Configuring the Older Non-User: Between Research, Policy and Practice of Digital Exclusion

Abstract

Older adults face significant barriers when accessing the Internet. What can be done to address these barriers? This article analyses existing strategies to tackle the age-related digital divide on three different levels: research, policy and practice. It analyses (1) scientific conceptualisations that are used when studying Internet use and non-use in later life, (2) policies that address older adults’ Internet (non-)use in Austria and (3) characteristics of older Austrian non-users of the Internet based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, wave 6). Analysis shows that Austrian policy tends to emphasise the individual responsibility to learn digital technologies, while placing a lower priority on structural issues, such as investments in infrastructure. However, SHARE data shows that only a small percentage of older non-users of the Internet is in fact reached with such interventions. Thus, this article suggests that policy needs to base its strategies on more refined understandings of Internet use and non-use in later life as well as a more nuanced image of the older non-user. A perspective of critical-cultural gerontology, as laid out in this article, highlights that technology adoption is a domestication process that takes place in the everyday lives of older adults, and it is these processes that interventions that tackle the age-related digital divide should take as a starting point.

COVID-19: Technology, Social Connections, Loneliness, and Leisure Activities: An International Study Protocol

“…The aim of the project is to support older adults to learn and appropriate new digital technologies later in life in Austria, Germany, Italy, Finland and Japan. It addresses a research gap by exploring informal, non-formal and formal learning settings in later life and further developing it through combination of such approaches with different forms of learning (courses, senior-to-senior approaches, praxlabs) (Gallistl et al, 2020 ).…”

Creativity Based on New Technologies in Design of Age-Friendly Cities: Polish Seniors About Their Needs – Research Reflection

“…Published analyses illustrate the newer technologies are, the more seniors tend to avoid them. This can be characterized by anxiety, frustration with interface platforms, and a general negative attitude toward new technology, and not least of all, higher online security concerns (Cattaneo et al, 2016;Damodaran et al, 2013;Gallistl et al, 2020;Hussain et al, 2017;Kamin et al, 2017;Reisdorf & Groselj, 2017). The results of previous research also emphasize the importance of health-related barriers when accessing new technologies, e.g.…”

Digital Inclusion as a Core Component of Social Inclusion

“…The first few articles are concerned with specific factors that can contribute to digital inclusion, namely social support (Asmar, van Aduenhove, & Mariën, 2020), digital literacy (Radovanović et al, 2020), and devices (in this case mobile phones; Shema & Garcia-Murillo, 2020). We then move toward specific digital inclusion initiatives, such as the maker movement (Unterfrauner, Hofer, Pelka, & Zirngiebl, 2020), and toward programs and initiatives that are concerned with specific groups of the population, including women (Arroyo, 2020), people with intellectual disabilities and their care takers (Heitplatz, 2020), school children (Huang, Ball, Cotton, & O'Neal, 2020) and young people (Calderón Gómez, 2020), and finally older internet non-users (Gallistl, Rohner, Seifert, & Wanka, 2020). The thematic issue closes out with an overview of various digital inclusion initiatives across the Americas and the Caribbean (Robinson et al, 2020).…”

“…Next, Gallistl et al (2020) examine policies that address older adults' Internet (non-)use in Austria and characteristics of older Austrian non-users. Their quantitative analysis shows that technology adoption is a domestication process that takes place in the everyday lives of older adults.…”