Bridging the older adult digital divide through the digital habitus

Abstract

This study investigates how older adults in Guangzhou navigate a rapidly digitalizing city through the lens of Bourdieu’s habitus and capital. The study draws on semistructured interviews with 25 smartphone-owning adults aged 60+. Guangzhou’s older adults follow path-dependent adaptation. Many use smartphones to continue familiar habits, while others adopt new routines. Yet, resistance persists when low education, limited resources, or fear of fraud reduce confidence. Adaptation is partial and uneven, with new practices layered onto old ones and strongly shaped by social position and intergenerational support. We conceptualize digital habitus as embodied dispositions toward technology and digital capital as access plus competencies that convert into economic (time/money savings), social (maintained/expanded networks), and cultural (media engagement) capital. Intergenerational support was a key strategy to bridge exclusion. The study contributes to Bourdieu’s habitus theory by specifying when and how later-life dispositions adapt in digital fields. The study’s originality also situates digital aging in urban China’s smart-city governance. Findings inform inclusive design and training that build on existing routines to widen meaningful digital benefits.