Definition
The term digital participation refers to the active involvement in digital society through the use of modern information and communication technology (ICT), such as the Internet. This participation includes access to not only the Internet but also various online services and content. Non-participation in the digital world could lead to a feeling of social exclusion, whereas a feeling of social inclusion may be induced by having access to the Internet as well as the willingness and skills to use it.
Overview
Digital technologies pervade all aspects of our lives because of high levels of technological innovation and the diffusion of ICT (Castells 2010). The Internet is one of the most important examples of modern digital technology. As Internet access has become widespread across the globe, a digital gap between generations has been observed in empirical studies...
References
Böhnke P, Silver H (2014) Social exclusion. In: Michalos AC (ed) Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 6064–6069
Brake DR (2014) Are we all online content creators now? Web 2.0 and digital divides. J Comput-Mediat Commun 19:591–609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12042
Brewer R, Piper AM (2016) “Tell it like it really is”: a case of online content creation and sharing among older adult bloggers. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems – CHI ‘16. ACM Press, Santa Clara, pp 5529–5542
Brewer R, Morris MR, Piper AM (2016) “Why would anybody do this?” Understanding older adults’ motivations and challenges in crowd work. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems – CHI ‘16. ACM Press, Santa Clara, pp 2246–2257
Büchi M, Just N, Latzer M (2016) Modeling the second-level digital divide: a five-country study of social differences in Internet use. New Media Soc 18:2703–2722. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815604154
Castells M (2010) The rise of the network society, 2nd edn. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester/West Sussex/Malden
Cotten SR, Anderson WA, McCullough BM (2013) Impact of Internet use on loneliness and contact with others among older adults: cross-sectional analysis. J Med Internet Res 15(2):e39. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2306
Cutler S (2005) Ageism and technology. Generations 29(3):67–72
Czaja SJ (2017) The role of technology in supporting social engagement among older adults. Public Policy Aging Rep 27:145–148. https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/prx034
DiMaggio P, Hargittai E, Celeste C, Shafer S (2004) Digital inequality: from unequal access to differentiated use. In: Neckermann KM (ed) Social inequality. Russel Sage Foundation, New York, pp 335–400
Erickson J, Johnson GM (2011) Internet use and psychological wellness during late adulthood. Can J Aging 30:197–209. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980811000109
Forsman AK, Nordmyr J (2017) Psychosocial links between Internet use and mental health in later life: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence. J Appl Gerontol 36:1471–1518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464815595509
Hunsaker A, Hargittai E (2018) A review of Internet use among older adults. New Media Soc 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818787348
König R, Seifert A, Doh M (2018) Internet use among older Europeans: an analysis based on SHARE data. Univ Access Inf 17:621–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-018-0609-5
Leist AK (2013) Social media use of older adults: a mini-review. Gerontology 59:378–384. https://doi.org/10.1159/000346818
Nielek R, Lutostańska M, Kopeć W, Wierzbicki A (2017) Turned 70? It is time to start editing Wikipedia. In: Proceedings of the international conference on web intelligence – WI ‘17. ACM Press, Leipzig, pp 899–906
Peacock SE, Künemund H (2007) Senior citizens and Internet technology: reasons and correlates of access versus non-access in a European comparative perspective. Eur J Ageing 4:191–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-007-0067-z
Pew Research Center (2017) Tech adoption climbs among older adults. http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/17/tech-adoption-climbs-among-older-adults
Pew Research Center (2018) Social media use continues to rise in developing countries but plateaus across developed ones. http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/17/tech-adoption-climbs-among-older-adults
Powell A, Williams CK, Bock DB et al (2012) e-Voting intent: a comparison of young and elderly voters. Gov Inf Q 29:361–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2012.01.003
Scheerder A, van Deursen A, van Dijk J (2017) Determinants of Internet skills, uses and outcomes: a systematic review of the second- and third-level digital divide. Telemat Inform 34:1607–1624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.07.007
Schulz R, Wahl H-W, Matthews JT et al (2015) Advancing the aging and technology agenda in gerontology. The Gerontologist 55:724–734. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu071
Seifert A, Schelling HR (2016) Alt und offline? Befunde zur Nutzung des Internets durch Menschen ab 65 Jahren in der Schweiz. Z Gerontol Geriatr 49:619–625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00391-015-0965-1
Seifert A, Schelling HR (2018) Seniors online: attitudes toward the Internet and coping with everyday life. J Appl Gerontol 37:99–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464816669805
Seifert A, Doh M, Wahl H-W (2017) They also do it: Internet use by older adults living in residential care facilities. Educ Gerontol 43:451–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2017.1326224
Seifert A, Hofer M, Rössel J (2018) Older adults’ perceived sense of social exclusion from the digital world. Educ Gerontol 44:775–785. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2019.1574415
Sims T, Reed AE, Carr DC (2017) Information and communication technology use is related to higher well-being among the oldest-old. J Gerontol Ser B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 72(5):761–770. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbw130
WHO (ed) (2015) World report on ageing and health. World Health Organization, Geneva
Xie B, Jaeger PT (2008) Older adults and political participation on the Internet: a cross-cultural comparison of the USA and China. J Cross Cult Gerontol 23:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-007-9050-6
Yu RP, Ellison NB, McCammon RJ, Langa KM (2016) Mapping the two levels of digital divide: Internet access and social network site adoption among older adults in the USA. Inf Commun Soc 19:1445–1464. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1109695
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Seifert, A., Rössel, J. (2019). Digital Participation. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_1017-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_1017-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences