A Senior Woman in the World of Mass Media. Senior Women’s Participation in Popular Culture as Exemplified by Częstochowa

Abstract

The concept and assumptions of this paper arise from theoretical and empirical statements which regard activity as a factor having impact on psycho-physical fitness of an elderly person and their satisfaction with life. An elderly person's activity can manifest itself in different forms and in different fields. The paper is focused on cultural activity because it is one of important types of human activity which, pursued in free time, brightens life up and makes it more attractive. The writer's attention in the paper is concentrated on presentation of senior women's contacts with popular culture. On the basis of the author's own research the role of mass media in the life of senior women has been presented. Frequency of and reasons for watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers and magazines as well as connecting to and using the Internet have been discussed. The research has shown that contacts with different forms of popular culture have a beneficial influence of the life of elderly women. Television was the most willingly and most frequently selected form. It also has to be emphasized that despite the growing familiarity with computers and the Internet, still a significant proportion of senior women does not use them.