Computer and internet technologies in the lives of older people: opportunities and risks

The purpose of the research is to analyze and summarize empirical data about availability, specificity, methods, needs of older Internet users and to identify potential and real risks, accompanying being in the global network. The article based on the data of the 25th wave (2016) «Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - HSE» (RLMS-HSE). It is established and empirically confirmed that the computer and the Internet provide a whole range of new positive opportunities for the elderly. At the same time, there is a phenomenon of information inequality of the elderly, which manifests itself through the limited resources of adaptation to the information component of everyday life, the decline in the social well-being of the elderly in the ever-changing modern social environment. The author substantiates the conclusion that the ambivalence of Internet technologies does not cause the abandonment of it, but the increase of various resources of adaptation to innovations both by own efforts and by appropriate motivation of elderly users themselves, and by means of the social protection system.