Share photos via WhatsApp or transfer money via a banking app - many older people use digital technology just like young people, but it remains a big mystery to many. Experts are now calling for all seniors to be included on the subject.
Berlin (dpa) - Experts see a strong "digital divide" in the older population in Germany. "Access to and the use of digital offers are unevenly distributed within the group of older people depending on their level of education and income - significantly more unequal than between younger people," says the "Eighth Age Report" for the federal government. The Federal Cabinet was now discussing him, and he was then presented in Berlin.
"IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT SKYPING WITH THE GRANDCHILDREN"
The expert commission, made up of researchers from several disciplines, which created the report, calls on the federal government to "attach far more weight than before" to the topic of age in its digital strategy.
Such an age report is prepared once in each electoral term, each with a specific focus. This time it was digitization. According to the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, the recommendations are an important basis for decision-making in the government's senior citizens policy.
This will be taken up and implemented, said Family Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD). "It's not just about Skype with grandchildren or internet shopping." It is about real participation or access to information for older people.
INTERNET FOR ALL ELDERLY PEOPLE
The experts are specifically in favor of Internet access for all types of housing for older people, whether at home or in a nursing home. In addition, the federal, state and local governments should provide free internet in public spaces and old people who live on basic security or low income should receive state funding for the internet and the acquisition of digital technology.
The head of the Age Report Commission, Andreas Kruse, spoke of a "basic right" and "digital services of general interest". It is about the fact that older people can lead a good life. The corona crisis showed how important good digital equipment is, for example for social contacts or services.
"DANCE TEA, SKAT AND COFFEE" OR "COFFEE, CAKE, TABLET"?
According to the Heidelberg professor for psychology and geriatric research, old age is, as many feared, not an automatic hurdle when it comes to familiarizing oneself with technology. Here it applies that the brain's ability to learn and adaptability is preserved in old age in such a way that people are able to do so, said Kruse.
The elderly and the internet don't contradict each other, said Giffey. She suggested that the topic of digitization should play a stronger role at the local level, for example in educational programs or senior citizens' meetings. Instead of "tea, skat and coffee", it could also be a question of how a train or a citizens' office appointment is booked over the Internet. As an example, the SPD politician cited the event of a nursing home that she had visited before the corona crisis, which was regularly offered under the title "Coffee, cake, tablet".
Ex-SPD boss Franz Müntefering also thinks that the "coffee, cake, tablet" is a "great thing", as he said. The 80-year-old has been chairman of the Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens' Organizations since 2015 and also commented on the new age report. In his opinion, older people who have not had much to do with technology can not be reached "by directive from above", but only at the local level in small groups, if "one person convinces the other that it is nice is if you can ".
However, in Müntefering's view, all age groups still have to learn how to use smartphones correctly. "If I sit down at a table for dinner and my opponents, who are sitting there with me, or friends, they just unpack the flat thing and are then available for the whole world for an hour, my fun is over." Any critical looks from grandpa and grandma also showed a certain sensitivity for what is important between people, said Müntefering.
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Age report