P0610 Digital technologies and datafied ageing - visualising old bodies, risk and care

Abstract

Background: The everyday lives of older people are increasingly sites of datafication, monitoring and surveillance. This is especially notable with the increase in digital monitoring technologies in the context of care and as a means to enhance the independence of people as they grow older.Digital monitoring technologies, such as AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) systems, have played a central role in imagining how digital technologies might underpin ‘ageing in place’, which promises to address both growing care costs for ageing populations and the desire for ‘independent’ ageing. Study Setup (Methods): This paper reports findings from a study that explored visual images associated with commercial and popular online representations of smart monitoring technologies for older people. The research involves a visual thematic analysis. Results: The key themes are: (1) a shift from the visible to the invisible in the way we ‘see’ ageing bodies; (2) the increasing datafication of ageing bodies in time and space; (3) the ways AI and algorithmic decision-making calculate risk in which data from old bodies is transformed into actionable knowledge; and (4) despite an emphasis on ‘independence’ in the images there is a shift from agency to surveillance of old bodies. Discussion: The paper makes visible the datafication of ageing bodies, the transformation of home space to one of monitoring and management, and the temporal and spatial locations of surveilled old bodies. We conclude by highlighting the complex relationships of ageing, technologies and care.