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Digital media is essential to sustaining communication with various types of social ties. However, older adults (aged 65+) are reported to be the least likely to use digital media. While statistics show that older adults are increasingly using more digital media, evidence shows this is predominately aging long-term users of digital media rather than older adults adopting new digital media. To investigate this “grey divide” and adoption of digital media by older adults, this study qualitatively analyses semi-structured interviews of 41 individuals aged 65 and older from the East York region of Toronto, Canada. Our findings suggest that satisfaction with personal digital skill levels and attitudes toward digital media influence the adoption of new digital technology in older adults. Additionally, we discuss the benefits and challenges older adults face when deciding to adopt new digital technologies. Finally, we offer the implications of this research and provide insights for training and policy development.

Silver compounds may be absorbed through inhalation, but there are no quantitative human data on the extent of this phenomenon. Silver salts may be absorbed by up to 10%–20% after ingestion. After ingestion in humans, the highest concentrations of silver are usually found in the liver and spleen, but also to some extent in the muscles, skin, and brain. Silver may also be absorbed through dermal exposure, especially via wound care. The biological half-time for silver ranges from a few days for animals up to approximately 50days for the human liver; it is possible that skin deposits have an even longer half-time, but there are no quantitative data on this for humans. Silver binds to high molecular weight proteins and metallothionein in tissue cytosol fractions. Excretion of silver from the body is primarily biliary. Silver nanoparticles have been shown to be absorbed by both inhalation and oral routes, and only to a minor extent via the dermal route, resulting in deposition in various organ systems. Monitoring of exposure is possible by determinations of levels in whole blood. High-dose repeated exposure of animals to silver and silver compounds may produce anemia, cardiac enlargement, growth retardation, and degenerative changes in the liver. Water-soluble silver compounds such as silver nitrate have a local corrosive effect and may cause fatal poisoning in humans if injected or infused into the uterus. Chronic exposure of humans leads to argyria, a clinical entity characterized by gray-blue pigmentation of the skin and other body viscera. Similar changes in the eye after local treatment with eye drops containing silver compounds are named argyrosis. Allergic contact dermatitis to silver is rare. Genotoxic effects, in terms of direct DNA strand breaks via oxidative stress, have been reported in vitro. Tests indicating genotoxicity (Comet assay) and oxidative stress were positive in one study on silver-workers.

WeChat is a popular Chinese social media platform that emphasizes mobile internet services rather than PC internet services. What further distinguishes WeChat from other social media sites is its multipurpose platform, which integrates a range of applications and features. With its large and diverse user base, vast amounts of user-generated content, and increasing global reach, WeChat provides unique opportunities for researchers to examine Chinese society relying on new data sources that can enhance or even substitute traditional data collection methods such as surveys. WeChat can also provide insights into new digital phenomena including social movements, online groups, propaganda, and e-governance. This chapter aims to serve as a guide for scholars who are interested in conducting either a quantitative or qualitative study of WeChat. First, we briefly overview the history of WeChat, the role of state regulation in WeChat’s development, WeChat’s various features, and the adoption and use of WeChat. Next, we provide a roadmap to the type of scholarship investigating WeChat that has been completed to date to demonstrate both what the pressing research questions are as well as what research gaps need further attention. We then review some of the frequently used methods and discuss challenges and opportunities. We conclude the paper with a summary of best practices on data collection, addressing visual data, and handling relationships between participants and researchers for WeChat scholarship.

Chapter in ACRL publication The Data Literacy Cookbook. This recipe is a guide to preparing an instructional session aimed at postsecondary students in the social or health sciences or related disciplines on locating, evaluating, and using secondary data sources as information resources. Who collects data? Where can you access them? Why are data available on some topics and not others? Why are some statistics available at a detailed level of geography and others only nationally? What are some key limitations of official statistics, and where can information be found to fill in the gaps? This recipe uses these questions to encourage students to consider how data are used as information sources