“From the Parliament of Catalonia they may not have as much to say to the private sector, but in the public sector they should give a touch to those responsible for public statistics so that the Idescat or Eurostat surveys include the entire adult population, also to older people, who must be considered and questioned like the rest of the citizens, and not be excluded or put all those over 65 years of age in the same block; that is a form of ageism.”
This is how the UOC researcher and professor Mireia Fernández Ardèvol expressed herself when presenting the report on Digital inequality and old age to the Parliament’s Social Rights commission, which the Advisory Council had commissioned her to do. on Science and Technology of the Parliament itself (CAPCIT).
Fernández Ardèvol began his speech by explaining how the confinement of the pandemic showed that, despite the fact that the internet connection was widespread, the digital divide “was serious” and became a form of social exclusion that, according to the available data , was more pronounced among older people. But, then, he explained the difficulty of having a precise x-ray of this gap because it is not measured among those over 75 years of age (only the INE measures the connectivity of that age group), the data on Idescat digitalization is based on the survey of the active population and therefore only reach the age of 65 and, in usability studies of digital tools, when talking about older people, all those who are over 55 or 65 are often included in the same bag.
He added that to advance the digital inclusion of older people, the first thing to do is look at them differently, as citizens, as individuals who have interests and abilities, “because digitalization goes beyond our productive capacity; today to be citizens and submit the income tax return or make an appointment with the doctor we need access to the internet.
According to the report prepared by Fernández Ardèvol, Sara Suárez Gonzalo and Isabel Sáenz Hernández, the stereotype that older people do not know and are not interested in digital tools is not real, because the digital divide is really socio-digital, it is another form of inequality socioeconomic.
Beyond age, the digital divide is highly determined by the educational level – which limits the way a person uses the Internet -, income – which determines the ability to have a good connection and more and better devices to access information. network- and gender.
“Although there is a lack of disaggregated data, it can be concluded that being a woman, over 75 years of age, a pensioner and with a low level of education is associated with Internet use below the average for Catalonia,” indicates the report. The authors point out that living in small rural municipalities also influences the digital divide because there is less infrastructure.
Regarding the uses of the Internet that the older population makes, the most widespread is communication. 100% of Internet users between 65 and 74 years old use tools such as WhatsApp, while the percentage falls to 41% among those over 75 years old. Regarding online banking, it is used by 62% of Internet users between 65 and 74 years old, and 21% in the older group.
In addition to demanding the end of ageism in statistics, the report proposes other recommendations to promote the digital inclusion of the older population in Catalonia that the majority of parliamentary groups present in the Social Rights Commission committed to study and include in the elder law in which they work.
The first of these recommendations is to consider the Internet as a public good with universal access, like electricity. It is also proposed to promote adapted training programs so that the entire population, including the elderly, has digital skills and competencies and does not need to give their passwords to volunteers or other digital mentors to resolve their procedures.
And to advance in this area, the authors of the report consider it essential to create simple, quality digital services, in whose design older people participate so that they are universal and inclusive.
