The Digitization of Seniors: Analyzing the Multiple Confluence of Social and Spatial Divides

Millán Arroyo-Menéndez, Noelia Gutiérrez-Láiz and Blanca Criado-Quesada
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Millán Arroyo-Menéndez: Department of Sociology: Theory and Methodology, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Member of TRANSOC Research Institute, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain
Noelia Gutiérrez-Láiz: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain
Blanca Criado-Quesada: Department of Sociology: Theory and Methodology, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Member of TRANSOC Research Institute, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-38

Abstract: The lower digitization among seniors must be understood in the context of the coming together of multiple digital divides. In addition to the obvious generation divide (age is one of the factors most determining digital uses), others also have an influence, such as a lower education or income level, which is characteristic of this group and also strongly correlated with lower use of new technologies. We also find gender differences in the digital uses of seniors (more pronounced than in the population as a whole) and a significant geospatial inequality in several variables. The latter is important due to both the rapid aging of the rural population, greater than that seen in the urban population, and the fact that the geographical areas with a lower income level, where the aging population tends to be concentrated to a greater extent, are also the areas where digitization reaches the least, in terms of both infrastructures and uses. This article addresses the multiconfluence of the aforementioned “digital divides in older people” (or “seniors”), trying to determine the effects and degree of importance of each, identify the main groups at risk of digital exclusion, and to characterize the technological uses of seniors and their main segments. To do this, we have used the microdata from the “Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in homes”, produced by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) for the year 2020.

Keywords: ICTs; digitization; digital divides; seniors; gender; socio-spatial inequalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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