Links between social and digital activity of the older generation of Russians in the Don and the Middle Urals and the problem of digital inequalities

The Internet has become an integral part of modern human life. However, the older generation is less involved in Internet culture than others, which exacerbates the decline in their status, devaluation of competencies and experience. The aim of the article is to identify the links between social and digital activity of the older generation of Russians and to describe digital inequalities in relation to older Russians in the context of different aspects of their statuses on research materials in the Rostov and Sverdlovsk regions (N = 520, 2023, quota sample). According to the survey results, two thirds of the Don and the Middle Urals residents aged 60 to 91 use gadgets and digital technologies, that is, the older generation uses the Internet much more actively than it is presented in official statistics. Older Internet users more are often likely to rate themselves as active, more often involved in participatory practices, political, social, cultural, leisure, sports and recreational activities. They rate their health higher, experience difficulties in self-realization less often, need support less often, but more often receive support from their family and friends. At the same time, there are significant digital inequalities and deprivation of the unemployed compared to the employed, the elderly with low levels of education compared to the more educated, men compared to women, single compared to families. Younger older people are more successful in mastering new technologies, but as they age, digital activity decreases. In large cities and urbanized regions (the Middle Urals), older people overcome not only the first and second levels of digital inequality, but also the third. At the same time, there is a digital divide in the context of rural areas and regions with a high proportion of rural population (Don). The data allow us to distinguish “urban” and “rural” types of digital activity of older people and talk about a special digital deprivation in relation to the elderly residents of rural areas.