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This work captures a recount of an interview I conducted two different people. The first one was an American female of seventy years old. My second interviewee was a ninety-year-old male, and a Russia-born moved to South Dakota when he was two. I will settle for the woman while doing this reflection, and I will rely on the continuity activity theory, which states that people who get to the old age successfully continue the positive mind-set that they had at their middle ages (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012). Meaning that they remain confident about life and shows this in whatever they do including the way they relate to other people. They are always friendly and accommodative. Their lifestyles and habits do not change, and their preference remains confident in every sphere of life. The only challenge with the theory is that it does not recognise unhealthy people. In fact, an individual health condition affects a great deal of his or her lifestyle.
Besides, the woman showed to be positive about life and confirmed that she had never felt depressed about herself despite her age. However, she is not happy about the changes that have taken place in the contemporary society. In fact, she is very categorical about the use of mobile phones, which she said that wastes people’s time that they should engage in other activities. ON the other hand, the old man lives a euphoric and promising despite his age. The wife is supportive and compliments him in whatever he does. He maintains that every individual should get delight in small things and remain as such. This clearly demonstrates the position of the Continuity theory that those who age well remain active and consistent in their lifestyle, a case with the old man who enjoys the way cars look today, whereas the woman is so mad about the use of mobile phone for communication (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012).
Various factors affect an individual life when she or he gets older. The factors include biological, social, historical and cultural orientations. For example, the woman says that she never grew up happy since her age mates kept on reminding her about her look. They would tell her that she does not belong in America and that she should get back to Germany. This affected her social life and experienced difficult time in school. In this precept, the rejections that an individual gets while growing up might remain in her when she or he becomes an adult (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012). The truth of the same is conspicuous when she was mocked as a young child and still goes through the same as an adult, saying that people shout to her thinking that she cannot hear well.
In addition, she remembers the world war two as the most memorable event that she felt bad when people looked at her curly hair to tease her. In fact, people saw her culturally parallel that they did not give her the value she deserved. Therefore, it is important to note that a person’s lifestyle and preferences are determined by the kind of school he or she attended and the parenting him or she received while growing, which all combine to form his or her worldview. This is later shaped by his or her adult life depending on the type of marriage life and the work he or she does (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012). For her case, the woman lives alone, and this would be one of the reasons she is not happy.
Reference
Kaptelinin, V., & Nardi, B. (2012). Activity theory in HCI: Fundamentals and Reflections.
Synthesis Lectures Human-Centered Informatics, 5(1), 1-105.
