Volunteer teaching senior on digital platform
As the world moves towards digitalising everything, from money to ordering food to even government services, a large cohort of people are being left behind – the seniors. Many seniors have poor digital literacy skills and are daunted by the steep learning curve. They also have other challenges like low literacy skills, physical problems like poor vision, hearing, fine motor skills, cognitive issues like lower knowledge retention rates, and the list continues...
These poses endless barriers for seniors to pick up digital skills. The digital divide expanded widely during the COVID-19 pandemic whereby more things where shifted online or digitised. Therefore, the need to bridge this gap is paramount.
Luckily, there are efforts being made to close this gap. Seniors Go Digital programme are staffed with digital ambassadors that provided one to one assistance to seniors for digital problems. They can be found in Digital Community Hubs islandwide and is free. Lessons are widely available on a range of topics like SingPass, Whatsapp, Facebook and even Zoom.
Loved ones closest to the seniors make the biggest difference as they are readily available to provide assistance and understand the seniors well too. They are also trusted and can help the senior build interest and provide opportunities to practice in a safe space – e.g. chatting in a Whatsapp group chat, video calling. So if you have elderly family members at home, do support them with encouragement and patience to help them conquer this endless widening digital divide.
Arriely Tan
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