Elderly Citizens: Aspects of Inclusion in the Digital Environment

The article examines the issue of involvement in the digital environment of elderly people living in cities and rural areas of the Vologda Region. A special feature of the region is the presence of two large cities: Vologda, the administrative center, and Cherepovets, the industrial center of metallurgy and the chemical industry, where 72% of the region's population lives. The aim of the research is to study various aspects of the inclusion of older people in the digital environment due to living in urban or rural areas. The analysis is based on data from the Vologda Region socio-cultural development monitoring conducted by the Vologda Research Center of RAS in 2021 and 2023. The paper presents the differences in the use of the Internet, its individual resources, in digital skills, self-assessment of the usefulness and harm of inclusion in the digital environment, protection from various risks and negative manifestations of Internet us. As a result, the conclusion is made about the mutual influence of territorial and age factors of digital inequalities. In a “younger” (relatively) Vologda, older people are more active in digital interactions, and according to self-assessments, they feel more confident and secure in them. In Cherepovets, with a higher aging index, older people are more critical of new digital technologies in their daily lives, their level of skills is somewhat lower, and they feel less protected from emerging risks. The practical significance of the research and the conclusions obtained is determined by the possibility of forming differentiated tools to improve the quality of life of the older generation from the perspective of successful use of the benefits of digitalization.