Configuring the Older Non-User

Between Research, Policy and Practice of Digital Exclusion

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13055707
AutoresVera Gallistl (0000-0002-0116-0677, University of Vienna, autor correspondente), Rebekka Rohner (0000-0001-6941-7179, University of Vienna), Alexander Seifert (0000-0003-3124-4588, University of Zurich), Anna Wanka (0000-0002-8450-3160, Goethe University Frankfurt)
Ano2020
Volume8
Fascículo2
Páginas233-243
Data de publicação2020-05-14
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Inclusion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2183-2803 • E-ISSN: 2183-2803
EditoraCogitatio (PUBLISHER • PT)
DOI10.17645/si.v8i2.2607
OpenAlexW3025394918
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas44
Referências citadas41

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

Digital divide · Digital Inclusion · Everyday life · Internet privacy · Political science · Psychological intervention · Public relations · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Law · Psychology · Sharing Economy and Platforms · Technology Use by Older Adults