A Double Burden of Exclusion? Digital and Social Exclusion of Older Adults in Times of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has excluded older adults from a society based on physical social contact. Vulnerable populations like older adults also tend to be excluded from digital services because they opt not to use the internet, lack necessary devices and network connectivity, or inexperience using the technology. Older adults who are frail and are not online, many of whom are in long-term care facilities, struggle with the double burden of social and digital exclusion. This paper discusses the potential outcomes of this exclusion and provides recommendations for rectifying the situation, with a particular focus on older adults in long-term care facilities.

Aging in an “infodemic”: The role of cognition, affect, and experience on news veracity detection during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Given limited digital media literacy (Schreurs, Quan-Haase, & Martin, 2017;Seifert, Cotten, & Xie, 2020), impairments in decision-making processes (Ebner, Pehlivanoglu, Polk, Turner, & Spreng, in press;Spreng, Ebner, Levin, & Turner, 2020), and changes in socioemotional functioning (Ebner & Fischer, 2014;Gutchess & Samanez-Larkin, 2019), older adults may be particularly susceptible to fake news (Brashier & Schacter, 2020;Grinberg, Joseph, Friedland, Swire-Thompson, & Lazer, 2019). In fact, recent statistics showed that older adults were the demographic that shared the most fake news during the 2016 U.S. election on platforms such as Twitter (Grinberg et al, 2019) and Facebook (Guess, Nagler, & Tucker, 2019).…”

Telemedicine in Long-Term Care Facilities During and Beyond COVID-19: Challenges Caused by the Digital Divide

“…Telemedical solutions are often feasible and acceptable in delivering care to older adults in LTCFs, even in those with sensory impairments such as hearing or visual loss (9). However, older adults are less likely than younger people to be able to take advantage of the opportunities enabled by modern information and communication technology (ICT) or telemedicine (10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Older adults living in LTCFs often (a) opt not to use the internet, (b) cannot afford internet access or ICT devices, (c) lack technical solutions with which to use telemedicine to connect virtually with doctors or other health professionals, (d) have physical or cognitive limitations that may limit possible telemedicine use or prevent them from using telemedicine at all without assistance, and (e) lack the skills to use ICT or telemedicine even if they do have access (9,11,(15)(16)(17)(18).…”

Ethical Issues in COVID-19 Communication to Mitigate the Pandemic: Dilemmas and Practical Implications

“…These challenges are associated with the moral imperative to avoid doing harm, respect people's liberty and privacy, (Gostin et al, 2020) and communicators' ethical obligations to sincerity, truthfulness, and comprehensibility (Johannesen et al, 2008). Because inequity concerns are intensified in a pandemic, this calls attention to societies' obligation to consider internet access to use online resources to all as a basic human right, and to provide support systems and skills suited for populations with diverse needs and capacities (Seifert et al, 2020;Watts, 2020). Attending to these ethical concerns has important practical implications.…”

“…Across and within countries members of certain groups have limited access to digital technologies or limited skills in using them, which are mainly associated with lower income, age, and geographic location (living in rural areas; Watts, 2020). Digital inequality results in unintended consequences, such as when older adults, including those with multiple morbidities and functional impairments, feel more socially excluded than others when required to keep spatial distancing because of their limited participation in the digital world (Seifert et al, 2020). Furthermore, due to the pandemic, people are encouraged to use digital and telehealth services as well as various apps developed to help people cope with mental health issues or promote physical activity.…”