Listening Together while Apart: Intergenerational Music Listening

Collaborative music listening can support intergenerational connectedness. We conducted an environmental scan of video conferencing and music listening platforms and cognitive walkthroughs to investigate how these platforms can support collaborative music listening and conversation between a grandparent and teen grandchild. Our results indicate that common video conferencing platforms not only lack a convenient way to share music, but typically block audio from music listening apps played on the same device, preventing sharing. Further, while music streaming platforms enable connected friends to share songs and others’ playlists, they do not provide a means for smooth synchronous conversing about the music. Thus, this highlights opportunities for technology improvement to support intergenerational relationships by enabling distributed, intergenerational co-listening of music.

[1]  S. Yarosh,et al.  Grandtotem: Supporting International and Intergenerational Relationships , 2020, CSCW Companion.

[2]  Steve Harrison,et al.  Co-designing for Co-listening: Conceptualizing Young People's Social and Music-Listening Practices , 2018, HCI.

[3]  Steve Harrison,et al.  FamilySong: Designing to Enable Music for Connection and Culture in Internationally Distributed Families , 2019, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[4]  Peter G. Polson,et al.  Theory-Based Design for Easily Learned Interfaces , 1990, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[5]  Cathleen Wharton,et al.  Testing a walkthrough methodology for theory-based design of walk-up-and-use interfaces , 1990, CHI '90.

[6]  Alexandra Rieger,et al.  Supporting Elder Connectedness through Cognitively Sustainable Design Interactions with the Memory Music Box , 2019, UIST.

[7]  Ronald M. Baecker,et al.  Connecting Grandparents and Grandchildren , 2013 .

[8]  Stoyan R. Stoyanov,et al.  Young people's uses of music for well-being , 2015 .

[9]  K. L. Woodward,et al.  Grandparents, Grandchildren: The Vital Connection , 1981 .

[10]  Wendy E. Mackay,et al.  Sharing empty moments: design for remote couples , 2009, CHI.

[11]  Bente Evjemo,et al.  Supporting the distributed family: the need for a conversational context , 2004, NordiCHI '04.

[12]  Dawn Joseph,et al.  If you’re happy and you know it: Music engagement and subjective wellbeing , 2017 .

[13]  R. Majeski,et al.  The expressive arts and resilience in aging , 2019, Educational Gerontology.

[14]  É. Fiossi-Kpadonou,et al.  Music and Emotions of Teenagers in Benin , 2016 .

[15]  Candace L. Kemp,et al.  Dimensions of Grandparent-Adult Grandchild Relationships: From Family Ties to Intergenerational Friendships* , 2005, Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement.

[16]  Xiang Cao,et al.  Home video communication: mediating 'closeness' , 2010, CSCW '10.

[17]  L. McCloskey.  Music and the Frail Elderly , 1985 .

[18]  Rebecca E. Grinter,et al.  Consuming Music Together Social and Collaborative Aspects of Music Consumption Technologies , 2005 .

[19]  Tuck Wah Leong,et al.  Understanding the Sociality of Experience in Mobile Music Listening with Pocketsong , 2016, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[20]  Ayelet Dassa,et al.  The role of singing familiar songs in encouraging conversation among people with middle to late stage Alzheimer's disease. , 2014, Journal of music therapy.

[21]  Sarah Ruiz,et al.  Relationships with Grandparents and the Emotional Well-Being of Late Adolescent and Young Adult Grandchildren , 2007 .

[22]  Azadeh Forghani,et al.  Sharing Domestic Life through Long-Term Video Connections , 2015, TCHI.

[23]  L. Levine,et al.  Reminiscence as autobiographical memory: a catalyst for reminiscence theory development , 1998, Ageing and Society.

[24]  G PolsonPeter,et al.  Theory-based design for easily learned interfaces , 1990 .