are often portrayed as passive social media users who consume content rather than actively posting content. However, this binary divide between active and passive social media use overlooks nuanced kinds of engagement online. Via an eye-tracking study of older adults' Facebook use, this work shows how not clicking or commenting on content can involve engaged kinds of social media use even if they are not visible to other users or to the platform. Older adults' decisions to not actively click or comment on social media content---an act which is often associated with non-engagement---can be intentional and relational acts of caregiving. We draw from feminist care theories to draw parallels between the invisibility of care work that older adults do on social media and the invisibility often rendered in their offline lives. We discuss theoretical, methodological, and design implications for supporting older adults as engaged participants in relational and intentional care work.