4 ms·

I'm in Canada and all I can think of is how my Mom, uncles, other older relatives do not have a computer. They have no interest in anything on a computer and ha

I'm in Canada and all I can think of is how my Mom, uncles, other older relatives do not have a computer. They have no interest in anything on a computer and have never touched one. You could put one in front of them powered on, logged in, web browser open, and they'd have no clue how to operate it to enter info. We had a hurricane here and Mom applied to the Red Cross for disaster relief. She got a PIN for her online banking which she doesn't have or ever will. There are quite a few people without computers. It's maddening to see some or proposed government services only be offered exclusively on the Internet.

germanier 4y ago
It's a chicken-and-egg situation. Estonia has a much higher than average number of elderly using such online services. If you for any reason don't want to, you can still visit a government office in person to do your business.
- skeletal88 4y ago
  My 90 year old grandfather is doing lots of stuff online, needs help with the computer occasionally, but otherwise is doing ok. Well.. he finished the Technical University with cum laude in mechanics, that maybe helps.
pbhjpbhj 4y ago
Perhaps we should consider it akin to literacy. In the past, and indeed present, plenty of people couldn't read and so would need to seek help to access government services that required, for example, completing a form or reading instructions. Nowadays most people read (in my country, UK), though completing forms can have high literacy/intelligence demands. Some lack computer skills but almost everyone (in my country) has some access to computers in free local government libraries and in other local community centres. It's not terribly convenient, granted. So should we avoid offering services that need literacy to access, or just those that require computer literacy? I'd argue neither, but people should have long transition periods (multiple years) when a system is moving to access only via computer and government should ensure all communities have ongoing access to computers where that's reasonable.

germanier 4y ago

It's a chicken-and-egg situation. Estonia has a much higher than average number of elderly using such online services. If you for any reason don't want to, you can still visit a government office in person to do your business.

skeletal88 4y ago
My 90 year old grandfather is doing lots of stuff online, needs help with the computer occasionally, but otherwise is doing ok. Well.. he finished the Technical University with cum laude in mechanics, that maybe helps.

pbhjpbhj 4y ago

Perhaps we should consider it akin to literacy. In the past, and indeed present, plenty of people couldn't read and so would need to seek help to access government services that required, for example, completing a form or reading instructions. Nowadays most people read (in my country, UK), though completing forms can have high literacy/intelligence demands. Some lack computer skills but almost everyone (in my country) has some access to computers in free local government libraries and in other local community centres. It's not terribly convenient, granted. So should we avoid offering services that need literacy to access, or just those that require computer literacy? I'd argue neither, but people should have long transition periods (multiple years) when a system is moving to access only via computer and government should ensure all communities have ongoing access to computers where that's reasonable.