The focus of this thesis is on how elderly people make use of digital screens. The study studies how these elderly individuals view their screen time and it highlights how they have adapted to an ever-changing media landscape. The empirical material has been collected through four qualitative interviews where all of the interviewed were 80 years old or older at the time of the interview. Two females and two males were part of the study. The empiricism has been coded, themed and analyzed using the qualitative method of thematic analysis. The analysis is supported by the theoretical framework where uses and gratification theory, affordances and constraints theory and the theory of adoption categories has been applied to the empirical material. The theoretical framework has contributed to understanding why people use different types of media, which affordances and constraints that people see in technologies and what types of adoption categories there are and what that means for the individual.
The analysis of the empirical data finds that these older individuals utilize digital screens for various reasons, where the most prominent finds were for relaxation, cognitive fulfillment and to the gratification of affective needs. Smartphones and computers are employed for safety, social interaction and communication while television is used as a tool for escaping daily life and monitoring the world. The study identifies a widespread theme indicating a noticeable enhancement in their everyday life making various tasks easier thanks to digital screens. A social factor becomes evident where the interviewees use digital screens as a utility for keeping contact with friends and family, but also through a reoccurring theme implying that older individuals need a social network that can assist them with unfamiliar technologies that they can not manage themselves.