“grandmothers-online”: the socio-political activity of the elderly

The article is devoted to understanding the prospects of changing the social and political activity of elderly people in the process of mastering computer technology. The analysis of suggested Government resolutions and state programs showed that they are aimed at the active involvement of this age group in the Internet space (for example, the project “e-Government”, etc.). The author notes that the social status of elderly people is associated with previous experience and depends on such factors as: level of education, marital status, income, territory of residence, occupied place in the socio-professional structure before retirement, previous status and prestige of profession.In Russia, every year there are more and more elderly Internet users: for them there are numerous courses of computer literacy, championships in computer all-around, etc. Using the Internet they have a clearly expressed request, determined by the actual daily interest. In older age, there is such a phenomenon as retro socialization, which manifests itself as the development of computer technology in an attempt to use their life experience and combine it with new skills. The author emphasizes the importance of the ability to carry out planned actions in the Internet space independently for this age group of users. Confident use of computer technology gives older people a sense of independence. The author notes that the development of computer technology by elderly people leads to increased social activity. In this paper, she analyzes the interviews of aged users posted on the website “Internet and elderly people”, highlightes the following opportunities for the use of computer technology by elderly people: self-realization of interests; enhanced communication capabilities, maintaining social relations; search for the necessary information; limiter (time, real contacts, reliability of facts).The author emphasizes that the political activity of the older generation remains poorly studied despite the fact that this age group is an active part of the electorate. The researcher concludes that the political activity of elderly people may increase with the use of computer technology. Specific age characteristics, the ability to express “political through personal” can be realized through the interest in solving the problems of life of local communities, the desire to unite, solidarity.