Discussing senior consumers and web 2.0 with Tuija

I had a really interesting discussion with Tuija Aalto this evening over skype about senior consumers and web usage. As I have introduced some age discourses in my doctoral thesis (senior, radical, forever young, hedonist and soulful) we went through possible web usage profiles for these discourses and tried to draw up a picture for how for example a senior profile differs from a radical. That's a thought that should be further developed... Here you can find our discussion: tuhatsanaa.net

New models for aging

When you talk or write about age or aging people start to discuss how bad the situation is within elderly care or how their parents or grandparents are lousy in using new technology. We are so locked within the old age stereotype which only talks about decline and loss and misery. A minority of people discuss progress or innovations in combination with aging. Maybe that's why marketers weren't so interested in older consumers  two decades ago. Now new ideologies are evolving and we need other models for aging. In this process marketers play an important role as I see them as identity-shaping professionals.