Abstract:

Rapidly changing and evolving technology is one of the most important notions of the era. As a result of the technological development, traditional values differentiated and in the modern society old individuals became second class individuals. By time the definition of being old also changed and started to have more social meanings than expressing the body of a person becoming old. In today’s world, the people who cannot follow the technology is also considered old. The notion of technology effects the structure of society and gets effected by it too. There’s a mutual connection between technology and society which we cannot think apart from each other. Interpreting the technology would require us to consider social, economical, political, cultural and philosophical aspects that shape society. Technology is also being used by elders as a part of daily life. Technological products can contribute positively to the elders daily life but for this to happen, the firms that produces technological products should take elders into consideration as a group of people that are using the technology more and more every day. Feenberg says with a dialectic approach, human needs and purposes can re-shape the technology. Even though the traditional values are being effected by technology, they also lead technological development. If we follow a Feenberg approach, the understanding of being old in modern society that sees being old as an end and a collapsing process should be discussed to be able to re-shape the technology and to ensure individual’s demands. The position of the elders in modern societies, the reach of the elders to technology and usage of technology by elders will be discussed in this study. The main argument of the article is producers of technology and society developed an understanding that makes elders feel more old. Elders are thought to be either timid or incompetent to use the technology or not a good market group to buy technology and this understanding causes elders to estrange from technology which is also related to the value systems of modern society. The positions of an elder will tried to be explained in the concepts of directing / guiding / controlling which is one of the meanings of technology. 

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