Mediated interaction in digital posthuman age: Rethinking intergenerational communication in urban Ghana

Digitalization is a significant technological shift generating a profound socio-cultural reordering with implications for human-technology relations. Although there is a growing body of scholarship interpreting digital transformations using posthumanist perspectives, studies largely focus on Western contexts. Yet, despite the widespread use of digital technologies, little is known about how posthuman theory explains the nature of human-technology relationships and communication practices in the Ghanaian context, limiting information on how digital transformation is reshaping social interactions and subjectivities. To provide a context-specific study that applies posthuman perspectives to Ghanaian digital experiences, the study explores intergenerational communicative practices of two generational cohorts and how digitally mediated communication reshapes intergenerational interaction in urban Ghana. A population of 24 participants between the ages of 18 and 30 and 55 and 75 years were sampled from Accra in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Through focus-group discussions and interviews, data were collected and analysed using posthuman communication theory as the central analytical framework. Findings reveal that young people integrate digital platforms into multiple aspects of their lives, with digital technologies functioning as extensions of identity and personal agency. Older respondents perceive digital communication as a source of cultural disruption that challenges established norms of interaction and social order. The existence of long-standing communicative expectations, grounded in respect, hierarchy and discretion, generates tensions between the two generations during digitally mediated communication. The study contributes to the field of African digital studies by offering a theoretically informed account of digital transformation in urban Ghana.