Ageing and Digital Games ─ Uses and Perceptions of Game Play in Later Life

Digital games are often perceived as a leisure activity posed primarily at young boys, but as this volume highlights people of all ages and genders increasingly play digital games for a host of different reasons. Using new empirical data and first-hand material, Sara Mosberg Iversen examines the uses and meanings digital games have for older people from a unique social and cultural perspective. Building on existing practical discourses which promote the health benefits of playing digital games in later life, the author discusses the constitution of ageing in Western society through the lens of play as well as considering how digital games and ageing adults are represented within popular culture, news and the media. The book offers an original and a valuable addition to more utilitarian perspectives on digital games in relation to older adults and will be of interest to scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including sociology, cultural studies, media studies, social gerontology, leisure and game studies as well as health care professionals who work with ageing adults.

Sara Mosberg Iversen is Associate Professor at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark.