The elderly do not stop breaking down barriers and, with them, those labels of disability and uselessness that overshadow the natural aging of people. Although a few years ago the data made it clear that the majority of those over 65 years of age did not use new technologies, that reality is changing by leaps and bounds. So much so that in 2023, older Spaniards between 65 and 75 years old will surpass their European colleagues in internet use and the oldest people will have stepped on the accelerator to reduce the digital divide.
According to a work carried out by the CSIC Network Aging team (Ana Belén Castillo Belmonte, Julio Pérez Díaz and Diego Ramiro Fariñas), published in December, “80.1% of people between 65 and 74 years old used the Internet in in 2023, compared to 1.5% in 2002. But since 2019, Spanish adults of that age use the internet more than adults of the same age in the euro zone and, in addition, those over 75 years of age. "They present a very pronounced upward trend in the use of this type of technology."
And this advance has a lot to do with women. “The gender gap in Internet use ends in 2022 when women very slightly surpass men in percentage of use (76.4% compared to 76.5%). If we compare the data with those of the euro zone, a turning point is observed starting in 2019 with a marked difference in favor of Spanish women (76.5%) compared to European women (67.9%),” the researchers point out. Network Aging researchers, with data extracted from the latest Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Homes of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The explanation for this notable reduction in the digital divide has to do, according to researchers, with the progressive arrival at these ages of people who already used the Internet previously. Also, due to the improvement of digital infrastructure, networks and access to devices and the “accelerated learning as a result of the covid pandemic.” The explanation for this notable reduction in the digital divide has to do, according to researchers , due to the progressive arrival at these ages of people who already used the Internet previously. Also, due to the improvement of digital infrastructure, networks and access to devices and the “accelerated learning as a result of the covid pandemic.”
The notable increase in the number of people aged 65 to 74 who use Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is observed in the evolution from 2006 to 2023. In 2006, less than half used a mobile phone, data that rises to 96.3% last year. Another example is online purchases, going from 0.7% to almost 25% of seniors who have used this system in the last three months, explains the CISC team.
Among pensioners, the increasing frequency in the use of ICT is also evident and highlights that almost 70% use the Internet daily (a figure that is 90% in the population as a whole).
And those over 75? Although the digital divide is wider, it continues to reduce, going from a percentage of 31.8% that used the internet regularly in 2021 to 40.8% last year.
The services most used by older people between 75 and 84 years old are instant messaging (45.1% use it), reading news, newspapers or magazines (31.3%) or telephoning and making video calls over the Internet. (29.6%). The percentages are considerably reduced for those over 85 years of age, "although it is notable that 12.4% of this group uses instant messaging and almost 10% telephone, make calls over the Internet or read news online," points out this work, which also points out that a quarter of seniors between 75 and 84 years old use online banking and in the group of those over 85, almost 4% do so.
For the group of people over 75 years of age, it is observed that as the level of education increases, so does the percentage of individuals who use the Internet. A percentage greater than 80% of individuals who completed their university studies use this technology compared to 15% of users with less than primary education. “The income level works in the same sense and the higher the income level, the higher the percentage of people who use this technology,” the researchers indicate.
But is using the internet the same as having digital skills? Obviously not. But this difference between both concepts can also be applied to adults in general. According to this work, although the age gap in internet consumption is obviously reducing, the gap in digital skills is still notable. From the 2023 data, it is clear that 59% of people between 65 and 74 years old have low, reduced, limited or no digital skills, compared to 41% who have this type of capacity, whether basic or advanced.
“If we look at the type of skill, 82% of individuals between 65 and 74 years old have advanced skills in communication and collaboration, and 66.1% in information and data literacy. On the opposite side are digital content creation skills where almost half of users do not have that type of knowledge. There are also deficiencies in issues related to security and problem resolution,” this work details.
