Bridging the digital divide: access to internet services for the elderly

No matter how you think, the digital divide exists right here, right now in the United States. First, I want to mention that digital divide is commonly defined as “the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all.” Mostly, we think of digital divide when comparing groups with different geographic residencies (states, regional, countries), or different levels of household income. I think we should also think of the digital divide in another demographic category: age. According to the U.S. Consensus Bureau, as of 2006, 24.3% of the U.S. population is 55 or older. This age group is a great potential market for IT providers to offer the elderly with internet-based services, besides their traditional market of young customers who are technology-savvy. The elderly have solid retirement income, wealth of helpful knowledge such as traditions, history, and life experience, as “with age comes wisdom”, and the abundant time to learn and adapt to new things. Plus, like young people, they have tremendous needs to connect to others, i.e. friends and children, in this fast-paced and busy world. Moreover, in just about 20 or 30 years, we will reach the age of 55 or older, too.

The following is a YouTube video made by an old gentleman with the username MellowinPA. This video is a clear example of how the elderly can use the internet to express their own opinions about current issues.

We received similar comments when we talked about this story to some of our friends. Simply enough, we should admit the existing perception that mature adults are conservative when it comes to technology, as well as that they have no clues about how to use current technologies, such as the internet. In fact, young people have a tendency to think that the elderly only care about simpler things such as health, traveling, gardening, books, etc. Moreover, it is true that the elderly individuals have insufficient access to computers, internet connections, and, most importantly, computer instruction. For example, when you go to a nursing home, you will see that the most common form of entertainment for the elderly is television and books. We are certain that they are looking for more than that, and we, young people, are able and have the responsibility to introduce information technology (internet connection, hardware, software) to them.
My vision about the near future is that more beneficial and new internet-based services will be provided specifically for the elderly once three essential IT components (internet connection, hardware, software) and computer instruction are accessible to them. Three plausible candidates for internet-based services for the elderly are:
- Internet community for specific age groups: such as local/ national networking of people in the age of retirement, more use of Instant Messengers, or even online matchmaker.
- Social media: blogs (with topics such as local history, cultures, traveling experience, etc), YouTube.
- Instant data transferring to health providers to keep tracks of physical and mental health daily from distance, especially for the purpose of emergency and health records.
Those three internet-based products will be capable of fulfilling at least three basic needs of people: love, self-actualization, and physiological well-being. Furthermore, we are confident that more access to information technology will lead to digital determinism (as defined in our very first entry as social changes that occur due to technology). Here, we are proposing two changes: perception and human networking methods. In perception, our society should accept that the elderly will enjoy the use of internet, as long as they have access to it and have instruction. With new networking methods, we should expect that the elderly will soon use the internet as the tool to connect with people in their age, with their spouse, and with local medical providers. The technology I presented in our previous entry (Virtual workplace environment) regarding technology for workplace, may be used here, too, as a tool for the elderly to connect to the broad internet community and media providers. Ultimately, social shaping, as defined previously in our very first entry, will take place as the elderly make use of technology, especially the internet. This social shaping involves the redesign of technology to be more user-friendly and to offer more useful services to make the life of the elderly more enjoyable.