In recent years, China’s population has been aging at an increasingly rapid rate. By the end of 2022, the elderly population aged 60 and above in China reached 280.04 million, accounting for 19.8% of the total population. Furthermore, based on data from the seventh national census, the elderly population aged 80 and above in China reached 35.8 million and showed a growth trend. In light of this, the digital divide among the elderly has become increasingly prominent as digital construction continues to progress. Many elderly individuals struggle to adapt to the digital era, and are unable to use technology to pursue their own rights or benefits. They become marginalized from the digitalization process of society. This will, on the one hand, widen the generation gap between the elderly and the younger generation, making the elderly more alienated from the young and preventing them from enjoying digital dividends; on the other hand, it will deprive the elderly of their rights to participate in various social affairs, leading to unequal rights among different groups and affecting the demonstration of technology justice.

The digital divide among the elderly is an important branch of the digital divide and a manifestation of the digital divide in the age dimension.

From an individual perspective, the digital divide among the elderly can be seen as an information gap and a tendency toward increased wealth polarization due to the inequalities between the young and the elderly in terms of their access to, use of, and innovation in information and network technology. Because it is perceived by families as an extension of the traditional generation gap in the digital sphere, the digital divide among the elderly is often referred to as the “digital generation gap”. From a social perspective, the digital divide among the elderly is a phenomenon where the elderly are in a clearly disadvantaged position when interacting with modern technology as a result of the structural tension arising from social transformation in which modern information technology dominated by the market does not position the elderly as the major target group for digital devices and information content. Therefore, the digital divide among the elderly is the gap in access to and ability to use digital devices, services and information resources between the elderly and other social groups, the resulting inequality in rights and knowledge acquisition, and the neglect and exclusion of the elderly in the digitalization process of society as a result of social ideas.

The digital divide among the elderly has multiple causes.

Firstly, some elderly individuals lack the prerequisites for using digital public services since they do not use the Internet or have no electronic devices such as smartphones. The elderly engage in a narrower variety of daily activities compared with the young. It is difficult for the elderly living in remote areas such as rural areas to access digital public services. Furthermore, both physiological constraints and insufficient endogenous motivation result in the lack of digital literacy among most of the elderly. On the one hand, the degeneration of the physiological functions of the elderly severely limits their use and learning of digital products and services; on the other hand, the lack of “digital back-feeding” in the family field and the insufficient digital inclusion of the elderly in society further result in self-withdrawal and giving up among the elderly.

The government should play a key role and effectively implement a batch of policies to narrow the digital divide faced by the elderly.

Firstly, the government should include the digital divide among the elderly in the policy concerns and build a top-level governance structure. Secondly, the government should support the development of digital infrastructure, especially in remote and underdeveloped areas. Thirdly, the government should strengthen the building of digital application scenarios and expand channels to access digital public services. The government should actively build digital application scenarios that are suitable for the elderly in order to create external motivators, raise the elderly’s awareness of the benefits of digital technologies, and further popularize digital products and services among them. In the meantime, the government should improve corresponding laws and regulations to further increase the guarantee of the rights and interests of the elderly and ensure the security and convenience of the elderly’s participation in digital life.

For the elderly to survive in the digital era, it is critical to establish the concept of active aging and create an inclusive social environment as China’s society becomes more digitally connected. It is important to help the elderly overcome the “digital divide” and “digital deception”, and gain a better digital economy and a better life.