Digital Divide and the Socially Underprivileged: Focusing on the Digital Divide Issues of the Elderly

Abstract

This study analyzes public service advertisements, public campaign videos, and digital care industry advertisement videos to identify the dominant perspective on the digital divide problem of the elderly and to explore the position and meaning of the elderly in digital technology discourse. According to the analysis, public advertisements/campaign texts for bridging the digital divide assume the elderly as the digital weak and the young as the digital strong, and there is a tendency to solve the problem of the digital weak through the practice of the digital strong. This aspect of representation requires reconsideration because it can lead to reinforcing and reproducing negative stereotypes such as dependence and passivity of the elderly. On the other hand, the elderly in advertisements for the digital care industry appear as images of digital users rather than digital weaklings, as users of AI care services. As a result of reproducing the daily life of the elderly with an artificial intelligence care robot, a difference was revealed in the use of digital technology by female seniors and male seniors. It was understood that the dual inequality factors of gender and age were reflected. In the advertisements analyzed, the elderly actively interacting with AI caring robots tended to highlight the digital inclusion of ICT companies that are considerate of the minority and the vulnerable, and digital technology appeared as a friend of the elderly in all texts.