Relational, role, and social identity as expressed in grandparents’ personal web sites

This paper reports on an investigation of personal web sites created by grandparents. The paper examines the sites and uncovers important themes relating to the grandparent-grandchild relationship, the grand-parenting role, and age identity. References to age are relatively rare, occurring largely in sites created by younger grandparents, and sites concerned with social activism. A number of ways in which being a grandparent is represented as a meaningful social identity are described. Conclusions are drawn in terms of theoretical links between relational, role, and social identities and issues of importance to the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. It is argued that a social identity theory perspective provides interesting insight on the examination of communication about family relationships.