Situating bridge: Understanding older adults’ digital leisure practices during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic saw life across the world change dramatically, with national lockdowns and stay-at-home orders sequestering entire populations indoors. Within the world of the mindsport bridge, this meant the closing down of all bridge clubs and an attendant move to digital play. Bridge is a partnership card game, involving four-players and is predominantly played by an older generation (55+). Through 298 diary accounts collected during the first lockdown of 2020, this paper explores how older adults’ in-person bridge play shifted to digital play. We show how volunteer facilitators were crucial in enabling this move online and how learning to play digital bridge provided new technical bridge skills as well as maintaining important social connections. Our paper speaks to ongoing debates about the resilience of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and the vital role of leisure during a time of global crisis.