As we grow up and grow old, embrace new experiences, try new roles, and adopt new technologies, our senses of time, space, connection, and identity are fundamentally explored through communication. Why, how, with whom, and to what end humans communicate reflect and shape our ever-changing life span position. And while the «life span» can be conceived as a continuum, it is also one hinged by critical junctures and bound by cultural differences that can be better understood through communication.
The chapters in this collection, chosen from among the invited plenary speakers, top research papers, and ideas discussed in San Juan, explore the multiple ways communication affects, reflects, and directs our life transition. Capturing the richness and diversity of scholarship presented at the conference, chapters explore communication technologies that define a generation; communication and successful aging; stereotyping and family communication; sexual communication and physiological measurement; life span communication and the digital divide; and home-based care contexts across the world, among others.

Jon F. Nussbaum (PhD, Purdue University) is Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He is a former President of the International Communication Association and the International Society of Language and Social Psychology, and a former editor of the Journal of Communication.

Contents: Amy B. Jordan/Jon F. Nussbaum: Introduction to Communication Across the Life Span ¿ Sun Sun Lim: Young People and Communication Technologies: Emerging Challenges in Generational Analysis ¿ Jean Burgess: Digital Media and Generations ¿ Zizi Papacharissi: Technologies, Generations, and Structures of Storytelling ¿ Jessica Gasiorek/Craig Fowler/Howard Giles: Communication and Successful Aging ¿ Mary Lee Hummert: Stereotyping and Family Communication ¿ Amanda Denes/Annika C. Speer/Anuraj Dhillon/Kara L. Winkler: Future Directions in Post Sex Communication Research: Exploring Long-Term Relationships, Aging, and Physiology ¿ Margot J. van der Goot: Older Adults¿ Mediated Communication: Current Perspectives among Communication Scholars ¿ Peter Hart-Brinson/Guobin Yang/Piermarco Aroldi: Techno-Social Generations and Communication Research ¿ Fausto Colombo: Aging, Media, and Communication ¿ Susan B. Kretchmer/Teresa Correa/Ellie Rennie/Julian Thomas/Laura Robinson/Susana Salgado/Amit Schejter/Orit Ben-Harush/Noam Tirosh/Shula Mola/Jonathan Mendels/Malka Shaham/Ghalia Abu-Kaf/Qinghua Yang/Simeon J. Yates: The Digital Divide: Worldwide Challenges for Communication Across the Life Span in the Digital Age ¿ Kirstie McAllum/Carla L. Fisher/Muriel Scott/Mary Simpson/John Oetzel/Kay Berryman/Rangimahora Reddy/Jill Yamasaki: Constructing the Carer Across the Life Span of Care: Home-Based Care Contexts Across the Globe.