Gerontological literature has widely explored barriers to technology use in later life, often drawing upon binary conceptualizations of “using” and “not using” a certain technological device. ...However, such concepts have been increasingly up for debate. Using a praxeological approach, this study aims to explore technology use and non-use in later life not as dichotomous counterparts, but as routine experiences that take place in the everyday lives of older adults, asking: Which technology practices that go beyond using and not using a certain device can be found in the everyday lives of older non-users? How are these practices related to experiences of age and aging?
The paper draws upon data from 15 semi-structured interviews with older adults (65+) in Austria, who self-identify as ‘non-users’ of digital technologies. Data was analyzed using thematic coding (Flick, 2016) and revealed that while interviewees saw themselves as “non-users” of digital technologies, they all regularly engaged with digital technologies in their daily lives. These manifold everyday engagements with digital technologies can be summarized as four bundles of technology practices: (1) avoidance practices, (2) usage practices, (3) appropriation practices, and (4) subjectivation practices. Non-users regularly engaged in and transitioned between these practice bundles. Not using digital technologies therefore emerged as an ambivalent, everyday experience, rather than an actual practice pattern that can be measured using binary categories of ‘use’ and ‘non-use’.
By understanding the use and non-use of digital technologies in later life not as binary counterparts, but as an active process of doing, this paper highlights how the use and non-use of digital technologies is not a rational decision, but rather an ensemble of avoidance, usage, and appropriation practices that older adults experience and negotiate in their everyday lives. This paper therefore suggests moving away from technology use and non-use as central concepts for studying technology in later life, and instead questioning which practices are valued as a ‘right’ or ‘real’ way of using digital technologies, and which are devalued as ‘wrong’ usage.
•This paper explores technology practices of older non-users of digital technologies drawing upon a qualitative study.•Interview partners regularly engaged with digital technologies through practices of shared, proxy or devalued usage.•We suggest moving away from studying technology use and non-use as binary counterparts.•Instead, we propose focusing on the valuation of diverse technology practices in later life.
Abstract
The Internet’s profound impact on society, communication, and the global economy is undeniable. Despite the studies on Internet adoption and frequency of use, little attention has been given ...to the intensity of usage as measured by the time spent online. In highly developed countries like the European ones, bridging the access gap is nowadays less relevant, as almost everyone has Internet access. Instead, the focus should be on analysing usage intensity to uncover new digital disparities among different groups and understand potential impacts on individuals' subjective well-being (SWB).
This study aims to deeply examine Internet usage time, its socioeconomic determinants, and its effects on SWB using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) spanning from 2016 to 2020–22 in 21 European countries. We seek to answer two research questions: (1) How do individuals' characteristics influence Internet usage intensity? (2) What is the impact of Internet usage intensity on individuals' SWB?
Our findings show inequalities in Internet usage time driven by individuals' socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics. Traditionally disadvantaged groups, both offline and online, exhibit lower Internet usage time, consistent with the existing literature on the digital divide. As for the effect of intensity of Internet use on SWB, after accounting for individuals' characteristics and addressing Internet's endogeneity, we found a negative and significant relationship between Internet usage intensity and life satisfaction, especially for the most intensive internet users.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, most Indian schools were closed for nearly two years, despite extensive evidence showing most children could not access online learning. In our interviews with those ...affected by school closures in North India, teachers and parents who could access online learning described it as 'the only option'. This aligns with the dominant framing of EdTech, both nationally and globally, as a positive and inevitable feature of learning futures. However, parents who could not access online learning stressed that it was not an option for them and called for in-person learning to resume. Although several alternatives to online learning were available, and all interviewees described some of these, for many this did not dislodge the idea that online learning was 'the only option'. This marginalisation of alternatives is a form of 'technological inevitabilism' that facilitated a lack of urgency in reopening schools and a widening of education inequities.
The role of technology and importance of access to high-speed broadband has become glaringly obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic. High-speed Internet is a tool people rely upon to conduct the daily ...business of their life and interact with each other, the economy, and government. However, millions of people in the USA still have no home access to high-speed Internet. Low-income, people of color, older, Native Americans, and rural residents in particular are on the wrong side of the digital divide. This structural reality perpetuates social, economic, and political disparities. Consistent with a social work human rights approach, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to the Internet a basic human right in 2016. This calls upon social workers to engage in advocacy efforts to advance policy and programs to alleviate the digital divide. In this article, we examine the digital divide in the USA and discuss why it is a social justice and human rights issue. We provide a policy context and recent examples of state or local policy initiatives to reduce the digital divide. Prominent among them is California’s Internet for All Now Act. We also identify and share promising practices and advocacy tools being used in the field that provide guidance to community practitioners as they engage in work at state and local levels aimed at closing the digital divide.
The new technologies, the digitalisation of processes and automation of work will change the manner of doing business, working and living. The effects of digitalisation on the economy, society and ...quality of life imply significant challenges of the labour market. All the participants will be concerned: authorities, companies and ordinary people. The objective of this research is to analyse the perceptions of the EU citizens about digitalisation and to highlight the differences among specific socio-demographic groups. The analysis is grounded on a composite methodology, comprising several statistical and econometric methods that provide scientific support to achieved conclusions: statistical analysis (with the primary goal to shed light on the EU citizens' perceptions about their digital technology skills), TwoStep Cluster Analysis (TSCA) (with the purpose to identify the 'digital vulnerable groups' and then the 'digital vulnerable countries' in terms of the exposure to digital divide) and logistic regression (with the main aim to quantify the impact of the relevant factors on citizens' perceptions about digitalisation). We identified a group of respondents evaluating themselves as having meagre digital skills, very afraid that robots could steal their jobs and with low usage of the internet. They are elderly, with a low level of education, manual workers or not working, with a relatively low level of income and little Internet use. The originality of our approach is given by the fact that we focused on investigating if digital divide leads to the creation of vulnerable groups (citizens and/or countries) and if there are specific patterns in terms of the perception on being skilled in the use of digital technologies in daily life or at work and of the understanding that robots replace human on the labour market. We aim to find relevant factors for the labour market to assume targeted measures that should be taken for a better match of supply and demand on the labour market and for creating a smart labour market. It is highly needed to increase the people's confidence in their skills level and to make the most of digitalisation of the societies. The results show consistent patterns in term of socio-demographic characteristics and perception towards digitalisation. The latter will have a meaningful impact on the economy and the society in the European Union in the next period. That is why a positive attitude towards digitalisation is essential for transforming this relatively new challenge into an excellent opportunity for the future.
Personalized news recommendations shape social media users’ information environment. However, whether news recommendation algorithms asymmetrically influence users’ news engagement remains largely ...unknown. Drawing on the three-level digital divide framework (access, use, and outcomes), we test a moderated mediation model in which social media usage motivations influence social capital via news engagement, conditional on using algorithmic news. Using two waves of survey data from South Korea (N = 948), the results show that the indirect effects of motivations for social media use on social capital via news enagement are conditional on the level algorithmic news usage. News algorithms enable information- and socialization-oriented users to increase news engagement and develop social capital but fail to help highly entertainment-focused users increase news engagement, and thus, they do not develop social capital well. We discuss the possibility that news recommendation algorithms lead to a Matthew effect in which the poor become poorer and the rich become richer, exacerbating information inequality.
La educación a nivel mundial estuvo exigida por el virus SARS CoV-2 a modificar las prácticas de enseñanza-aprendizaje, viéndose afectado considerablemente, entre otros, el entorno colombiano. Esta ...investigación se centra en analizar las percepciones de una licenciatura de la universidad pública de la ciudad de Barranquilla (Atlántico), con relación a la disponibilidad tecnológica, la alfabetización y la apropiación de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación. Siguiendo una metodología de carácter descriptivo, se evidenciaron brechas digitales, especialmente en lo que respecta a la disponibilidad de servicio al internet y el desconocimiento del estudiantado sobre plataformas educativas.
Digital inequality extends beyond mere access to technology. This study explores the concept of third-level digital inequality, which describes the situation where individuals or communities have ...access to technology and the Internet, have required skills, but still struggle to use it effectively. However, there is currently a lack of data and methods for assessing thirdlevel digital inequality. To address this gap, this study aimed to evaluate it on a regional scale by analyzing the popularity of Google search queries. In proposed method, the data are categorized into three groups: everyday services, education, science, and technology, and entertainment. On this basis authors calculated the index of Internet usage efficiency. The study’s findings revealed the territorial patterns of digital inequality in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Regions in North Caucasus and Siberia showed low Internet usage efficiency, while regions in the Urals and Central Russia had high Internet usage efficiency. The study’s methodology is quick, cost-effective, and easy to implement, but it also has limitations. The method only considers the popularity of certain search queries and does not consider the frequency or duration of internet usage, or the specific websites or services accessed, and does not consider individual-level factors that may influence internet usage patterns. The authors emphasize the importance of addressing not only differences in Internet access but also the lack of technology skills, digital literacy, and motivation among certain groups. They conclude that public policies aimed at enhancing internet skills can reduce digital inequality and improve the quality of life of the population.
România devine o societate care îmbătrânește rapid. Sprijinirea persoanelor în vârstă devine astfel o problemă semnificativă, iar promovarea tehnologiilor digitale este o modalitate eficientă de a ...ajuta la abordarea acesteia. Digitalizarea mai scăzută în rândul seniorilor trebuie înțeleasă în contextul decalajelor digitale multiple. Pe lângă diviziunea evidentă existentă între generații (vârsta fiind unul dintre predictorii care determină gradul de digitalizare), există şi alţi factori care au impact major, cum ar fi nivelul mai scăzut al educației sau al veniturilor, acestea fiind, de asemenea, puternic corelate cu utilizarea mai scăzută a noilor tehnologii. Această lucrare examinează situația actuală a utilizării Internetului de către persoanele în vârstă într-o regiune dezvoltată din România (București-Ilfov) și factorii care îi influențează în folosirea tehnologiilor digitale. Studiul analizează cauzele care explică abilitățile digitale mai scăzute ale persoanelor în vârstă (65 de ani și peste) și factorii care influențează aceste abilități, folosind date din societatea românească. În urma cercetării prezentate, una dintre concluziile articolului este aceea că administrațiile publice, producătorii de echipamente digitale și membrii familiei persoanelor în vârstă ar trebui să lucreze împreună pentru a le permite să profite de avantajele tehnologiilor online. Cuvinte-cheie: Accesul la tehnologiile digitale; vârstnici; decalaj digital; excluziune digitală. ●●●●● Romania becomes a fast ageing society. The support of the elderly became, consequently, a significant topic, and promoting digital technologies is an efficient modality to provide help in this regard. The lower degree of elderly digitalization must be understood in the context of multiple digital divides. Along with the existent divide between generations (age being one of the digital profficiency predictors), there are other factors too, with a major impact, as low level of education or revenues, these two being strongly correlated with a lower degree of digital technology use. This paper is examining the present situation of Internet use in a small sample of elder population in the region of Bucharest-Ilfov. The study analizes the causes that explain the lower digital abilities of eldelrly persons (over 65 years old), and the factors that influence these abilities, using data from Romanian society. The conclusions of the article find that public administration, the digital equipment manufacturers, and families of elderly persons should work together to help these persons to use the advantages of these new digital technologies. Keywords: Digital technologies acces; elderly people; digital divide; digital exclusion.
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