Online Media Sharing for the Elderly

Current and future seniors are more and more active users of computers, mobile technology, and the internet. They also have a need to communicate and keep in touch with their family, relatives, friends, and their peers. The elderly are also very active in creating and sharing media in the form of photographs, photo albums, and family histories. Based on our user studies in online photo sharing we identify challenges and opportunities in designing multimedia sharing services for the elderly. The main challenge we see is the need for education and guidance in future services. The main opportunity is the already existing motivations and needs of the elderly to communicate with digital media and the willingness to spend time in creating valuable and refined media objects, such as photo books.