"Out of sight, out of mind", investigating affective intergenerational communication over distance

Abstract

The geographic separation of the generations due to globalisation decreases opportunities to maintain communication and connectedness between grandparents and adolescent grandchildren. Many studies consider the importance of social presence in relationships, ignoring how to make such relationships meaningful. Most studies in HCI that discuss technology-supported communication in fostering intergenerational relationships examine relations between grandparents and child or adult grandchildren. This paper investigates the emotions expressed by grandparents and adolescent grandchildren in online and offline interaction by examining the expression of emotions in their actual interactions. This approach provides insight into which emotions are commonly expressed and how they are expressed using Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). Such insights can inform the design of new, affective tools to foster communication and connectedness in these specific intergenerational dyads. Our method covers focus group, cultural probe and interview. In particular, we discuss the use of a Show & Tell game as an instrument to investigate emotions in actual interaction. Our findings show that care, happiness and also negative perceptions were commonly communicated within the participating dyads and that CMC can assist in the transmission of feelings that were unspoken in face-to-face interaction, fostering connectedness between dyads.