Conclusions

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book is concerned with the changing relationships that are emerging between the new digital technologies, generational identity and the life course. Both theoretical models and empirical research findings have been reported in the diverse contributions that illuminate particular aspects of these relationships. Both generation and technology are closely linked to topics of identity and lifestyle. The second modernity has witnessed further changes, not least in the penetration of new technologies into the home, changing the nature of families and of intergenerational relationships. Several authors reporting on longitudinal or pseudo cohort cross-sequential studies that track changes in attitudes towards or the use of these new technologies have observed how differences discerned between age groups or cohorts at one point of time no longer appear so marked or so salient at a later point.