Older People and the Construction of Virtual Identities in the Digital Culture

Abstract

This research study addresses certain theoretical issues surrounding the relationship between digital technologies, the aging population, and identity. At the same time, it offers a conceptual proposal of indicators of the social inclusion of older people in the digital culture of society as a potential starting point for further empirical research. The progressive trend of a growing proportion of older people is a demographic reality in many economically and technologically advanced societies. This demographic aging of populations raises several economic, sociopolitical, medical, cultural, social, and psychological issues. One of the most important and oft-overlooked sets of issues is the active participation of older people in the digital culture environment and the use of information and communication technologies as an alternative source of social interaction in constructing and affirming their own identity. Aging is often associated with a natural decline in professional activity, poorer health, reduced physical activity, reduced social contacts, and sometimes isolation and loneliness. The active participation of older people in the digital environment of communication and virtual interactions can buffer these negative factors to a certain extent and offer an adequate alternative for fulfilling the need for social relationships, self-actualization, and affirmation of identity. Of course, digital culture does have an ambivalent character. On the one hand, there are obvious positive effects on social life, subjective experience, and consciousness of one's own identity derived from real and virtual social interactions. On the other hand, digitalizing life generates unseen risks in invading an accelerated pace of life, superficiality, and the deepening of social inequalities.