Semiotic mediation for the sustainable digital empowerment of older adults

As digital technologies proliferate, older adults are still facing significant challenges in achieving sustainable digital empowerment. This qualitative study examines the metaphorical registers spontaneously mobilized by seniors when discussing digital tools. It also highlights subjective semiotic framings which hinder their digital acculturation. Through ethnographic observations of digital literacy training, we identify diverse metaphorical projections conveying apprehensions (technologies as “nests of problems”, “magical” realms) but also motivating drivers towards meaningful digital appropriation. The findings underscore the importance of symbolic mediation strategies, in order to deconstruct inhibiting traditional theories and foster technology uses rooted in the life contexts of seniors. By elucidating the complex interplay of cognitive, emotional and cultural tensions shaping digital relationships, our research project argues for designing digital training less as technical instruction than as holistic empowerment journeys integrating identity-related dimensions. Ultimately, research on these semiotic foundations contributes to broader societal efforts that ensure equal voices for diverse knowledge approaches in an increasingly AI-dominated world. Only through such inclusive mediation efforts can we truly accompany digital “immigrants” toward affirmative technological citizenship.