On the triple exclusion of older adults during COVID-19: Technology, digital literacy and social isolation

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between older adults and digital technology became complicated. Prior to the pandemic, some older adults may have faced a double exclusion due to a lack of digital literacy and social interaction, and the pandemic-imposed transition to nearly all aspects of life being online magnified the requirement for people to be increasingly digitally literate. This paper presents an exploratory analysis to understand how the increased online nature of the world during the pandemic may have impacted older adults' relationship with digital technology by expanding on a prior study of older adults who, pre-pandemic, self-identified as occasional or non-users of digital technology. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 12 of these people during the pandemic. Our findings demonstrate the ways that their risk of precarity became heightened and how they began to use digital technology more frequently, strengthening and applying their digital literacy skills to remain virtually connected with friends and family. Further, the paper advances the concept of a triple exclusion for older adults who are non-users of digital technology and describes how digital literacy and remaining virtually connected can work in tandem, helping older adults to remain included in society.

Keywords: COVID-19; Canada; Digital technology; Exclusion; Older adults.