Understanding the feeling of being overwhelmed by the internet: The role of digital literacy among older adults
L. Göbl, M. R. Jokisch, D. Leopold, M. Doh
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AbstractThe digital transformation creates new opportunities for older adults to improve their well-being. In particular, this includes the opportunity to stay in the home environment for longer, e.g. through ambient assisted living, as well as digital health applications and telemedicine for better health management. In order to be able to use these services successfully, digital literacy is required. It is a multifactorial concept that integrates various areas of competence. However, older adults have lower digital literacy compared to society as a whole (Stürz et al., 2022). Digital technologies can also cause a feeling of being overwhelmed. This results above all from the wealth of information on the internet, which is perceived as challenging when it comes to health issues, for example, and became particularly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic (Ware et al., 2017). However, the user can also be overwhelmed during the learning process itself due to the wide range of possible applications (Borghouts et al., 2022). As a consequence, this can lead to knowledge of digital technologies not being expanded (Finkelstein et al., 2023). Previous studies have barely addressed the association between digital literacy and the feeling of being overwhelmed. This study therefore examines which specific areas of digital literacy, based on the DigComp 2.1 competence model, are required in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the internet.Keywords: digital literacy, overwhelming, education
L. Göbl, M. R. Jokisch, D. Leopold, M. Doh (2024). Understanding the feeling of being overwhelmed by the internet: The role of digital literacy among older adults. Gerontechnology, 23(2), 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.s.901.opp