Causes and a Possible Solution of Digital Inequality
I am Political Science & International Relations student at Boğaziçi University. I have been a part of volunteer projects concerning elderly people before and visited nursing homes to carry out interviews.
My observations are as follows:
-Elderly people are more resistant to change.
-Despite the simplicity of most digital devices, elderly people tend to struggle with them.
-Elderly people think that as long as older technologies “get the job done”, they don’t need to learn newer technology.
In my opinion, most, if not all, of the obstacles preventing elderly people from learning newer technologies stem from prejudices. If we can educate these people on the ease of use of digital devices, then I believe we can successfully eliminate an important part of digital inequalities.
The focus should absolutely be on breaking down preconceived notions of difficulty when it comes to learning digital technologies. A big portion of these new technologies are easy to use for people of all ages. Elderly people should be convinced that they can learn such technologies first in order to actually learn them.
A possible method would be to educate people who look after elderly people on how they can teach them digital technologies. When elderly people struggle with such devices, most people who look after them choose to directly solve the problem by snatching the device from the elderly person’s hand. Instead of a “giving a fish” mentality we should have a “teaching how to fish” mentality when it comes to educating elderly people on digital technologies.
Atakan Karabacak
Student
Türkiye K-Gem
