Theme 5 - Digital Media for Elderly People

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Digital Media for Elderly People 


This blog post deals with the topic of digital media from the perspective of elderly people. Will the elderly be left out of everything as a result of digital media? How is digital media affecting to elderly people life? 



"How am I supposed to cope with this?" 

"I can not reach services and help as I would like to" 

"Where can I get help with digital media?" 




This interesting picture shows us data of elderly people (65-74) using internet in 2020 (for 3 months) in different countries. Finland is one of the highest next to other Scandinavian countries. What do you think, why Scandinavian countries are having highest scores in this? Share your thoughts in comments!  



Services offered for elderly people online 


Digital media offers services for all of us. Elderly people can also benefit from it. Healthcare services provide online doctor consultations and medication reminders. Elderly people can have some problems with going to grocery stores, that's why there is grocery and meal delivery services to help elderly people. Also apps "Wolt" and "Foodora" can be used and some of the grocery shops have their own delivery. 

Apps like Whatsapp and Zoom helps elderly people to be in touch with closed ones. 
From internet can be found newspapers and some movies to keep mind refreshed. 




Why elderly people don't use digital services? 
 











Picture from VALLI.fi / PDF -file 
 https://www.valli.fi/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Selvitys-ika%CC%88a%CC%88ntyneiden-digiosallisuudesta-2022.pdf 


Valli.fi website has many posts about elderly people and digital media. From this page you can also find some news about the topic and also current information. 


"At the Age Technology Center of the Finnish Association for Elderly and Community Services VALLI, we regularly monitor the experiences, needs and motivation of older people related to digital services"  



This table from Valli website/PDF file is showing us why elderly people does not use digital services. It's in Finnish, but biggest reasons are: 

- I don't know how to use digital services
- It is very hard to use mobile devices/ don't have them or I do not have internet connection 
- Afraid of using digital services because of scams 



Interview 

I interviewed my grandmother about digital media and her experiences about it. She is 65 years old at the moment. 


Me: How do you feel about our World getting more digital?

Granny: There is two sides in every story. It is a good tool and also very fast if you are able to use it correctly. Almost all the services we have here in Finland (health services, bank services etc...) are online nowadays. I have learnt how to use them, but there is many elderly that have no idea how to use them. Biggest reason I know how to use them is you, my grandchildren but how sad it is to know some elderly do not have anyone out there that could help. 

Me: Yes I feel the same way. And few weeks ago when I was helping you to fill retirement forms online, it was also very hard for me to find things. How would you change this digital media that we have nowadays? 

Granny: In my city there is no more offices (f.e.x. tax office)  that you could go and take care of your things. It's quite hard for us elderly people to find right information online and then try to fill everything there. I would change so that all services that are online nowadays would be easy to find. I would love to have a little book where is written all the services and links to websites. 

Nowadays there is also many scams online and that is a bad thing for elderly people when using digital media. 



Interview summary 


- Services online is hard to find and use -> always/often need help
- Scams makes hard to separate real things from fake 
- Digital services are faster if you know how to use them 
- Support in using digital media for elderly would be amazing 
 



Sources 

Cover Picture: 
https://picryl.com/media/hospice-wrinkled-hand-elderly-550ebe 

Chart: 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/fr/web/products-eurostat-news/-/edn-20210517-1 

VALLI :
 https://www.valli.fi/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Selvitys-ika%CC%88a%CC%88ntyneiden-digiosallisuudesta-2022.pdf 





<3 Jessica Lahtinen

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